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Lee GYL, Lim RBT. Are self-test kits still relevant post COVID-19 pandemic? Qualitative study on working adults' perceptions. Infect Dis Health 2024; 29:73-80. [PMID: 38049368 DOI: 10.1016/j.idh.2023.11.001] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/26/2023] [Revised: 11/09/2023] [Accepted: 11/09/2023] [Indexed: 12/06/2023]
Abstract
BACKGROUND Other than self-isolation measures, self-testing is likely to reduce the transmission of COVID-19 and may become a valuable approach in future outbreaks of infectious diseases. This study delves into the perceptions and experiences of working adults who utilised COVID-19 self-test kits in Singapore during the post-pandemic period. METHODS Employing a qualitative descriptive design, in-depth interviews were conducted with 40 working adults from diverse occupations, with a median age of 35 years. Thematic analysis of transcribed interviews was carried out by two independent qualitative research-trained researchers. RESULTS Facilitators included personal motivations like safeguarding vulnerable individuals and the convenience of user-friendly self-test kits. Proximal environmental factors encompassed situations involving close contacts and large gatherings, while distal factors involved workplace regulations, public health campaigns, mass media influence, and trust in authorised kits. Nonetheless, barriers include discomfort, cost, uncertainty about proper technique, and evolving testing requirements. Positive test results prompted participants to notify contacts and self-isolate, whereas negative results encouraged a return to normalcy. Participants recommend sustained testing for new variants and vulnerable groups, though some view it as unnecessary due to pandemic normalisation. CONCLUSIONS Self-testing emerged as a social phenomenon influenced by societal obligations and relationships across multiple levels. Effective communication strategies may play a role in fostering trust and ensuring that working adults sustain the practice of self-testing; therefore, further research is needed to explore their potential impact. Such efforts could be valuable for maintaining vigilance and achieving effective disease control in the post-COVID-19 pandemic landscape.
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Affiliation(s)
- Gladys Yu Lin Lee
- Health Sciences Authority, 11 Biopolis Way #11-01 Helios, Singapore 138667, Singapore City, Singapore; Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health, National University of Singapore and National University Health System, Tahir Foundation Building, 12 Science Drive 2, #10-01, Singapore 117549, Singapore City, Singapore.
| | - Raymond Boon Tar Lim
- Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health, National University of Singapore and National University Health System, Tahir Foundation Building, 12 Science Drive 2, #10-01, Singapore 117549, Singapore City, Singapore.
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Dack K, Wilson A, Turner C, Anderson C, Hughes GJ. COVID-19 associated with universities in England, October 2020-February 2022. Public Health 2023; 224:106-112. [PMID: 37742583 DOI: 10.1016/j.puhe.2023.08.025] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/02/2023] [Revised: 08/20/2023] [Accepted: 08/22/2023] [Indexed: 09/26/2023]
Abstract
OBJECTIVES The aim of this study was to describe the epidemiology of COVID-19 cases at universities in England (October 2020-February 2022) and investigate factors associated with rates of COVID-19 among students during autumn/winter of 2021/22. STUDY DESIGN The study was an observational retrospective study using routine contact tracing data. METHODS Estimates of COVID-19 cases among students and staff at universities were described. Student cases aged 18-24 years were calculated as a percentage of all cases within that age group. Count regression was used to explore university characteristics associated with case numbers. RESULTS We identified 102,382 cases among students and 28,639 among staff. Student cases reflected trends in the wider population of the same age group, but the observed fraction aged 18-24 years who were students was consistently below the expected level (32%). Phased reopening of universities in March-May 2021 was associated with small peaks but low absolute numbers. Russell group membership, campus universities, and higher student proportions in halls of residence were all associated with increased case numbers. CONCLUSIONS COVID-19 case numbers among students in England varied considerably. At no time were the observed case numbers as high as expected from community prevalence. Characteristics of universities associated with higher case rates can inform future guidance for higher education settings.
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Affiliation(s)
- K Dack
- Field Service, United Kingdom Health Security Agency, London, UK
| | - A Wilson
- Field Service, United Kingdom Health Security Agency, London, UK
| | - C Turner
- Field Service, United Kingdom Health Security Agency, London, UK
| | - C Anderson
- Field Service, United Kingdom Health Security Agency, London, UK
| | - G J Hughes
- Field Service, United Kingdom Health Security Agency, Leeds, UK.
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Batty M, Mackenzie C, Deerain J, Tran T, Yoga Y, Druce J, Williamson DA, Graham M. Performance evaluation of Roche and Abbott Panbio multiplex SARS-CoV-2 and influenza A/B rapid antigen tests. Pathology 2023; 55:870-874. [PMID: 37100666 PMCID: PMC10082646 DOI: 10.1016/j.pathol.2023.02.003] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/08/2022] [Accepted: 02/07/2023] [Indexed: 04/28/2023]
Affiliation(s)
- Mitchell Batty
- Victorian Infectious Diseases Reference Laboratory, Royal Melbourne Hospital at the Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity, Parkville, Vic, Australia
| | - Charlene Mackenzie
- Victorian Infectious Diseases Reference Laboratory, Royal Melbourne Hospital at the Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity, Parkville, Vic, Australia
| | - Joshua Deerain
- Victorian Infectious Diseases Reference Laboratory, Royal Melbourne Hospital at the Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity, Parkville, Vic, Australia
| | - Thomas Tran
- Victorian Infectious Diseases Reference Laboratory, Royal Melbourne Hospital at the Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity, Parkville, Vic, Australia
| | - Yano Yoga
- Victorian Infectious Diseases Reference Laboratory, Royal Melbourne Hospital at the Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity, Parkville, Vic, Australia
| | - Julian Druce
- Victorian Infectious Diseases Reference Laboratory, Royal Melbourne Hospital at the Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity, Parkville, Vic, Australia
| | - Deborah A Williamson
- Victorian Infectious Diseases Reference Laboratory, Royal Melbourne Hospital at the Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity, Parkville, Vic, Australia; Department of Infectious Diseases, The University of Melbourne at the Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity, Parkville, Vic, Australia
| | - Maryza Graham
- Victorian Infectious Diseases Reference Laboratory, Royal Melbourne Hospital at the Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity, Parkville, Vic, Australia; Department of Microbiology and Department of Infectious Diseases, Monash Health, Clayton, Vic, Australia.
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Folayan M, Shilton S, Undelikwo V, Alaba O, Amusan R, Ibrahim M, Ogbozor PA, Mojisola O, Batheja D, Banerji A, Ivanova Reipold E, Martínez-Pérez GZ. People's willingness to use COVID-19 self-testing in Nigeria: a cross-sectional survey. BMJ Open 2023; 13:e063323. [PMID: 36717135 PMCID: PMC9887470 DOI: 10.1136/bmjopen-2022-063323] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/29/2022] [Accepted: 01/16/2023] [Indexed: 01/31/2023] Open
Abstract
OBJECTIVES Nigeria has been badly affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, and the poor testing coverage in the country may make controlling the spread of COVID-19 challenging. The aim of this study was to assess the general public's acceptability of SARS-CoV-2 self-testing as an approach which could help to address this gap. SETTING A household-based survey was conducted in five urban and five rural local government areas in the states of Akwa Ibom, Anambra, Benue, Kaduna and Lagos, in mid-2021. PARTICIPANTS 2126 respondents (969 were female) participated. A five-pronged, probabilistic sampling approach was used to recruit individuals older than 17 years and available to participate when randomly approached in their households by the surveyors. A 35-item questionnaire was used to collect data on their values towards SARS-CoV-2 self-testing. Primary outcomes were: likelihood to use a self-test; willingness to pay for a self-test; and likely actions following a reactive self-test result. RESULTS Of the total 2126 respondents, 14 (0.66%) were aware of COVID-19 self-testing, 1738 (81.80%) agreed with the idea of people being able to self-test for COVID-19, 1786 (84.05%) were likely/very likely to use self-tests if available, 1931 (90.87%) would report a positive result and 1875 (88.28%) would isolate if they self-tested positive. Factors significantly associated with the use of a self-test were having a college education or higher (adjusted Odds Ratio (AOR): 1.55; 95% CI: 1.03 to 2.33), full-time employment (AOR: 1.67; 95% CI: 1.06 to 2.63), feeling at moderate/high risk of COVID-19 (AOR: 2.43; 95% CI: 1.70 to 3.47) and presence of individuals at risk of COVID-19 within the household (AOR: 1.38; 95% CI: 1.06 to 1.78). CONCLUSION A majority of Nigerians agree with the concept of COVID-19 self-testing and would act to protect public health on self-testing positive. Self-test implementation research is necessary to frame how acceptability impacts uptake of preventive behaviours following a positive and a negative self-test result.
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Affiliation(s)
- Morenike Folayan
- Department of Child Dental Health, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Osun State, Nigeria
| | | | | | - Oluwatoyin Alaba
- Institute of Public Health, College of Health Sciences, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Osun State, Nigeria
| | - Ranmilowo Amusan
- Department of Community Health, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Osun State, Nigeria
| | | | - Pamela Adaobi Ogbozor
- Department of Psychology, Enugu State University of Science and Technology, Enugu, Anambra State, Nigeria
| | - Oluyide Mojisola
- Department of Mental Health, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Osun State, Nigeria
| | | | - Abhik Banerji
- Center for Disease Dynamics Economics & Policy, Delhi, India
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Brooks-Pollock E, Northstone K, Pellis L, Scarabel F, Thomas A, Nixon E, Matthews DA, Bowyer V, Garcia MP, Steves CJ, Timpson NJ, Danon L. Voluntary risk mitigation behaviour can reduce impact of SARS-CoV-2: a real-time modelling study of the January 2022 Omicron wave in England. BMC Med 2023; 21:25. [PMID: 36658548 PMCID: PMC9851586 DOI: 10.1186/s12916-022-02714-5] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/16/2022] [Accepted: 12/15/2022] [Indexed: 01/21/2023] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND Predicting the likely size of future SARS-CoV-2 waves is necessary for public health planning. In England, voluntary "plan B" mitigation measures were introduced in December 2021 including increased home working and face coverings in shops but stopped short of restrictions on social contacts. The impact of voluntary risk mitigation behaviours on future SARS-CoV-2 burden is unknown. METHODS We developed a rapid online survey of risk mitigation behaviours ahead of the winter 2021 festive period and deployed in two longitudinal cohort studies in the UK (Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC) and TwinsUK/COVID Symptom Study (CSS) Biobank) in December 2021. Using an individual-based, probabilistic model of COVID-19 transmission between social contacts with SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant parameters and realistic vaccine coverage in England, we predicted the potential impact of the SARS-CoV-2 Omicron wave in England in terms of the effective reproduction number and cumulative infections, hospital admissions and deaths. Using survey results, we estimated in real-time the impact of voluntary risk mitigation behaviours on the Omicron wave in England, if implemented for the entire epidemic wave. RESULTS Over 95% of survey respondents (NALSPAC = 2686 and NTwins = 6155) reported some risk mitigation behaviours, with vaccination and using home testing kits reported most frequently. Less than half of those respondents reported that their behaviour was due to "plan B". We estimate that without risk mitigation behaviours, the Omicron variant is consistent with an effective reproduction number between 2.5 and 3.5. Due to the reduced vaccine effectiveness against infection with the Omicron variant, our modelled estimates suggest that between 55% and 60% of the English population could be infected during the current wave, translating into between 12,000 and 46,000 cumulative deaths, depending on assumptions about severity and vaccine effectiveness. The actual number of deaths was 15,208 (26 November 2021-1 March 2022). We estimate that voluntary risk reduction measures could reduce the effective reproduction number to between 1.8 and 2.2 and reduce the cumulative number of deaths by up to 24%. CONCLUSIONS Predicting future infection burden is affected by uncertainty in disease severity and vaccine effectiveness estimates. In addition to biological uncertainty, we show that voluntary measures substantially reduce the projected impact of the SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant but that voluntary measures alone would be unlikely to completely control transmission.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ellen Brooks-Pollock
- Population Health Sciences, Bristol Medical School, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK.
| | - Kate Northstone
- Population Health Sciences, Bristol Medical School, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK
| | - Lorenzo Pellis
- Department of Mathematics, University of Manchester, Manchester, UK
- School of Biological Sciences, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK
| | | | - Amy Thomas
- Population Health Sciences, Bristol Medical School, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK
| | - Emily Nixon
- Population Health Sciences, Bristol Medical School, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK
- The Alan Turing Institute, London, UK
| | - David A Matthews
- School of Cellular and Molecular Medicine, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK
| | - Vicky Bowyer
- Department of Twin Research & Genetic Epidemiology, King's College London, London, UK
| | - Maria Paz Garcia
- Department of Twin Research & Genetic Epidemiology, King's College London, London, UK
| | - Claire J Steves
- Department of Twin Research & Genetic Epidemiology, King's College London, London, UK
| | - Nicholas J Timpson
- Population Health Sciences, Bristol Medical School, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK
- MRC Integrative Epidemiology Unit at University of Bristol, Bristol, UK
| | - Leon Danon
- Department of Engineering Mathematics, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK
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Pohanka M. Diagnoses Based on C-Reactive Protein Point-of-Care Tests. BIOSENSORS 2022; 12:bios12050344. [PMID: 35624645 PMCID: PMC9138282 DOI: 10.3390/bios12050344] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/18/2022] [Revised: 05/09/2022] [Accepted: 05/16/2022] [Indexed: 05/09/2023]
Abstract
C-reactive protein (CRP) is an important part of the immune system's reaction to various pathological impulses such as bacterial infections, systemic inflammation, and internal organ failures. An increased CRP level serves to diagnose the mentioned pathological states. Both standard laboratory methods and simple point-of-care devices such as lateral flow tests and immunoturbidimetric assays serve for the instrumental diagnoses based on CRP. The current method for CRP has many flaws and limitations in its use. Biosensor and bioassay analytical devices are presently researched by many teams to provide more sensitive and better-suited tools for point-of-care tests of CRP in biological samples when compared to the standard methods. This review article is focused on mapping the diagnostical relevance of CRP, the applicability of the current analytical methods, and the recent innovations in the measurement of CRP level.
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Affiliation(s)
- Miroslav Pohanka
- Faculty of Military Health Sciences, University of Defense, Trebesska 1575, CZ-50001 Hradec Kralove, Czech Republic
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