Combining rapid antigen testing and syndromic surveillance improves community-based COVID-19 detection in a low-income country.

ABSTRACT: Diagnostics for COVID-19 detection are limited in many settings. Syndromic surveillance is often the only means to identify cases but lacks specificity. Rapid antigen testing is inexpensive and easy-to-deploy but can lack sensitivity. We examine how combining these approaches can improve surveillance for guiding interventions in low-income communities in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Rapid-antigen-testing with PCR validation was performed on 1172 symptomatically-identified individuals in their homes. Statistical models were fitted to predict PCR-status using rapid-antigen-test results, syndromic data, and their combination. Under contrasting epidemiological scenarios, the models' predictive and classification performance was evaluated. Models combining rapid-antigen-testing and syndromic data yielded

SUBMITTER: Chadwick FJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9135686 | biostudies-literature | 2022 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature