@Article{info:doi/10.2196/32848,
author="Soto, Raymond
and Paul, Litty
and Porucznik, Christina A
and Xie, Heng
and Stinnett, Rita Czako
and Briggs, Benjamin
and Biggerstaff, Matthew
and Stanford, Joseph
and Schlaberg, Robert",
title="Effectiveness of Self-Collected, Ambient Temperature--Preserved Nasal Swabs Compared to Samples Collected by Trained Staff for Genotyping of Respiratory Viruses by Shotgun RNA Sequencing: Comparative Study",
journal="JMIR Form Res",
year="2023",
month="Nov",
day="24",
volume="7",
pages="e32848",
keywords="genotyping; self-collected nasal swabs; RNA sequencing; respiratory virus surveillance; surveillance; respiratory virus; influenza virus; pandemic; preparedness; testing capacity; self-test; viral genome analysis; swabs; barriers; early detection; nasal swab; temperature; public health; specimen; collection; diagnosis; laboratory; respiratory; virus; COVID-19",
abstract="Background: The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic has underscored the need for field specimen collection and transport to diagnostic and public health laboratories. Self-collected nasal swabs transported without dependency on a cold chain have the potential to remove critical barriers to testing, expand testing capacity, and reduce opportunities for exposure of health professionals in the context of a pandemic. Objective: We compared nasal swab collection by study participants from themselves and their children at home to collection by trained research staff. Methods: Each adult participant collected 1 nasal swab, sampling both nares with the single swab, after which they collected 1 nasal swab from 1 child. After all the participant samples were collected for the household, the research staff member collected a separate single duplicate sample from each individual. Immediately after the sample collection, the adult participants completed a questionnaire about the acceptability of the sampling procedures. Swabs were placed in temperature-stable preservative and respiratory viruses were detected by shotgun RNA sequencing, enabling viral genome analysis. Results: In total, 21 households participated in the study, each with 1 adult and 1 child, yielding 42 individuals with paired samples. Study participants reported that self-collection was acceptable. Agreement between identified respiratory viruses in both swabs by RNA sequencing demonstrated that adequate collection technique was achieved by brief instructions. Conclusions: Our results support the feasibility of a scalable and convenient means for the identification of respiratory viruses and implementation in pandemic preparedness for novel respiratory pathogens. ",
issn="2561-326X",
doi="10.2196/32848",
url="https://formative.jmir.org/2023/1/e32848",
url="https://doi.org/10.2196/32848",
url="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37999952"
}