Dan Jernigan from the CDC is quoted by GenomeWeb, as informing that the CDC's rRT-PCR Swine Flu Panel has been distributed to 78 qualified labs throughout all 50 states in the US, as well as labs in 130 countries, and 10 Department of Defense labs in the US. Because of the shortage of reagents, the CDC is working with other vendors to get new molecular assays cleared.
The current CDC rRT-PCR test uses TaqMan probes designed by the CDC and is run on Applied Biosystems' 7500 Fast Dx Real-Time PCR instrument (the brochure is a 31.4Mb download). Last October, this instrument/CDC rRT-PCR Flu Panel combination received 510(k) clearance for sub-typing of influenza viruses in qualified laboratories.
The "flocked swab" recommended for sample collection is explained in Copan's web site, which also offers a Twit, a set of video instructions and an animation explaining nasopharingeal sample collection.
Dr. E. J. Baron, Director of the Clinical Microbiology and Virology Laboratories at Stanford U. Med. Center, informed that these Copan swabs are available from Copan (Cat # 503CS01), Becton Dickinson (Cat # 220252) and Diagnostic Hybrids (which offers several configurations).
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