Method for the detection of a nucleic acid comprising the production of a plurality of amplificates of a section of this nucleic acid with the aid of two primers, one of which can bind to a binding sequence A of the nucleic acid and the other can bind to a binding sequence C' which is complementary to a sequence C which is located in the 3' direction from A and does not overlap with A, contacting the amplificates with a probe having a binding sequence D which can bind to a sequence B which is located between the sequences A and C or to the complement thereof, and detecting the formation of a hybrid of the amplificate and probe where the sequence located between the binding sequences A and C contains no nucleotides that do not belong to the binding sequence D of the probe or its complement D'.