Author Interviews, COVID -19 Coronavirus, JAMA / 03.08.2022
Study Evaluates Risk of Transmission with Negative Home Test after Covid
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Lisa A. Cosimi, MD
Division of Infectious Diseases
Brigham and Women’s Hospital
Boston, Massachusetts
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?
Response: Response: Current CDC COVID-19 isolation guidance allows for ending isolation after day 5 for non-immunocompromised individuals if they are afebrile and with improving symptoms, or if the individual is asymptomatic from the start. It has been proposed that rapid antigen tests (RATs) may assist in determining when individuals are no longer infectious. Specifically, a negative test would be potentially reassuring for an individual not being transmissible, while a positive test could be suggestive of continued infectiousness. However, there is little data about use of RATs in this particular setting and how they may correlate with ongoing risk of transmission as they were developed to be used during the initial diagnosis of infection, not in the later phase.
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