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Doctors describe the symptoms and outcome of 10 Canadians who developed severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS. Symptoms included a dry cough, fever, fatigue, and difficulty breathing. Five patients had to be placed on a ventilator and three died. A human metapneumovirus and a coronavirus were isolated from tissue samples from some of the patients.

Evidence is accumulating that quantitative hepatitis B surface antigen monitoring may be useful in managing patients with chronic HBV infection on certain treatment regimens. Based on these results with the Abbott Architect qualitative and quantitative HBsAg assays, it seems feasible to convert qualitative to quantitative HBsAg values for this purpose. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights: [•] The Abbott m2000 HCV genotyping II assay resolves over 90% of the HCV genotypes (G). [•] Out of 1052 samples tested, 89 (8.5%) required further sequencing. [•] Of these 89, 54 G1 samples were mostly sub-genotyped as 1a, with some 6, 1b and 1c. [•] Of these 89, 16 ‘indeterminate’ samples were mostly G2s and G3s. [•] Of these 89, 12 ‘mixed’ samples were mostly one of the genotypes from the mixture. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

A high-risk patient was informed of a positive HIV antibody/antigen test. However, follow-up samples taken 2–3 months later for HIV RNA and anti-HIV antibodies were negative. Human DNA testing confirmed that all samples were from this patient, excluding a sample mix-up. Laboratory investigations revealed a likely splash-over contamination event. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]