Cotton-Tipped Plastic Swabs for SARS-CoV-2 RT-qPCR Diagnosis to Prevent Supply Shortages

Freire‐Paspuel, Byron; Vega-Mariño, Patricio; Vélez, Alberto; Castillo, Paulina; Gomez-Santos, Eliana Elizabeth; Cruz, Marilyn; García-Bereguiaín, Miguel Angel

doi:10.3389/fcimb.2020.00356

Cited by 39 publications

(38 citation statements)

References 5 publications

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“…This report supports the use of PBS as a transport medium. Our results are supportive of those recently published, demonstrating the diagnostic reliability of cotton-tipped plastic swabs for NP sampling as compared to rayon-tipped swabs, transported in TRIS-EDTA ( Freire-Paspuel et al, 2020 ) Repurposed commonly used non-flocked swabs, paired with a readily available buffer provides a solution for COVID-19 testing during times of UTM and flocked NP swab shortages.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 91%

Exploring alternative swabs for use in SARS-CoV-2 detection from the oropharynx and anterior nares

Patriquin

Davis

Heinstein

et al. 2020

Journal of Virological Methods

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Highlights Testing supplies for COVID-19 are limited worldwide. Validity of alternative testing supplies is needed. This article supports the use of non-flocked swabs of the oropharynx/nares for COVID-19 testing. These data support the use of PBS as transport media for COVID-19 testing. Performance of non-flocked swabs in PBS is similar to that of previously-validated swabs.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 91%

Exploring alternative swabs for use in SARS-CoV-2 detection from the oropharynx and anterior nares

Patriquin

Davis

Heinstein

et al. 2020

Journal of Virological Methods

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“…As we described above, we experienced a diagnosis disruption due to RNA extraction kits shortage. To prevent a new disruption due to the lack of swabs that Ecuador was experiencing, we carried out a validation study of cheap and locally produced cotton swabs for nasopharyngeal specimen collection prior to SARS-CoV-2 diagnosis [ 10 ]. Although CDC and WHO only endorse synthetic fiber swabs for SARS-CoV-2 diagnosis [ 11 , 12 ], our previous experience as ABG-One Health Research Group (UDLA) on zoonotic diseases surveillance supported our hypothesis that cotton swabs would be useful for sample collection prior to PCR based-diagnosis.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“One health" inspired SARS-CoV-2 surveillance: The Galapagos Islands experience

et al. 2020

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The COVID-19 pandemic has spread worldwide since the outbreak in Wuhan (China) in December 2019, currently infecting over 25 million people and causing more than 800.000 deaths. In Ecuador, up to the 30th of August 2020, overall 113.648 confirmed cases and 6.555 deaths have been declared. Besides overloading of hospital, capacity for molecular diagnosis of SARS-CoV-2 by the Ministry of Public Health was quickly overwhelmed. In this context, emergency authorization for SARS-CoV-2 RT-qPCR diagnosis was granted to other institutions, like the “Agencia de Regulación y Control para la Bioseguridad y Cuarentena de Galápagos” (ABG), that implemented “LabGal” with support of One Health Research Group from “Universidad de Las Américas” (UDLA). The previous experience of ABG and the One Health Research Group in conducting massive surveillance of zoonotic diseases on livestock was crucial to the success on the control of COVID-19 outbreak at Galapagos Islands by the end of May 2020, when Latin American countries were leading the spread of the pandemic.

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“…In addition, as seen, Ecuador experienced a supply shortage of synthetic fiber swabs that caused diagnosis disruption. 9…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Evaluation of COVID-19 Surveillance Strategy in Ecuador

Fuentes

Aroca

Carlos

2020

Disaster med. public health prep.

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Objetive: Evaluate the relevance of the COVID 19 positive case detection policy or model implemented by the Ministry of Public Health (MPH) of Ecuador and to compare it with the experiences of other countries. Methods: Data contained the daily reports publicized by the MPH. The formulations were carried out under the Conditioned Probability modality applying Bayes’ Theorem. All the COVID-19 tests applied in relation to the confirmed cases per million inhabitants were considered, in order to obtain their level of positivity, and compared with the experience of Iceland and South Korea. Results: The probability of detecting positive cases of COVID-19 in Ecuador was higher than Iceland and South Korea, since the diagnostic tests were aimed at symptomatic patients, without identifying asymptomatic or mild symptomatic, who play an important role in the transmission of the disease. In addition, many symptomatic patients were examined but will remain undiagnosed due to the unavailability of tests and the low quality of many of them. Conclusions: The daily reports on the behavior of the COVID-19 issued by the Ecuadorian government do not adequately represent the growth in the number of those infected each day, nor the actual behavior of the epidemic, affecting possible control measures.

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Cotton-Tipped Plastic Swabs for SARS-CoV-2 RT-qPCR Diagnosis to Prevent Supply Shortages

Cited by 39 publications

References 5 publications

Exploring alternative swabs for use in SARS-CoV-2 detection from the oropharynx and anterior nares

Exploring alternative swabs for use in SARS-CoV-2 detection from the oropharynx and anterior nares

“One health" inspired SARS-CoV-2 surveillance: The Galapagos Islands experience

Evaluation of COVID-19 Surveillance Strategy in Ecuador

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