TY  - JOUR
A1  - Layer, Emily
A1  - Hoehl, Sebastian
A1  - Widera, Marek
A1  - Bojkova, Denisa
A1  - Westphal, Tim
A1  - Gottschalk, René
A1  - Böddinghaus, Boris
A1  - Schork, Joscha David
A1  - Ciesek, Sandra
A1  - Götsch, Udo
T1  - SARS-CoV-2 screening strategies for returning international travellers: Evaluation of a rapid antigen test approach
T2  - International Journal of Infectious Diseases
N2  - Background: International travel poses the risk of importing SARS-CoV-2 infections and introducing new viral variants into the country of destination. Established measures include mandatory quarantine with the opportunity to abbreviate it with a negative rapid antigen test (RAT).
Methods: A total of 1,488 returnees were tested for SARS-CoV-2 with both PCR and RAT no earlier than 5 days after arrival. We assessed the sensitivity and specificity of the RAT. Positive samples were evaluated for infectivity in vitro in a cell culture outgrowth assay. We tracked if participants who tested negative were reported positive within 2 weeks of the initial test.
Results: Potential infectiousness was determined based on symptom onset analysis, resulting in a sensitivity of the antigen test of 89% in terms of infectivity. The specificity was 100%. All positive outgrowth assays were preceded by a positive RAT, indicating that all participants with proven in vitro infectivity were correctly identified. None of the negative participants tested positive during the follow-up.
Conclusions: RAT no earlier than the 5th day after arrival was a reliable method for detecting infectious travellers and can be recommended as an appropriate method for managing SARS-CoV-2 travel restrictions. Compliance to the regulations and a high standard of test quality must be ensured.
KW  - Travel regulations
KW  - SARS-CoV-2 testing
KW  - Antigen test
KW  - Quarantine
Y1  - 2022
UR  - http://publikationen.ub.uni-frankfurt.de/frontdoor/index/index/docId/78278
UR  - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:hebis:30:3-782780
SN  - 1201-9712
VL  - 118
SP  - 126
EP  - 131
PB  - Elsevier
CY  - Amsterdam
ER  -