Sensitivity and specificity of antigen-based self-testing in Austrian schools

• Post by: Peter Willeit
• November 22, 2021
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This study evaluates the performance of the antigen based anterior nasal screening programme that was used at Austrian schools to detect SARS-CoV-2 infections. We combined nationwide antigen-based screening data obtained in March 2021 from 5,370 schools (Grade 1 to 8) with an RT-qPCR-based prospective cohort study comprising a representative sample of 244 schools. Considering a range of assumptions, only a subset of infected individuals are detected with the programme (low to moderate sensitivity) and non-infected individuals mainly tested negative (very high specificity).

The full text of the paper is available at https://doi.org/10.2807/1560-7917.ES.2021.26.34.2100797