AI Article Synopsis
- The COVID-19 pandemic presents a significant public health challenge due to the virus's ability to spread from individuals who may not show symptoms.
- Effective surveillance, primarily through frequent and timely virus testing, is essential for managing the pandemic and reopening societies safely.
- High test sensitivity plays a lesser role compared to the accessibility, frequency, and quick reporting of test results in improving surveillance effectiveness.
Article Abstract
The COVID-19 pandemic has created a public health crisis. Because SARS-CoV-2 can spread from individuals with pre-symptomatic, symptomatic, and asymptomatic infections, the re-opening of societies and the control of virus spread will be facilitated by robust surveillance, for which virus testing will often be central. After infection, individuals undergo a period of incubation during which viral titers are usually too low to detect, followed by an exponential viral growth, leading to a peak viral load and infectiousness, and ending with declining viral levels and clearance. Given the pattern of viral load kinetics, we model surveillance effectiveness considering test sensitivities, frequency, and sample-to-answer reporting time. These results demonstrate that effective surveillance depends largely on frequency of testing and the speed of reporting, and is only marginally improved by high test sensitivity. We therefore conclude that surveillance should prioritize accessibility, frequency, and sample-to-answer time; analytical limits of detection should be secondary.
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Source |
|---|---|
| http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7325181 | PMC |
| http://dx.doi.org/10.1101/2020.06.22.20136309 | DOI Listing |
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