Guidelines for the Laboratory Diagnosis of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus in Korea

The recent outbreak of Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) in Korea was unexpected that laboratory response had to be built up urgently during the outbreak. The outbreak was almost all healthcare-associated, which was aggravated by lack of availability in laboratory diagnosis of MERS-CoV on site. On behalf of the MERS joint public and private sector response committee (MERS Joint committee), the Korean Society for Laboratory Medicine (KSLM) launched a MERS response task force (MERS KSLM TF) to facilitate clinical laboratories set up MERS molecular diagnosis. MERS TF established guidelines for laboratory diagnosis of MERS-CoV and provided it to all participating laboratories as the official guidance of MERS Joint committee. This guideline was used for procedure manual of molecular diagnosis of MERS-CoV and laboratory safety manual.