| Popis: |
COVID-19 pandemic that caused the death of more than one million people worldwide, has clearly demonstrated the critical importance of microbiological diagnostic methods in preventing infectious diseases and controlling outbreaks. The most effective way for combating SARS-CoV-2, is reducing the spread of the virus as much as possible. To decrease the spread of the virus is only possible with diagnostic methods that enable the detection of all symptomatic or asymptomatic patients infected with the virus accurately and as early as possible. Various microbiological methods (serological tests, nucleic acid amplification methods) recommended by international health authorities are widely used in the diagnosis and follow-up of COVID-19 disease. The challenges experienced in application of diagnostic methods, including real-time polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) method, which is specified as the gold standard method in the diagnosis of COVID-19 by the World Health Organization, were once again acknowledged during the pandemic. To achieve higher success rates in combating infections, it is necessary to better determine the application and evaluation standards in current microbiological diagnostic methods, to develop new cost-effective methods that are easily applicable and yielding results within a short time. |
