Molecular diagnosis of Variola and other high-risk viruses

‘…molecular diagnostic methods are biologically safe but will require continuous revision of their design and should be properly controlled to avoid the generation of false-positive and -negative results.’ Recently developed diagnostic methods based on genome amplification of highly pathogenic viruses allow for the rapid attainment of more sensitive results. Furthermore, the risk of accidental infection is much lower compared with traditional methods, which are often based on growing the virus on cell cultures or in experimental mice. This changing methodology, which should be permanently actualized to include the whole known or predicted viral variability, is demanding the re-evaluation of the standard operational procedures for the front-line diagnosis of high-risk viruses. A combined action will improve the efficiency of the diagnosis, increasing the speed of delivery, sensitivity and specificity of the first results.