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Feasibility, Uptake, and Results of COVID-19 Antigen Rapid Diagnostic Tests among Refugees and Migrants in a Pilot Project in North-West Syria

North-west Syria (NWS) is a conflict-affected and unstable area. Due to its limited health infrastructure, accessing advanced COVID-19 testing services is challenging. COVID-19 antigen rapid diagnostic tests (Ag-RDTs) have the potential to overcome this barrier. A pilot project was implemented to in...

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Autores principales: Ghawji, Hassan, AlYousfi, Mohamad Nihad, Satyanarayana, Srinath, Wilson, Nevin, Tomeh, Laila, Alkhellov, Hussam, Hasan, Sali, Sarin, Sanjay, Kao, Kekeletso
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10222732/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37235329
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/tropicalmed8050281
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author Ghawji, Hassan
AlYousfi, Mohamad Nihad
Satyanarayana, Srinath
Wilson, Nevin
Tomeh, Laila
Alkhellov, Hussam
Hasan, Sali
Sarin, Sanjay
Kao, Kekeletso
author_facet Ghawji, Hassan
AlYousfi, Mohamad Nihad
Satyanarayana, Srinath
Wilson, Nevin
Tomeh, Laila
Alkhellov, Hussam
Hasan, Sali
Sarin, Sanjay
Kao, Kekeletso
author_sort Ghawji, Hassan
collection PubMed
description North-west Syria (NWS) is a conflict-affected and unstable area. Due to its limited health infrastructure, accessing advanced COVID-19 testing services is challenging. COVID-19 antigen rapid diagnostic tests (Ag-RDTs) have the potential to overcome this barrier. A pilot project was implemented to introduce Ag-RDTs in NWS, aiming to determine the feasibility, uptake, and results of Ag-RDTs and identify facilitators and barriers to testing with Ag-RDTs. A cross-sectional study design involving secondary analysis of data collected during the project was employed. A local non-governmental organization implemented 25,000 Ag-RDTs that were conducted cross-border by trained community health workers. In total, 27,888 eligible individuals were enrolled, 24,956 (89.5%) consented to test, and 121 (0.5%) were COVID-19-positive. The highest positivity was observed among those with severe COVID-19 symptoms (12.7%), with respiratory illnesses (2.5%), enrolled at hospitals in Afrin (2.5%), and healthcare workers (1.9%). A non-random sample of 236 individuals underwent confirmatory RT-PCR testing. Observed sensitivity, specificity, and positive and negative predictive values were 80.0%, 96.1%, 91.4%, and 90.3%, respectively. Challenges included obtaining informed consent and conducting confirmatory testing. Ag-RDTs represent a feasible screening/diagnostic tool for COVID-19 infections in NWS, with nearly 90% uptake. Embedding Ag-RDTs into COVID-19 testing and screening strategies would be highly beneficial.
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spelling pubmed-102227322023-05-28 Feasibility, Uptake, and Results of COVID-19 Antigen Rapid Diagnostic Tests among Refugees and Migrants in a Pilot Project in North-West Syria Ghawji, Hassan AlYousfi, Mohamad Nihad Satyanarayana, Srinath Wilson, Nevin Tomeh, Laila Alkhellov, Hussam Hasan, Sali Sarin, Sanjay Kao, Kekeletso Trop Med Infect Dis Article North-west Syria (NWS) is a conflict-affected and unstable area. Due to its limited health infrastructure, accessing advanced COVID-19 testing services is challenging. COVID-19 antigen rapid diagnostic tests (Ag-RDTs) have the potential to overcome this barrier. A pilot project was implemented to introduce Ag-RDTs in NWS, aiming to determine the feasibility, uptake, and results of Ag-RDTs and identify facilitators and barriers to testing with Ag-RDTs. A cross-sectional study design involving secondary analysis of data collected during the project was employed. A local non-governmental organization implemented 25,000 Ag-RDTs that were conducted cross-border by trained community health workers. In total, 27,888 eligible individuals were enrolled, 24,956 (89.5%) consented to test, and 121 (0.5%) were COVID-19-positive. The highest positivity was observed among those with severe COVID-19 symptoms (12.7%), with respiratory illnesses (2.5%), enrolled at hospitals in Afrin (2.5%), and healthcare workers (1.9%). A non-random sample of 236 individuals underwent confirmatory RT-PCR testing. Observed sensitivity, specificity, and positive and negative predictive values were 80.0%, 96.1%, 91.4%, and 90.3%, respectively. Challenges included obtaining informed consent and conducting confirmatory testing. Ag-RDTs represent a feasible screening/diagnostic tool for COVID-19 infections in NWS, with nearly 90% uptake. Embedding Ag-RDTs into COVID-19 testing and screening strategies would be highly beneficial. MDPI 2023-05-16 /pmc/articles/PMC10222732/ /pubmed/37235329 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/tropicalmed8050281 Text en © 2023 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Ghawji, Hassan
AlYousfi, Mohamad Nihad
Satyanarayana, Srinath
Wilson, Nevin
Tomeh, Laila
Alkhellov, Hussam
Hasan, Sali
Sarin, Sanjay
Kao, Kekeletso
Feasibility, Uptake, and Results of COVID-19 Antigen Rapid Diagnostic Tests among Refugees and Migrants in a Pilot Project in North-West Syria
title Feasibility, Uptake, and Results of COVID-19 Antigen Rapid Diagnostic Tests among Refugees and Migrants in a Pilot Project in North-West Syria
title_full Feasibility, Uptake, and Results of COVID-19 Antigen Rapid Diagnostic Tests among Refugees and Migrants in a Pilot Project in North-West Syria
title_fullStr Feasibility, Uptake, and Results of COVID-19 Antigen Rapid Diagnostic Tests among Refugees and Migrants in a Pilot Project in North-West Syria
title_full_unstemmed Feasibility, Uptake, and Results of COVID-19 Antigen Rapid Diagnostic Tests among Refugees and Migrants in a Pilot Project in North-West Syria
title_short Feasibility, Uptake, and Results of COVID-19 Antigen Rapid Diagnostic Tests among Refugees and Migrants in a Pilot Project in North-West Syria
title_sort feasibility, uptake, and results of covid-19 antigen rapid diagnostic tests among refugees and migrants in a pilot project in north-west syria
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10222732/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37235329
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/tropicalmed8050281
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