Topic 13: Laboratory diagnosis of viral infections

Bycaptainhabari

August 4, 2024

Learning objectives

On completing this topic, you should be able to:

  1. Understand how specimens for viral diagnosis are collected, handled, and transported to the laboratory
  2. Describe the principles of techniques used for diagnosing viruses
  3. Perform cultivation and identification of viruses from infected humans and animals.
  4. Select and perform suitable diagnostic tests for viral infections.
  5. Calculate virus titres from tissues, body fluids, supernatants from cell cultures, fluids from infected embryonated eggs etc.
  6. Interpret results obtained from different diagnostic tests.
  7. Use molecular biology tools in detecting and characterizing viral nucleic acids and proteins.
  8. Apply different scientific approaches in the diagnosis of viral infections.