Infection - Thinking globally

Thinking globally

With over 35 years of experience in the field of laboratory diagnostics, we develop and globally distribute complete diagnostic solutions that are tailored to your local needs. Working together with local health authorities and scientific institutions, we stay aware of novel and/or urgent infection events and deliver appropriate solutions for infectious diseases diagnostics all over the world. Our unrivalled in-house development and production of diagnostic test systems as well as our automation and software solutions enable us to respond rapidly to both small and large infection outbreaks, providing support national and international health entities when and where it is needed.

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In 2012, a new coronavirus was identified in the Middle East, causing a respiratory syndrome in humans (Middle East Respiratory Syndrome coronavirus, MERS-CoV). Camels were shown to be a major reservoir for the virus and a possible source of human infections¹. Since then, serious outbreaks of MERS have been reported, predominantly on the Arabian Peninsula, but there have also been smaller outbreaks, e.g. in South Korea. In total, 27 countries worldwide have reported cases of MERS². Already in 2012, our R&D departments developed the first serological test system (Anti-MERS-CoV IIFT) for the detection of anti-MERS-CoV antibodies in cooperation with Prof. Christian Drosten’s group from the Institute of Virology at the University of Bonn (now at the Charité, Berlin Germany) and the Robert Koch Institute (Berlin, Germany) – at that time only for research use only³. In 2013, the assay was launched as IVD, followed by the Anti-MERS-CoV ELISA in 2014.

^{1) WHO: Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) as of 05 of August 2022}
^{2) WHO: Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV)}
^{3) NHI: Assays for laboratory confirmation of novel human coronavirus (hCoV-EMC) infections as of 06 of December 2012}

From mid-2015 on, Zika virus infections spread rapidly across the Americas. After a few months, it became clear that the acute wave of Zika virus infections in Brazil was linked to an alarming increase in microcephaly cases in newborns¹. In January 2016, we launched the first complete test package (ELISA and IFA) for serological diagnostics of Zika virus infections. Shortly afterwards, the EUROIMMUN IFA were approved by approved by the Brazilian regulatory authority ANVISA².

^{1) WHO: Zika virus as of 08 of December 2022}
^{2) Anvisa registra kits que ampliam acesso ao diagnóstico de Zika, Dengue e Chikungunya as of 09 of May 2016}

In December 2019, the WHO in China was first informed about a cluster of pneumonia cases of unclear origin in Wuhan in Hubei province. On 7th January 2020, Chinese scientists isolated the causative pathogen and identified a new coronavirus that was closely related to SARS coronavirus – SARS-CoV-2¹. On 11th February 2020, the lung disease caused by the virus was given the name COVID-19². EUROIMMUN’s scientists started to develop diagnostic tests shortly after the outbreak became known and were able to provide a complete diagnostic tool kit (ELISA and PCR test) by March 2020³.

^{1) WHO: Coronavirus – situation reports as of 21 of January 2020}
^{2) WHO: Coronavirus – situation reports as of 11 of February 2020}
^{3) EUROIMMUNBlog: EUROIMMUN now offers a complete test package for direct detection of the new coronavirus and antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 as of March 2020}

In addition to these prominent representatives among the infectious agents,
our specialists for infection diseases also keep an eye at the less known pathogens and their distribution.

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Infection diagnostics