Detection of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 Is Comparable in Clinical Samples Preserved in Saline or Viral Transport Medium

As the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic sweeps across the world, the availability of viral transport medium (VTM) has become severely limited, contributing to delays in diagnosis and rationing of diagnostic testing. Given that severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) viral RNA has demonstrated stability, we posited that phosphate-buffered saline (PBS) may be a viable transport medium, as an alternative to VTM, for clinical real-time quantitative PCR (qPCR) testing.
Source: Journal of Molecular Diagnostics - Category: Pathology Authors: Tags: Regular article Source Type: research