Measles virus detection in urine specimens using virus culture and reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR)

Abstract

Measles is a highly prevalent infectious disease in Indonesia, and these large number of cases need to be confirmed in a laboratory so that precautions can be taken quickly and accurately. This study used urine specimens for laboratory confirmation of measles using viral culture and reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). Viral culture was performed using vero cells/hSLAM and its cytopathic effect was quantified, and RT-PCR was used to amplify the N gene fragment using measles virus forward primer (MeV216) and measles virus reverse primer (MeV214). We tested 120 urine specimens obtained from nine different provinces in Indonesia in 2016. Virus culture yielded a positivity value of 7 %, whereas RT-PCR positivity was 36 %. These results imply that the RT-PCR method is more sensitive for detecting measles virus compared with viral culture.