Comparative Evaluation of the ID NOW<SUP>TM</SUP> Test (Abott) and RT-PCR for the Detection of the SARS-CoV-2 Genome in Travellers

Abstract

Introduction: The persistence of the COVID-19 pandemic, which has become a global public health problem, means that the implementation of effective and affordable diagnostic strategies is essential, particularly in developing countries, to contain the disease. Rapid, reliable and inexpensive molecular or antigenic tests enable early detection of cases and rapid clinical management. The method based on reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) is the benchmark for diagnosing SARS-CoV-2 infections. However, this method requires highly qualified human resources, complex equipment, consumables and reagents that are usually expensive and imported from developed countries. Given these technical and financial constraints and the limited capacity of molecular platforms in developing countries, point-of-care can be considered a very good alternative. The aim of this study was to evaluate the performance of the ID NOW^TM COVID-19 test for the detection of SARS-COV-2 from nasopharyngeal swab samples collected in tubes containing viral transport medium compared with RT-PCR. Method: The evaluation was carried out on 59 travellers from whom a nasopharyngeal swab was taken in 3 ml of viral transport medium (VTM). A swab from the ID-NOW kit was dipped into each sample and then deposited in the sample recipient in order to assess the performance of the ID-NOW test compared with RT-PCR. Results: In our study, we found a sensitivity of 92.6% (23/25) and a specificity of 100%. However, 2 false negatives were found with samples that had CT values of 36. No cross-contamination between samples was observed in this study. Conclusion: Our data showed that the ID NOW^TM COVID-19 test would be an excellent tool for screening suspected cases in clinical departments.