Pooling for SARS-CoV2 Surveillance: Validation and Strategy for Implementation in K-12 Schools
| Autor: | Alexandra M. Simas, Jimmy W. Crott, Chris Sedore, Augusta Rohrbach, Anthony P. Monaco, Stacey B. Gabriel, Niall Lennon, Brendan Blumenstiel, Caroline A. Genco |
|---|---|
| Rok vydání: | 2020 |
| Předmět: |
Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2)
Population Pooling Pilot Projects Specimen Handling Single test Repeated testing Environmental health Humans Medicine education education.field_of_study University community Schools SARS-CoV-2 business.industry screening Public Health Environmental and Occupational Health COVID-19 pooled testing methodology Limiting Brief Research Report Cost savings RT-PCR assay RNA Viral Public Health Public aspects of medicine RA1-1270 business |
| Zdroj: | Frontiers in Public Health Frontiers in Public Health, Vol 9 (2021) |
| DOI: | 10.1101/2020.12.16.20248353 |
| Popis: | Repeated testing of a population is critical for limiting the spread of the SARS-CoV-2 virus and for the safe reopening of educational institutions such as K-12 schools and colleges. Many screening efforts utilize the CDC RT-PCR based assay which targets two regions of the novel Coronavirus nucleocapsid gene. The standard approach of testing each person individually, however, poses a financial burden to these institutions and is therefore a barrier to using testing for re-opening. Pooling samples from multiple individuals into a single test is an attractive alternate approach that promises significant cost savings - however the of specificity and sensitivity of such approaches needs to be assessed prior to deployment. To this end, we conducted a pilot study to evaluate the feasibility of analyzing samples in pools of eight by the established RT-PCR assay. Participants (1,576) were recruited from amongst the Tufts University community undergoing regular screening. Each volunteer provided two swabs, one analyzed separately and the other in a pool of eight. Because the positivity rate was very low, we spiked approximately half of the pools with laboratory-generated swabs produced from known positive cases outside the Tufts testing program. The results of pooled tests had 100% correspondence with those of their respective individual tests. We conclude that pooling eight samples does not negatively impact the specificity or sensitivity of the RT-PCR assay and suggest that his approach can be utilized by institutions seeking to reduce surveillance costs. |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
| Externí odkaz: |
|