Efficacy of a Test-Retest Strategy in Residents and Health Care Personnel of a Nursing Home Facing a COVID-19 Outbreak.
Hubert Blain, Yves Rolland, Edouard Tuaillon and 6 others
PMID 32674822WHAT IT FOUND
Testing all residents and staff in one nursing home found 38 of 79 residents positive, including 6 without symptoms.
Staff had 6 positive at baseline and 2 by day 7, then no new cases.
Key findings
01All 79 residents and 34 health care personnel were tested; 38 residents and 6 staff had positive rRT-PCR at baseline.
02Six positive residents were asymptomatic before testing; two residents and two staff tested positive by day 7, and no new staff diagnoses were made later.
03Six weeks after testing, 25 residents and all 8 staff with positive rRT-PCR had IgG antibodies; 2 residents and 5 staff with negative rRT-PCR had antibodies.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
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What it does not show
The study was performed in a single nursing home. It was an observational study and did not include a described comparison group. Testing, symptom monitoring, and infection prevention and control measures were applied together and not separated. The number of health care personnel was small, with 34 people studied. The study was conducted before other cases had been detected in the county. The authors describe the strategy as clinically effective, but the report does not compare it with another approach.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that testing alone stopped the outbreak. Residents and health care personnel also had symptom monitoring and infection prevention and control measures, and the paper does not separate the contribution of any single component.