Data support Qiagen's A/H1N1 diagnostic

Analyses performed by the German Bernhard Nocht Institute for Tropical Medicine have proven that the influenza A/H1N1 virus can be  unequivocally detected using a screening test developed by Dutch  diagnostics firm Qiagen.

The company's artus Influenza LC RT PCR Kit was successfully used to  screen a female patient who had come down with the disease in Mexico and  is currently being treated at the Eppendorf University Hospital in  Hamburg, Germany.

According to Qiagen, the artus kit is considered to be one of the most  widely used assays in influenza screening and serves as standard for the  detection of influenza A viruses in numerous laboratories around the  world. The test was also used by the Instituto de Salud Carlos III,  Centro Nacional de Microbiologia in Majadahonda, Spain, to screen for  influenza A infections. The institute verified several possible  infections with the H1N1 strain that occurred during the last few days  and the kit has consequently been used by other hospitals in Spain.