Improving turnaround time of molecular diagnosis of Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus in a hospital in Saudi Arabia

Rabaan, Ali A; Al-Tawfiq, Jaffar A

BACKGROUND: There have been 2562 laboratory-confirmed cases of Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) in 27 countries, with a case fatality rate of 34.5%. Data on the turnaround time (TAT) are lacking. We report TAT for MERS-CoV samples over time. METHODS: This is a monocentric study and the TAT for the reporting of 2664 MERS-CoV polymerase chain reaction (PCR) results were calculated in hours from the time of the receipt of respiratory samples to the reporting of the results. RESULTS: The mean TAT±standard deviation was significantly lower in 2018 compared with previous years (19.25±13.8). The percentage of samples processed within 24 h increased from 42.3% to 73.8% in 2015 and 2018, respectively (p<0.0001). The mean TAT was 19.2 h in 2018 and was significantly lower than previous years. CONCLUSIONS: The TAT for the MERS-CoV results decreased during the study period. Timely reporting of MERS-CoV PCR results may aid in further enhancing infection control measures.