Differential clinical characteristics and performance of home antigen tests between parents and children after household transmission of SARS-CoV-2 during the Omicron variant pandemic.
Int J Infect Dis
; 128: 301-306, 2023 Mar.
Article
in English
| MEDLINE | ID: covidwho-2179547
ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVES:
The SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant pandemic struck Taiwan in April 2022. Rapid antigen tests (RATs) play an important role in providing rapid results during a pandemic. However, self-collected samples by the children's caregivers without the supervision of medical personnel raise some concerns.METHODS:
This study was performed to investigate household transmission, clinical characteristics, and antigen performance in a special COVID-19 family clinic in a children's hospital. The performance of at-home RATs was evaluated based on reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction.RESULTS:
We included 627 patients in our study between May 11 and June 10, 2022. The COVID-19 full vaccination rate was significantly higher in adults (98.5%) than in children (5.9%, P <0.001). The transmission rate was significantly higher in children (91.3%) than in adults (76.6%, P <0.001). Infected children had more incidents of fever (82.4% vs 22.4%, P <0.001) and a higher peak fever than adults. Based on the reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction, the negative predictive rate of the home RAT was only 38.7% (95% confidence interval 31.9-46.0%) in children. The cycle threshold value of those with false-negative antigen tests was significantly lower in children.CONCLUSION:
Children had a higher transmission rate, more fever, and higher peak fever than adults. Home RAT has a suboptimal negative predictive rate in children.Keywords
Full text:
Available
Collection:
International databases
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
SARS-CoV-2
/
COVID-19
Type of study:
Experimental Studies
/
Prognostic study
Topics:
Vaccines
/
Variants
Limits:
Child
/
Humans
Language:
English
Journal:
Int J Infect Dis
Journal subject:
Communicable Diseases
Year:
2023
Document Type:
Article
Affiliation country:
J.ijid.2023.01.014
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