The 2nd Hands-on Training Course to Implement Real-time Polymerase Chain Reaction Technique for Rapid Detection and Characterization of Polioviruses in the Western Pacific Region
3-7 December, Philippines - The 2nd Regional Hands-on Training Course to Implement Real-time Polymerase Chain Reaction Technique for Rapid Detection and Characterization of Polioviruses was held at the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine in the Philippines from 3 to 7 December 2012. Seven country participants from six laboratories in five countries (Hong Kong, New Zealand, the Philippines, Republic of Korea, and Viet Nam) and temporary advisers from United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (US CDC) and Victorian Infectious Diseases Reference Laboratory (VIDRL) Australia participated in the training. The participants were trained to perform the new real-time PCR technique for rapid detection and characterization of polioviruses using dual stage real-time PCR techniques for intratypic differentiation (ITD) and polioviruses and vaccine-derived poliovirus (VDPV) screening developed by US CDC. Four implementation steps to introduce real-time PCR techniques including the timeline of each step were discussed. It is expected that most polio network laboratories in this region will conduct real-time PCR for ITD and VDPV screening by mid-2013. This training will contribute to reducing the time needed for ITD and the frequency of shipping of virus isolates from national laboratories to the regional reference laboratories or global specialized laboratory for ITD and sequencing which consequently help to have earlier availability of ITD results of polioviruses for appropriate programme actions.
