Short communicationDevelopment of TaqMan RT-qPCR for the detection of type A human respiratory syncytial virus

•A novel real-time RT-qPCR assay for hRSV was developed.•RT-qPCR showed high sensitivity and specificity in the detection of hRSV.•All of the examined Saudi samples were related to hRSV-A.•A high correlation of the newly developed assay and the commercial kit was detected.

The human respiratory syncytial virus is a common respiratory pathogen in children. Improved diagnosis of the virus is dependent on the development of tools for the rapid detection and estimation of the viral loads. In the current study, RT-qPCR using TaqMan hydrolysis probe based on the F gene detection was developed to identify and quantify hRSV in clinical samples. The assay was validated by comparing the results with a commercially available RT-qPCR kit. The newly developed assay was sensitive in detecting hRSV positive samples (59/126) which were equivalent to those detected by the commercial kit (57/126) with a detection limit of 1 × 102 copies/mL. A high correlation was found between the results of the newly developed assay and the commercial one. It was concluded that the newly developed RT-qPCR assay can be used as a sensitive detection tool for hRSV-A.