呼吸道病毒感染由于其高致病率及致死率，长期以来一直是世界各国的一大负担。随着近几年来严重急性呼吸综合征（SARS）、H5N1、H7N9等病毒相继出现，快速诊断呼吸道病毒感染成为医务工作者面临的巨大挑战。分子诊断技术在过去十几年发展迅速，凭借出色的灵敏度和特异度，成为快速诊断呼吸道感染的首选手段。以核酸扩增为主的多种分子诊断技术，大大缩短了呼吸道病毒检测的时间，在许多临床实验室已逐步替代传统技术，成为病毒检测的新一代方法。

Respiratory virus infections place a great burden on people all over the world, because of the high morbidity and mortality. Within the outbreaks of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and the more recent avian H5N1 and H7N9 influenza virus, the patient care providers face an enormous challenge in rapidly diagnosing vial respiratory infections. Molecular diagnostic techniques have a great development during the past decade. These techniques have been necessary diagnostic tools in rapid detection of viral pathogens causing respiratory infections for their high sensitivity and specificity. Several molecular techniques leading by nucleic acid amplification techniques provide decrease in turnaround time and the gold standard for diagnosis of respiratory viruses, which has shifted away from classic diagnostic methods to molecular techniques in most clinical laboratories.