New robotic laboratory equipment at ESR’s National Influenza Centre laboratory provides a significant increase in capacity to analyse influenza specimens, greatly enhancing the laboratory’s capability, particularly in the event of a pandemic.
Head of the laboratory Dr Sue Huang said that the new ‘EpiMotion’ machine generated results from a specimen in just hours whereas other previously used methods could take seven days or more to get a result or were not as sensitive.
“It allows us to process about five times more influenza samples per day than previously,” she said.
The robotic machine extracts the nucleic acid of the influenza virus, then uses PCR to identify the type of influenza virus. Dr Huang said the new equipment modernised ESR’s influenza diagnostic capabilities. It may also be used to screen a range of other diseases and in an emergency could be utilised by partners at the National Centre for Biosecurity and Infectious Diseases.
Did you know?
ESR’s national influenza surveillance programme starts in week 18 of the year (at the end of April) and continues for 22 weeks.
Weekly, monthly and annual influenza reports are available at www.surv.esr.cri.nz.
PCR stands for polymerase chain reaction. Its name comes from one of its key components, a DNA polymerase used to amplify a piece of DNA. The DNA generated is itself used as a template for replication. This sets in motion a chain reaction where the DNA template is exponentially amplified. Using PCR it is possible to amplify a single or few copies of a piece of DNA, generating millions or more copies of the DNA piece.
The National Influenza Centre, New Zealand
New Zealand’s National Influenza Centre (NIC) has been recognised by the World Health Organization (WHO) since 1954.
It provides the contact nationally and internationally for the virological and epidemiological surveillance of influenza. It also provides influenza virus isolates to the WHO Global Influenza Surveillance Network.
Since 1991 ESR, through the NIC, has been operating the national sentinel general practitioners (GP) influenza surveillance. It is based on geographical and population distribution. About 80 volunteer sentinel GPs are recruited to participate in the surveillance by reporting influenza-like illness and providing respiratory specimens during the ’flu season (May to September).
In addition the NIC and three hospital laboratories at Auckland, Waikato and Christchurch form a laboratory network. The NIC collates year-round laboratory testing information nationally from hospital in-and-out patients. The lab network conducts strain surveillance initial typing and sub-typing for influenza from the respiratory specimens collected from sentinel GPs and hospital clinicians.
The head of the NIC, currently Dr Sue Huang, also participates in the influenza vaccine recommendations for the Southern Hemisphere.
The NIC, with its dual role as the national reference laboratory and in running national surveillance, has a number of clearly defined roles in the event of a pandemic.