Short Reports
Field evaluation of a commercially available COVID-19 rapid antigen test kit
Authors:
V. R. Francis ,
Eastern University, LK
About V. R.
Faculty of Health-Care Sciences
M. A. R. V. Muthugala
National Hospital, Kandy, LK
Abstract
Filtering out of infectious individuals to interrupt the chain of transmission is the major strategy for control of COVID-19 pandemic. Rapid antigen testing is a useful tool to achieve this purpose. We evaluated a commercial rapid antigen test kit (STANDARD Q COVID-19 Ag test, SD Biosensor, Republic of Korea) which was supplied by the Ministry of health, Sri Lanka for COVID -19 testing, at field level in the Eastern Province of Sri Lanka.
We tested 40 known COVID-19 positive asymptomatic persons and 143 asymptomatic vendors working in a congested public market, regarded as a high-risk location using STANDARD Q COVID-19 Ag test and the gold standard real-time RT-PCR on simultaneous samples according to the manufacturers’ instructions.
The overall sensitivity of the STANDARD Q COVID-19 Ag kit was 58.5% (95% CI: 44 , 72) which increased to 79.4% in people with high viral load (Ct<25). Specificity of this kit. in our study was 100%.
We recommend rapid antigen test as a primary screening test for community surveillance as it is a cost-effective measure of pandemic control.
How to Cite:
Francis, V.R. and Muthugala, M.A.R.V., 2021. Field evaluation of a commercially available COVID-19 rapid antigen test kit. Sri Lankan Journal of Infectious Diseases, 11(1), pp.13–17. DOI: http://doi.org/10.4038/sljid.v11i1.8356
Published on
30 Apr 2021.
Peer Reviewed
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