An internal control should be included for each and every clinical sample tested for novel H1N1 2009 virus. The inclusion of internal control ensures proper specimen collection, processing and RNA extraction. The CDC realtime RT-PCR protocol uses Human RNaseP gene (RNP) as internal control for human nucleic acids. No template controls and positive template controls should also be included in each run. A human specimen control provides a secondary negative control that further validates the nucleic extraction procedure and reagent integrity.