| Property | Value |
|---|
|
?:abstract
|
-
BACKGROUND& OBJECTIVES Although about 80% of COVID-19 cases are reported to be mild, the remaining 20% of cases often result in a severe disease with the potential of crushing already overstrained health care services. There has been sustainable growth of COVID-19 cases worldwide since mid-May 2020. In order to keep tabs on community transmission of COVID-19 infection screening of the samples from large population is needed which includes asymptomatic/symptomatic individuals along with migrant population. This requires extra resources, man power and time for detection of SARS-CoV-2by RT-PCR. In current scenario pooled sample testingstrategy advocated by ICMR, New Delhiis a new approach which is very promising in resource limited settings. In this study we have evaluated pooled strategy in terms of accurate testing results, utilization of consumables and identification of border line positive cases. MATERIALS & METHODS Between April-June 2020 we performed COVID-19 testing by RTPCR from areas with varying prevalence of population referred to COVID laboratory, Dr RMLIMS, Lucknow. In a first step the samples are collated into pools of 5 or 10.These pools are tested by RT-PCR. Negative Pools were reported as negative whereas positive pools of 5 and 10 are then deconvoluted and each sample is tested individually. RESULTS In the present study, we tested 4620 samples in 462 pools of 10 and 14940 samples in 2990 pools of 5. Among 10 samples pool 61 (13%) pools flagged positive in first step. In second step among 61 pools (610 samples) deconvoluted strategy was followed in which 72 individual samples came positive. Pooled-sample testing strategy helps saves substantial resources and time during surge testing and enhanced pandemic surveillance. This approach requires around 76% to 93% less tests done in low to moderate prevalence settings and group sizes up to 5-10 in a population, compared to individual testing. CONCLUSIONS Pooled-sample PCR analysis strategies can save substantial resources and time for COVID-19 mass testing in comparison to individual testing without compromising the result outcome of test. In particular, pooled-sample approach can facilitate mass screening in early coming stages of COVID-19 outbreaks, especially in low- and middle-income settings and control the spread by meticulous testing of all risk groups. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.
|
|
?:creator
|
|
|
?:doi
|
|
|
?:doi
|
|
|
?:journal
|
-
Journal_of_medical_virology
|
|
?:license
|
|
|
?:pmid
|
|
|
?:pmid
|
|
|
?:publication_isRelatedTo_Disease
|
|
|
?:source
|
|
|
?:title
|
-
Evaluation of sample pooling for diagnosis of COVID-19 by Real time PCR- A resource saving combat strategy.
|
|
?:type
|
|
|
?:year
|
|
![[This page as RDF]](https://research.tib.eu/covid-19/static/rdf-icon.gif){kind=icon}