Rapid diagnosis of viral infections and application to infection control.

BACKGROUND: Rapid and accurate detection of viral infections is crucial in clinical settings, yet traditional quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) methods, though highly accurate, are typically laboratory-based and require significant time and resources, limiting their effectiveness in point-of-care environments. In this study, we applied a rapid qPCR method, originally developed for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2, to a range of viral infections. The primary aim was to establish a novel diagnostic platform that combines mobile qPCR with multiplex detection for rapid, chairside application in clinical settings, and to explore its potential for detecting environmental contamination. METHODS: The viral infections targeted for rapid diagnosis included herpes simplex, herpes zoster, herpesviruses 4 or 5 -related diseases, hand-foot-and-mouth disease, herpangina, and respiratory syncytial virus infections. Specific primers and probes were designed to enable multiplex detection. The detection of viral nucleic acids using both benchtop and mobile qPCR devices was evaluated. Furthermore, viral synthetic nucleic acids were spread into the clinical environment, and swabs of the environmental surfaces were used as samples to examine whether this rapid method could be employed to detect contamination of environmental surfaces. Clinical samples from patients suspected of having labial herpes were also tested to examine whether viral detection is possible using this method. RESULTS: Viral synthetic nucleic acids could be detected on both benchtop and mobile qPCR devices. This method can also detect environmental contamination, and differences in the detection of viral synthetic nucleic acids were observed before and after cleaning the clinical environment. CONCLUSION: This study introduces a novel approach combining mobile qPCR with multiplex detection for the rapid, chairside diagnosis of multiple viral infections. Furthermore, it demonstrates potential use in detecting environmental contamination in the clinical environment.