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My sister first tested Covid positive 19 days ago and first showed symptoms 21 days ago. She had mild symptoms for the first week, but has been symptom free for two weeks. I have been testing her with two different brands of rapid antigen tests almost daily for the last 10 days, and every single test shows a positive result. The line is very dark and appears within 30 seconds, so it's not like it's a faint line. I have tested myself with the same tests, and I am clearly negative (no test line whatsoever), so I don't think I'm doing anything wrong.
Our mother is very ill, and the nursing home requires a negative test before my sister can visit her. Her PCP suggested she go to urgent care to take a rapid antigen test and/or a PCR test. Are the antigen tests provided by clinics any more accurate than the home tests? Should she get a PCR test? What are the chances a PCR test would show a negative result when an antigen test shows positive? I have heard the PCR tests are MORE sensitive than the antigen tests and more likely to give a false positive.
Last edited by la_cavalière; 09-13-2022 at 08:54 PM..
My sister first tested Covid positive 19 days ago and first showed symptoms 21 days ago. She had mild symptoms for the first week, but has been symptom free for two weeks. I have been testing her with two different brands of rapid antigen tests almost daily for the last 10 days, and every single test shows a positive result. The line is very dark and appears within 30 seconds, so it's not like it's a faint line. I have tested myself with the same tests, and I am clearly negative (no test line whatsoever), so I don't think I'm doing anything wrong.
Our mother is very ill, and the nursing home requires a negative test before my sister can visit her. Her PCP suggested she go to urgent care to take a rapid antigen test and/or a PCR test. Are the antigen tests provided by clinics any more accurate than the home tests? Should she get a PCR test? What are the chances a PCR test would show a negative result when an antigen test shows positive? I have heard the PCR tests are MORE sensitive than the antigen tests and more likely to give a false positive.
CDC says people can test positive for 3 or more months, it doesn't mean she's contagious.
The nursing home should know this by now. It's not new information.
On August 3, 2020, CDC updated its isolation guidance based on the latest science about COVID-19 showing that people can continue to test positive for up to 3 months after diagnosis and not be infectious to others. Contrary to media reporting today, this science does not imply a person is immune to reinfection with SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, in the 3 months following infection. The latest data simply suggests that retesting someone in the 3 months following initial infection is not necessary unless that person is exhibiting the symptoms of COVID-19 and the symptoms cannot be associated with another illness.
That was written in 2020 when there was no direct antigen testing and applied to the PCR testing.
The antigen testing interpretation with regards to isolation practices has been implied to be useful but has not been studied fully and so at this point it is inconclusive with regards to using it for isolation purposes. Some people are and some people aren't infectious with positive antigen testing. Those that were symptomatic during infection tend to test positive longer compared to asymptomatic infections in general.
The problem with the test is the same problem with everything else when it comes to this virus and that is each mutant contains its own unique set of facts. Studies take time and we are always behind.
So would an antigen test given by an urgent care clinic be more accurate than an at-home antigen test? Should she get a PCR test? We are desperate for a negative test so that she can see my mother. I need to go home to California in two days, and we have no other family members to visit her. The nursing facility is adamant about the negative test requirement.
It seems that accuracy isn't really what you need, what you need is a negative test that is hopefully reflective of her infectiousness. Therefore unless cost is prohibitive, it seems like you have little choice but go go for it and see what happens.
So would an antigen test given by an urgent care clinic be more accurate than an at-home antigen test? Should she get a PCR test? We are desperate for a negative test so that she can see my mother. I need to go home to California in two days, and we have no other family members to visit her. The nursing facility is adamant about the negative test requirement.
You can try it although PCR tests are more sensitive than antigen tests one can try to use other manufacturers to get rid of false positives unique to your sister. I know that you obtained negative results with that same kit but sometimes the false positive is person specific and one is encouraged to try to use other manufacturers to try and get rid of the false positive if it is a false positive.
PCR tests and antigen tests are not tests for the viability of the organism's ability to transmit. Only live cultures can detect a viable virus. So even if you do both antigen tests and PCR tests it doesn't mean they are transmissible. Unfortunately that is what many places use to denote active infection. What defines active is the clincal symptoms a person has in addition to the tests.
The tests were designed to detect people with symptoms or asymptomatic individuals for isolation purposes so they couldn't spread the virus. They weren't designed to determine how long to isolate. Those anwers were derived using culture studies and people tried to correlate then with PCR and antigen studies. Problems came up almost immediately. It's a new virus and we were forced to see things in a different light with regards to such testing. We never tried to use PCR testing or antigen testing to monitor infectivity. There was no proof of cure regiments or protocols for any previous infectious disease and PCR testing was discouraged. There were always used in the past with other organisms for diagnostic tools. Once diagnosed the disease course followed a scripted historical pattern and we never needed it to determine infectivity. For that we always relied on cultures if needed. Early on if not now viral cultures are the gold standard for proof of possible infectivity. I say possible infectivity because viral load or infective dose comes into play also.
So would an antigen test given by an urgent care clinic be more accurate than an at-home antigen test? Should she get a PCR test? We are desperate for a negative test so that she can see my mother. I need to go home to California in two days, and we have no other family members to visit her. The nursing facility is adamant about the negative test requirement.
I can only share with you what happened to me.
I barely tested positive the 11th day after first testing positive. Very faint line on the home test made by Abbott. It's called Binaxnow. My boss wanted me back at work so that same day, I went to a drive thru place just so I could get a piece of paper. Well it came out negative. I am sure they were using the same type of test but since they test many people they do not take the time to swab as good as I did at home. It came out negative and I went back to work that same day. I never really did have any symptoms. First day only, I coughed a few times. Prior to that, I had diarrhea for three days but came out negative when I did test. No fever to speak of. Go somewhere else and test, it will likely come up negative. Most take insurance.
Take the test, don't put the swab all the way up your nose = negative test. Though test kits are riddled with errors anyway.
The whole Covid thing is a shambled idiotic mess based on fear and profit.
Without going into some political discussion, I agree with this. I will say this, to me, it didn't impress me as some deadly disease. It was a very mild cold and I mean very mild.
Problem is, a home test by itself may not satisfy the nursing home. Too easy to fake. There are testing places and pharmacies that test that will make it at least seem more "official".
Without going into some political discussion, I agree with this. I will say this, to me, it didn't impress me as some deadly disease. It was a very mild cold and I mean very mild.
Problem is, a home test by itself may not satisfy the nursing home. Too easy to fake. There are testing places and pharmacies that test that will make it at least seem more "official".
What exactly do you agree with? A person taking a swab and rubbing it on the tip of the nose in order to take a home test that they then run and turns out negative? Why not just not touch anything and run the test if you want to get a negative test?
The doctor is implying that they be tested in order to provide official results to the nursing home. The people doing the testing are not going to be faking tests.
As to the context here that is missing and that being a mother who is very ill in a nursing home is not comparable to having a mild cold, very mild cold.
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