Is It Possible to Test for Viral Infectiousness?: The Use Case of (SARS-CoV-2)

Heba H Mostafa

doi:10.1016/j.cll.2023.10.008

Is It Possible to Test for Viral Infectiousness?: The Use Case of (SARS-CoV-2)

Clin Lab Med. 2024 Mar;44(1):85-93. doi: 10.1016/j.cll.2023.10.008. Epub 2023 Nov 13.

Author

Heba H Mostafa¹

Affiliation

¹ Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Meyer B-121F, 600 North Wolfe Street, Baltimore, MD 21287, USA. Electronic address: Hmostaf2@jhmi.edu.

PMID: 38280800
DOI: 10.1016/j.cll.2023.10.008

Abstract

Identifying and managing individuals with active or chronic disease, implementing appropriate infection control measures, and mitigating the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the need for tests of infectiousness. The gold standard for assessing infectiousness has been the recovery of infectious virus in cell culture. Using cycle threshold values, antigen testing, and SARS-CoV-2, replication intermediate strands were used to assess infectiousness, with many limitations. Infectiousness can be influenced by host factors (eg, preexisting immune responses) and virus factors (eg, evolution).

Keywords: COVID-19; Cycle threshold; Infectiousness; SARS-CoV-2; Transmissibility; sgRNA.

Publication types

Review

MeSH terms

COVID-19* / diagnosis
Humans
Infection Control
Pandemics
SARS-CoV-2
Virus Diseases*