Journal article
Experience With Pretravel Testing for SARS-CoV-2 at an Academic Medical Center
Academic pathology, Vol.8, pp.23742895211010247-23742895211010247
04/01/2021
DOI: 10.1177/23742895211010247
PMCID: PMC8110896
PMID: 33997275
Abstract
International travel has been a significant factor in the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic. Many countries and airlines have implemented travel restrictions to limit the spread of the causative agent, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2. A common requirement has been a negative reverse-transcriptase polymerase chain reaction performed by a clinical laboratory within 48 to 72 hours of departure. A more recent travel mandate for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 immunoglobulin M serology testing was instituted by the Chinese government on October 29, 2020. Pretravel testing for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 raises complications in terms of cost, turnaround time, and follow-up of positive results. In this report, we describe the experience of a multidisciplinary collaboration to develop a workflow for pretravel severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 reverse-transcriptase polymerase chain reaction and immunoglobulin M serology testing at an academic medical center. The workflow primarily involved self-payment by patients and preferred retrieval of results by the patient through the electronic health record patient portal (Epic MyChart). A total of 556 unique patients underwent pretravel reverse-transcriptase polymerase chain reaction testing, with 13 (2.4%) having one or more positive results, a rate similar to that for reverse-transcriptase polymerase chain reaction testing performed for other protocol-driven asymptomatic screening (eg, inpatient admissions, preprocedural) at our medical center. For 5 of 13 reverse-transcriptase polymerase chain reaction positive samples, the traveler had clinical history, prior reverse-transcriptase polymerase chain reaction positive, and high cycle thresholds values on pretravel testing consistent with remote infection and minimal transmission risk. Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 immunoglobulin M was performed on only 24 patients but resulted in 2 likely false positives. Overall, our experience at an academic medical center shows the challenge with pretravel severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 testing.
Details
- Title: Subtitle
- Experience With Pretravel Testing for SARS-CoV-2 at an Academic Medical Center
- Creators
- Katherine L Imborek - Department of Family Medicine, , IA, USAMatthew D Krasowski - Department of Pathology, , IA, USAPaul Natvig - Division of Student Life, Student Health, University of Iowa, IA, USAAnna E Merrill - Department of Pathology, , IA, USADaniel J Diekema - Division of Infectious Diseases, Department of Internal Medicine, , IA, USABradley A Ford - Department of Pathology, , IA, USA
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Publication Details
- Academic pathology, Vol.8, pp.23742895211010247-23742895211010247
- DOI
- 10.1177/23742895211010247
- PMID
- 33997275
- PMCID
- PMC8110896
- NLM abbreviation
- Acad Pathol
- ISSN
- 2374-2895
- eISSN
- 2374-2895
- Publisher
- SAGE Publishing
- Language
- English
- Date published
- 04/01/2021
- Academic Unit
- Infectious Diseases; Pathology; Family and Community Medicine; Injury Prevention Research Center; Internal Medicine
- Record Identifier
- 9984077375202771
Metrics
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