The authors are retracting this paper owing to errors in the reported data. The paper claimed that 16 patient cases were infected with H9N2 virus. However, when the authors recently further investigated all the thirteen sera samples, no anti-H9N2 antibodies were found by the haemagglutination inhibition assay. Moreover, re-sequencing of the remaining five throat swabs showed all five samples were H1N1 virus. In previous experiments, samples were possibly contaminated by H9N2 virus during RT-PCR amplification process, as there was an experiment using an avian H9N2 virus strain at the same time.
We therefore believe that the most appropriate course of action is to retract this Letter. All authors agree with the Retraction.
The online version of this article contains the full text of the retracted article as supplementary information.
Electronic supplementary material
Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material.
Footnotes
The authors are retracting this paper owing to errors in the reported data. The paper claimed that 16 patient cases were infected with H9N2 virus. However, when the authors recently further investigated all the thirteen sera samples, no anti-H9N2 antibodies were found by the haemagglutination inhibition assay. Moreover, re-sequencing of the remaining five throat swabs showed all five samples were H1N1 virus. In previous experiments, samples were possibly contaminated by H9N2 virus during RT-PCR amplification process, as there was an experiment using an avian H9N2 virus strain at the same time.
We therefore believe that the most appropriate course of action is to retract this Letter. All authors agree with the Retraction.
The online version of this article contains the full text of the retracted article as supplementary information.
Xuan Dong and Jiasong Xiong have contributed equally to this work.
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