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

Abstract

Background: There have been 2562 laboratory-confirmed cases ofMiddle 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 amonocentric 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). Themean TATwas 19.2 h in 2018 andwas 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.