Performance Analysis of Self-Collected Nasal and Oral Swabs for Detection of SARS-CoV-2.
Diagnostics (Basel)
; 12(10)2022 Sep 21.
Article
in English
| MEDLINE | ID: covidwho-2043620
ABSTRACT
Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is the third highly pathogenic human coronavirus and is rapidly transmitted by infected individuals regardless of their symptoms. During the COVID-19 pandemic, owing to the dearth of skilled healthcare workers (HCWs) to collect samples for early diagnosis, self-collection emerged as a viable alternative. To evaluate the reliability of self-collection, we compared the virus detection rate using 3990 self-collected swabs and HCW-collected swabs, procured from the same individuals and collected immediately after the self-collection. The results of multiplex reverse-transcription quantitative polymerase chain reaction revealed that the viral load in the HCW-collected swabs was marginally (18.4-28.8 times) higher than that in self-collected swabs. Self-collection showed no significant difference in sensitivity and specificity from HCW-collection (κ = 0.87, McNemar's test; p = 0.19), indicating a comparable performance. These findings suggest that self-collected swabs are acceptable substitutes for HCW-collected swabs, and that their use improved the specimen screening efficiency and reduced the risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection among HCWs during and after the COVID-19 pandemic.
Full text:
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Collection:
International databases
Database:
MEDLINE
Type of study:
Diagnostic study
/
Experimental Studies
/
Prognostic study
Language:
English
Year:
2022
Document Type:
Article
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