Performance Analysis of Self-Collected Nasal and Oral Swabs for Detection of SARS-CoV-2.

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-col

SUBMITTER: Lim HJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9600397 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature