Market Overview

Increasing burden of infectious diseases on healthcare system is a main concern across the globe and developing countries have heavy share of infectious disease burden. Human parainfluenza virus infection is becoming of major concern among children as it can cause life threatening lower respiratory tract infection.

Human parainfluenza virus (HPIV) generally cause respiratory illness in infants and children below 5 years and is the second most common cause of hospitalization in children below 5 years of age. Human parainfluenza viruses are group of four single stranded RNA viruses called HPIV 1-4, with HPIV-1 and HPIV-3 being the most virulent.

The virus causes damage to lining of small airways in respiratory tract. There are number of tests available in laboratory for detection of HPIV virus in respiratory sample of patients. The most commonly used method is cell culture using serological and nasal swab specimens. Chest x-ray is used to detect the progression of disease in young children.

Improvement in virus culture techniques using immunofluorescence techniques have reduced the time to results. Some of the commercially available human parainfluenza virus diagnostic testing assay kits are R-DiaHPIV, RT-PCR, RespiFast RG Panel, FTD HPIV, Techne PrimePRO QPCR RNA kits, SimulFluor, RealStar PIV RT-PCR Kit etc.

Human parainfluenza has been listed under priority infectious disease with epidemic potential. The program is established for surveillance and monitoring of pathogens with high epidemic potential in resource limited settings and capacities for fast ramp up of diagnostic testing in central lab settings of epicentres of an outbreak and at the point of need. Under this program Alere Inc. has developed RT-PCR assay kit for diagnosis of human parainfluenza virus, which obtained CE mark approval in 2015.

Growing incidence of infectious diseases and repeated outbreaks of parainfluenza virus in developing countries such as China, Middle East region etc. are the prime factors driving the growth of global human parainfluenza virus diagnostics market. Besides this, improvements in cell culture techniques, and development of advanced molecular testing methods for detection of parainfluenza virus in human specimen is expected to push the market over the forecast period.

However, difficulty in isolation of virus, lack of routine surveillance for some of the HPIV species are the factors restraining the growth of global human parainfluenza virus diagnostics market. Unavailability of point-of-care testing methods for human parainfluenza virus diagnosis poses significant obstacle in deciding treatment options.

The global market for human parainfluenza testing is segmented on basis of test type, end user and geography

Test Type	Cell Culture Assays Direct Immunofluorescent Assays PCR Assays Imaging Tests
End User	Hospitals Diagnostic Laboratories

Among all test types, PCR assays are the most commonly used HPIV diagnostics. Molecular testing assays such as reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction are the most recent technique for diagnosis of human parainfluenza viruses. RT-PCR based methods are the most sensitive methods to detect HPIV and thus are recommended as confirmatory tests for HPIV type.

On the basis of geography, global parainfluenza virus diagnostic testing market is segmented into five key regions viz. North America, Latin America, Europe, Asia Pacific, and Middle East & Africa. North America is projected to hold largest shares in the global market primarily due to growing incidence of parainfluenza virus and innovations in diagnostic techniques. Asia pacific human parainfluenza virus diagnostics testing market is anticipated to witness prominent growth during the forecast period owing to increased healthcare expenditure and repeated outbreaks of infectious diseases in developing countries such as India and China.

Some of the key players present in global human parainfluenza virus testing market are Quidel Corporation, Diagenode Diagnostics, QIAGEN N.V., Fast-track diagnostics Ltd., Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc., Sigma-Aldrich Co. LLC (Merck KGaA), Liferiver Bio-Tech (United States) Corp., Altona Diagnostics, Alere Inc. etc. among others.