Systematic screening on admission for SARS-CoV-2 to detect asymptomatic infections - Stadler, R. N.; Maurer, L.; Aguilar-Bultet, L.; Franzeck, F.; Ruchti, C.; Kuhl, R.; Widmer, A. F.; Schindler, R.; Bingisser, R.; Rentsch, K. M.; Pargger, H.; Sutter, R.; et al. (Antimicrob Resist Infect Control, 2021)
The proportion of asymptomatic carriers of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) remains elusive and the potential benefit of systematic screening during the SARS-CoV-2-pandemic is controversial. We investigated the proportion of asymptomatic inpatients who were identified by systematic screening for SARS-CoV-2 upon hospital admission. Our analysis revealed that systematic screening of asymptomatic inpatients detects a low total number of SARS-CoV-2 infections (0.1%), questioning the cost-benefit ratio of this intervention. Even when the population-wide prevalence was low, the proportion of asymptomatic carriers remained stable, supporting the need for universal infection prevention and control strategies to avoid onward transmission by undetected SARS-CoV-2-carriers during the pandemic.
Keywords: journalArticle; Aged; Asymptomatic Infections/*epidemiology; Asymptomatic carriers; COVID-19 Testing/economics/methods; COVID-19/*diagnosis/epidemiology/transmission; Cost-Benefit Analysis; Covid-19; Female; Humans; Male; Mass Screening/economics/methods; Middle Aged; SARS-CoV-2; SARS-CoV-2/*isolation & purification; Screening; Switzerland/epidemiology