Respiratory Infections Portfolio

Detection of highly transmissible respiratory pathogens

Global infection spread

• Globally, every year there are an estimated 1 billion cases of seasonal influenza, of which 3 to 5 million are severe cases¹
• TB remains the world’s top infectious killer with 10 million contracting the disease each year and 1.5 million deaths²

Global pandemics occur when new strains occur of known respiratory viruses.

• 2019 novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) is a new strain that has not been previously identified in humans and is an international public health threat

Diagnostic challenges

Diagnosis of acute respiratory infections can be difficult

• Clinical symptoms: A number of other viruses and bacteria cause similar symptoms so much of influenza-like illness is determined not to be influenza³
• Management of testing need: Acute respiratory infections spread easily from person to person through the air or by direct or indirect contact. Seasonal or pandemic infection drives high volumes of testing and need for rapid diagnosis to direct isolation and treatment
• Test result accuracy: Traditional respiratory tests can be less reliable and false positive or false negative results can occur⁴

Value of molecular testing

Rapid and accurate diagnosis is critical

• Molecular viral testing with real-time PCR has high sensitivity
• Molecular testing for TB provides timely results useful for high quality patient care, low contamination risk and ease of performance and speed⁵
• Molecular testing is now available for SARS-CoV-2 to efficiently diagnose and inform patient