Performance of rapid antigen tests in identifying Omicron BA.4 and BA.5 infections in South Africa.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Concerns around accuracy and performance of rapid antigen tests continue to be raised with the emergence of new SARS-CoV-2 variants.

Objective

To evaluate the performance of two widely used SARS-CoV-2 rapid antigen tests during BA.4/BA.5 SARS-CoV-2 wave in South Africa (May - June 2022).

Study design

A prospective field evaluation compared the SARS-CoV-2 Antigen Rapid test from Hangzhou AllTest Biotech (nasal swab) and the Standard Q COVID-19 Rapid Antigen test from SD Biosensor (nasopharyngeal swab) to the Abbott RealTime SARS-CoV-2 assay (nasopharyngeal swab) on samples collected from 540 study participants.

Results

Overall 28.52% (154/540) were SARS-CoV-2 RT-PCR positive with median cycle number value of 12.30 (IQR 9.30-19.40). Out of the 99 succe

SUBMITTER: Samsunder N 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10236920 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature