Evaluation of 11 commercially available PCR kits for the detection of monkeypox virus DNA, Berlin, July to September 2022

Before the international spread of monkeypox in May 2022, PCR kits for the detection of orthopoxviruses, and specifically monkeypox virus, were rarely avail-able. Here we describe the evaluation of 11 recently developed commercially available PCR kits for the detection of monkeypox virus DNA. All tested kits are currently intended for research use only and clini-cal performance still needs to be assessed in more detail, but all were suitable for diagnostics of monk-eypox virus, with variations in specificity rather than sensitivity.

Automated summary

Before the international spread of monkeypox in May 2022, PCR kits for the detection of monkeypox virus were rarely available. This study evaluated 11 commercially available PCR kits and found that all of them were suitable for diagnostics of monkeypox virus, with variations in specificity.