Collection and Extraction of Respiratory Specimens

The study will be conducted with nasopharyngeal swab specimens collected prospectively from individuals suspected of having an acute respiratory tract infection caused by an Influenza virus. A series of standard viral culture tests validated for routine use in the clinical laboratory, as well as the CDC swine H1N1 test will be used to establish a collection of well characterized specimens. For each specimen four (4) aliquots will be prepared. One aliquot will be tested in real-time using the requisite viral culture reference methods, one aliquot will be used for H1N1 reference testing, one aliquot will be used to extract nucleic acid in real-time, and one aliquot of the UTM will be archived for the purpose of sequencing to confirm Influenza-positive specimens. The extracted nucleic acid and any remaining specimen will be stored at -70°C for later testing by the artus Influenza RG PCR test, or other investigational method(s).