November 23, 2020

Pooling Is an Insufficient Strategy to Avoid Health Care Staff to Patient Transmission of SARS-CoV-2

Category: Article Summary

Topic: Testing and Treatment

Keywords (Tags): testing

Pooling strategies for SARS-CoV-2 RT-PCR screening showed low sensitivity compared to single sample testing in medical staff in a hospital in Germany. Among 280 samples tested (8 positive, 3%), the sensitivity was 29% in pooling with 10 samples (2/7 pools) and 76% in pooling with 5 samples (13/17 pools). In contrast to other studies, the majority of samples were from throat washes (247/280, 88%), and a minority were 32/280 (11%) were from swabs, owing to a lack of available swabs. Samples were prospectively tested both individually and in pools to make the comparisons.

Lüsebrink et al. (Nov 20, 2020). Pooling Is an Insufficient Strategy to Avoid Health Care Staff to Patient Transmission of SARS-CoV-2. Infection Control & Hospital Epidemiology. https://doi.org/10.1017/ice.2020.1340