ESPLINE^® SARS-CoV-2

About SARS-CoV-2

The 2019 novel coronavirus infection disease (COVID-19) is caused by the novel severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2).^1,2 In December 2019, the Health Commission of the City of Wuhan, Hubei Province, China, reported multiple pneumonia patients with unknown cause. On January 7th 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) announced that the National Health Commission of China identified a new type of coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2.³ The WHO declared a COVID-19 pandemic on March 11th 2020 due to the worldwide spread of novel coronavirus infection.⁴

The detection of viruses in the body of the patient is the most effective way of confirming SARS-CoV-2 infection. In most countries including Japan, the diagnosis of SARS-CoV-2 infection is based on the molecular detection of the SARS-CoV-2 genes. Though nucleic acid-based test can detect SARS-CoV-2 gene with high sensitivity, it is affected by the need of special equipment and the duration of reaction time.
 

References

1. Wu F, et al. A new coronavirus associated with human respiratory disease in China Nature, 579: 265-269, 2020.
2. Coronaviridae Study Group of the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses. The species Severe acute respiratory syndromerelated coronavirus: classifying 2019-nCoV and naming it SARS-CoV-Nat Microbiol, 5: 536-544, 2020.
3. WHO website ”Rolling updates on coronavirus disease(COVID-19)” (https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019/events-…) Medical Research and Development.
4. WHO Director-General's opening remarks at the media briefing on COVID-19 - 11 March 2020 (https://www.who.int/dg/speeches/detail/who-director-general-sopening-re…)