Extraction of nucleic acids
Total nucleic acids were obtained from 200-μL samples of pharyngeal exudate, taken with a Dacron swab (Copan Diagnostics, Corona, California, Catalogue: 159C), stored in viral transport medium (BD™ Universal Viral Transport System, East Rutherford, New Jersey, USA Catalogue: 220220) at -80 °C until use. For the extraction of total nucleic acids, the automated system MagNA Pure LC 2.0 (Roche Diagnostics, Mannheim, Germany) and the MagNA Pure LC Kit (Roche Diagnostics, cat. No. 03038505001) were used according to the manufacturer’s instructions.