Department of Microbiology, King George's Medical University, Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, India.
Consultant, WHO Country Office for India, New Delhi, India.
Indian J Med Res. 2021;153(1 & 2):227-232. doi: 10.4103/ijmr.IJMR_2333_20.
BACKGROUND & OBJECTIVES: During the current COVID-19 pandemic, a large number of clinical samples were tested by real-time PCR. Pooling the clinical samples before testing can be a good cost-saving and rapid alternative for screening large populations. The aim of this study was to compare the performance characteristics, feasibility and effectiveness of pooling nasal swab and throat swab samples for screening and diagnosis of SARS-CoV-2.
The pool testing was applied on a set of samples coming from low COVID-19 positivity areas. A total of 2410 samples were tested in pools of five samples each. A total of five pools of five samples each were generated and tested for E gene.
Of the total of 482 pools (2410 samples) 24 pools flagged positive. Later on pool de-convolution, a total of 26 samples were detected as positive for COVID-19, leading to positivity of about one per cent in the test population. For the diagnosis of individual samples, the pooling strategies resulted in cost savings of 75 per cent (5 samples per pool).
INTERPRETATION & CONCLUSIONS: It was observed that testing samples for COVID-19 by reverse transcription (RT)- PCR after pooling could be a cost-effective method which would save both in manpower and cost especially for resource-poor countries and at a time when test kits were short in supply.
在当前的 COVID-19 大流行期间，大量临床样本通过实时 PCR 进行了检测。在检测前对临床样本进行汇集可以作为一种节省成本和快速筛选大量人群的替代方法。本研究旨在比较汇集鼻拭子和咽拭子样本用于 SARS-CoV-2 筛查和诊断的性能特征、可行性和效果。
在一组来自低 COVID-19 阳性地区的样本中应用了汇集检测。共对 2410 个样本进行了每 5 个样本一组的检测。总共生成并测试了五个每组 5 个样本的 E 基因池。
总共 482 个（2410 个样本）的池中有 24 个标记为阳性。随后对池进行解卷积，共有 26 个样本被检测为 COVID-19 阳性，在检测人群中的阳性率约为 1%。对于个体样本的诊断，汇集策略可节省 75%的成本（每个池 5 个样本）。
观察到，对 COVID-19 进行逆转录（RT）-PCR 检测后进行汇集可能是一种具有成本效益的方法，尤其是在资源匮乏的国家和试剂盒供应短缺的时期，可以节省人力和成本。
