Diagnostics (May 2021)

Prospective Observational COVID-19 Screening and Monitoring of Asymptomatic Cancer Center Health-Care Workers with a Rapid Serological Test

  • Angelo Virgilio Paradiso,
  • Simona De Summa,
  • Nicola Silvestris,
  • Stefania Tommasi,
  • Antonio Tufaro,
  • Angela Maria Vittoria Larocca,
  • Vincenzo D’Addabbo,
  • Donata Raffaele,
  • Vito Cafagna,
  • Vito Michele Garrisi,
  • Giuseppe De Palma

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3390/diagnostics11060975
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 11, no. 6
p. 975

Abstract

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Health-care workers (HCW) are at high risk for SARS-CoV-2 infection and, if asymptomatic, for transmitting the virus to fragile cancer patients. We monitored all asymptomatic HCWs of a cancer institute (94% of all employees agreed to enter the study) with the rapid serological test, VivaDiagTM, identifying SARS-CoV-2 associated-IgM/IgG. The tests were performed at time 0 (n = 606) and after 14 days (n = 393). Overall, the VivaDiagTM results of nine HCWs (1.5%) were positive, with one confirmed to be SARS-CoV-2-positive after oropharyngeal swab testing by RT-PCR. At time 0, all nine cases showed IgM expression while IgG was detected in only one. After 14 days, IgM persisted in all the cases, while IgG became evident in four. A chemiluminescence immunoassay (CLIA) confirmed IgM positivity in 5/13 VivaDiagTM positive cases and IgG positivity in 4/5 VivaDiagTM positive cases. Our study suggests that the VivaDiagTM test can be of help in identifying SARS-CoV-2 infected people in cohorts of subjects with a high prevalence.

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