A pooled testing strategy for enterovirus D68 to facilitate local, resource-conserving surveillance.

Pooled testing represents a resource-conserving diagnostic strategy, and we propose enterovirus-D68 (EV-D68) as an attractive target for pooling (especially locally). To validate an RT-qPCR-based approach, retrospective pools were contrived from EV-D68-positive nasopharyngeal specimens and non-EV-D68-enterovirus-positive specimens. Five/nine-fold pools demonstrated 90.9 %/88.6 % sensitivity versus-unpooled testing (no false-positives), with commensurate results observed prospectively.