Missed diagnosis of influenza B virus due to nucleoprotein sequence mutations, Singapore, April 2011

H K Lee; C K Lee; T P Loh; D Chiang; E S Koay; J W Tang

doi:10.2807/ese.16.33.19943-en

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Missed diagnosis of influenza B virus due to nucleoprotein sequence mutations, Singapore, April 2011
H K Lee¹ , C K Lee¹ , T P Loh² , D Chiang³ , E S Koay^1,4 , J W Tang¹
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Affiliations: ¹ Molecular Diagnosis Centre, Department of Laboratory Medicine, National University Hospital, Singapore ² Clinical Chemistry Division, Department of Laboratory Medicine, National University Hospital, Singapore ³ Microbiology Division, Department of Laboratory Medicine, National University Hospital, Singapore ⁴ Department of Pathology, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore, Singapore

Correspondence:
J Tang
julian_wt_tang nuhs.edu.sg
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Citation style for this article: Lee H K, Lee C K, Loh T P, Chiang D, Koay E S, Tang J W. Missed diagnosis of influenza B virus due to nucleoprotein sequence mutations, Singapore, April 2011 . Euro Surveill. 2011;16(33):pii=19943. https://doi.org/10.2807/ese.16.33.19943-en Received: 08 Aug 2011

Abstract

A new influenza B variant was discovered in Singapore in April 2011 during diagnostic testing of a 3-year-old boy with respiratory symptoms. Influenza B virus was isolated from culture and confirmed by standard immunofluorescence testing, but was not detected by the routine, in-house influenza screening reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction assay that targets the nucleoprotein (NP) gene. Subsequent sequencing investigations demonstrated that several other published assays targeting NP could also fail to detect this novel variant.