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Continuous false positive results by SARS-CoV-2 rapid antigen testing: a case report

Efficient and rapid identification of active SARS-CoV-2 infections has been key to monitoring and mitigating the spread of the virus. The implementation of nucleic acid testing (e.g., RT-PCR) was broadly adopted by most public health organizations at the national and community levels across the glob...

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Autores principales: Galipeau, Yannick, Xavier, Abishek, Dyks, Aaron, Cooper, Curtis, Langlois, Marc-André
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10657208/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/38026284
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2023.1240308
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author Galipeau, Yannick
Xavier, Abishek
Dyks, Aaron
Cooper, Curtis
Langlois, Marc-André
author_facet Galipeau, Yannick
Xavier, Abishek
Dyks, Aaron
Cooper, Curtis
Langlois, Marc-André
author_sort Galipeau, Yannick
collection PubMed
description Efficient and rapid identification of active SARS-CoV-2 infections has been key to monitoring and mitigating the spread of the virus. The implementation of nucleic acid testing (e.g., RT-PCR) was broadly adopted by most public health organizations at the national and community levels across the globe, which was followed by more accessible means of home testing including lateral flow immunochromatographic assay (LFA), also known as a rapid antigen test. Here we report the case of an adult female who repeatedly and consecutively tested positive by RAT (BTNX inc). This sustained false positive was not linked with an active SARS-CoV-2 infection, which was ruled out by RT-PCR and serological analyses. SARS-CoV-2 serology revealed no detectable levels of antibodies against the nucleocapsid suggesting no recent prior infection by SARS-CoV-2. This continuous false positive was limited to BTNX testing devices. This case report aims to describe that such continuous false positives can occur and describes alternative testing approaches that can be performed to confirm RAT results. In addition, broader awareness of such occurrences is warranted in the healthcare and public health community to avoid unnecessary negative impacts on individual’s day to day life.
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spelling pubmed-106572082023-11-03 Continuous false positive results by SARS-CoV-2 rapid antigen testing: a case report Galipeau, Yannick Xavier, Abishek Dyks, Aaron Cooper, Curtis Langlois, Marc-André Front Public Health Public Health Efficient and rapid identification of active SARS-CoV-2 infections has been key to monitoring and mitigating the spread of the virus. The implementation of nucleic acid testing (e.g., RT-PCR) was broadly adopted by most public health organizations at the national and community levels across the globe, which was followed by more accessible means of home testing including lateral flow immunochromatographic assay (LFA), also known as a rapid antigen test. Here we report the case of an adult female who repeatedly and consecutively tested positive by RAT (BTNX inc). This sustained false positive was not linked with an active SARS-CoV-2 infection, which was ruled out by RT-PCR and serological analyses. SARS-CoV-2 serology revealed no detectable levels of antibodies against the nucleocapsid suggesting no recent prior infection by SARS-CoV-2. This continuous false positive was limited to BTNX testing devices. This case report aims to describe that such continuous false positives can occur and describes alternative testing approaches that can be performed to confirm RAT results. In addition, broader awareness of such occurrences is warranted in the healthcare and public health community to avoid unnecessary negative impacts on individual’s day to day life. Frontiers Media S.A. 2023-11-03 /pmc/articles/PMC10657208/ /pubmed/38026284 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2023.1240308 Text en Copyright © 2023 Galipeau, Xavier, Dyks, Cooper and Langlois. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Public Health
Galipeau, Yannick
Xavier, Abishek
Dyks, Aaron
Cooper, Curtis
Langlois, Marc-André
Continuous false positive results by SARS-CoV-2 rapid antigen testing: a case report
title Continuous false positive results by SARS-CoV-2 rapid antigen testing: a case report
title_full Continuous false positive results by SARS-CoV-2 rapid antigen testing: a case report
title_fullStr Continuous false positive results by SARS-CoV-2 rapid antigen testing: a case report
title_full_unstemmed Continuous false positive results by SARS-CoV-2 rapid antigen testing: a case report
title_short Continuous false positive results by SARS-CoV-2 rapid antigen testing: a case report
title_sort continuous false positive results by sars-cov-2 rapid antigen testing: a case report
topic Public Health
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10657208/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/38026284
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2023.1240308
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