Prime‐time for clinical use of transcriptomics for differentiating viral from bacterial respiratory infection.

Emerging molecular methods can identify multiple respiratory viruses using multiplex assays, quickly providing evidence on the presence of a respiratory infection of viral origin.[3] But unfortunately, not all the viruses causing respiratory infections are covered in these tests. The impact of antibiotic misuse in patients with respiratory infections on the emergence of antimicrobial resistance is dramatically high.[2] The current available microbiological tests could partially help to solve this question, but they do not provide a definitive answer. According to the World Health Organization, respiratory infections are a leading cause of morbidity and mortality throughout the world.[1] Physicians treating patients with signs of a respiratory infection have often to make an important decision: should I give antibiotics to this patient?. [Extracted from the article]