Alliance for Pandemic Preparedness

April 28, 2021

The Dark Side of SARS-CoV-2 Rapid Antigen Testing Screening Asymptomatic Patients

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  • [Pre-print, not peer-reviewed] A SARS-CoV-2 rapid antigen test (Standard Q) only identified 2 of 7 PCR positive patients when used as a screening tool before hospital admission for asymptomatic patients (n=116) in Switzerland, corresponding to a sensitivity of 29%. The rapid test also delivered two false positives (specificity=98.2%). Nasopharyngeal swabs for both the rapid test and PCR test were sampled simultaneously from patients.

Caruana et al. (Apr 27, 2021). The Dark Side of SARS-CoV-2 Rapid Antigen Testing Screening Asymptomatic Patients. Pre-print downloaded Apr 28 from https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.04.24.21256040