What does it mean that the nucleic acid test is single gene positive?

Yesterday, Beijing reported that the results of two people's nucleic acid tests caused concern. It is reported that their nuclear tests are positive and single gene positive respectively. Among them, single gene positive makes everyone curious, and nucleic acid positive is no stranger to everyone. Once it is confirmed to be nucleic acid positive, it is confirmed that COVID-19 is infected. What about single gene positive? What is single gene positive? Let's have a look.

What is single gene positive? According to "Technical Guide for Laboratory Detection in novel coronavirus (4th Edition)", the main nucleic acid detection method in COVID-19 is real-time fluorescence RT-PCR, which is aimed at the open reading frame 1ab (ORF 1ab) and nucleocapsid protein (n) in novel coronavirus genome.

In general, both the ORF 1ab and N genes of positive patients are positive, but one of the ORF 1ab or N genes is also positive, which is called single positive. For the single positive case of COVID-19 nucleic acid test mentioned above, it is still necessary to take samples again for real-time fluorescence RT-PCR test to determine whether the case is positive.

"Single gene positive means that one of the two gene fragments detected by COVID-19 nucleic acid is positive. Single-gene positive can't confirm that this person is infected with COVID-19, and it needs follow-up re-examination, based on comprehensive judgment such as epidemiological history, clinical manifestations, antibody detection and imaging examination. " The staff of Chaoyang District CDC said.

The above is the specific meaning of single gene positive in nucleic acid detection. I hope it will help everyone.