Emerging Infectious Diseases (Oct 2021)

Point-of-Care Antigen Test for SARS-CoV-2 in Asymptomatic College Students

  • Sarah C. Tinker,
  • Christine M. Szablewski,
  • Anastasia P. Litvintseva,
  • Cherie Drenzek,
  • Gary E. Voccio,
  • Melissa A. Hunter,
  • Stephen Briggs,
  • Debbie E. Heida,
  • Jennifer Folster,
  • Patricia L. Shewmaker,
  • Magdalena Medrzycki,
  • Michael D. Bowen,
  • Caitlin Bohannon,
  • Dennis Bagarozzi,
  • Marla Petway,
  • Paul A. Rota,
  • Wendi Kuhnert-Tallman,
  • Natalie Thornburg,
  • Jessica L. Prince-Guerra,
  • Lisa C. Barrios,
  • Azaibi Tamin,
  • Jennifer L. Harcourt,
  • Margaret A. Honein

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3201/eid2710.210080
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 27, no. 10
pp. 2662 – 2665

Abstract

Read online

We used the BinaxNOW COVID-19 Ag Card to screen 1,540 asymptomatic college students for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 in a low-prevalence setting. Compared with reverse transcription PCR, BinaxNOW showed 20% overall sensitivity; among participants with culturable virus, sensitivity was 60%. BinaxNOW provides point-of-care screening but misses many infections.

Keywords