Persistence of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 Omicron Variant in Children and Utility of Rapid Antigen Testing as an Indicator of Culturable Virus

Zoe M Lohse; Jerne J Shapiro; John A Lednicky; Melanie N Cash; Inyoung Jun; Carla N Mavian; Massimiliano S Tagliamonte; Cyrus Saleem; Yang Yang; Eric J Nelson; Marco Salemi; Kathleen A Ryan; J Glenn Morris

doi:10.1093/cid/ciac693

Persistence of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 Omicron Variant in Children and Utility of Rapid Antigen Testing as an Indicator of Culturable Virus

Clin Infect Dis. 2023 Feb 8;76(3):e491-e494. doi: 10.1093/cid/ciac693.

Authors

Zoe M Lohse^{1

2}, Jerne J Shapiro^{1

2}, John A Lednicky^{1

3}, Melanie N Cash^{1

4}, Inyoung Jun^{1

2}, Carla N Mavian^{1

4}, Massimiliano S Tagliamonte^{1

4}, Cyrus Saleem¹, Yang Yang^{1

5}, Eric J Nelson^{1

3

6}, Marco Salemi^{1

4}, Kathleen A Ryan^{1

6}, J Glenn Morris^{1

7}

Affiliations

¹ Emerging Pathogens Institute, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida, USA.
² Department of Epidemiology, College of Public Health and Health Professions, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida, USA.
³ Department of Environmental and Global Health, College of Public Health and Health Professions, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida, USA.
⁴ Department of Pathology, Immunology, and Laboratory Medicine, College of Medicine, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida, USA.
⁵ Department of Biostatistics, College of Public Health and Health Professions, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida, USA.
⁶ Department of Pediatrics, College of Medicine, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida, USA.
⁷ Department of Medicine, College of Medicine, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida, USA.

Abstract

We screened 65 longitudinally collected nasal swab samples from 31 children aged 0-16 years who were positive for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 Omicron BA.1. By day 7 after onset of symptoms, 48% of children remained positive by rapid antigen test. In a sample subset, we found 100% correlation between antigen test results and virus culture.

Keywords: SARS-CoV-2 Omicron; SARS-CoV-2 culture; SARS-CoV-2 persistence in children; rapid antigen test; rapid diagnostic test.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

COVID-19* / diagnosis
Child
Humans
Immunologic Tests
SARS-CoV-2

Supplementary concepts

SARS-CoV-2 variants