Performance of a rapid SARS-COV-2 serology test in whole blood and separated plasma

Rapid SARS-COV-2 related serology testing can help identify and manage the spread of infection in decentralized testing environments but the limitation in performance of existing tests in blood has restricted implementation of testing at the point-of-care. Optimization of existing rapid tests in whole blood will require significant effort in the short-term and there is a need for solutions to help bridge the gap in performance between plasma and whole blood. We demonstrate here the implementation of the H.E.R.M.E.S platform, a portable plasma separation system that can enhance the performance of blood-based diagnostic testing, with a commercially available SARS-COV-2 IgG/IgM serology rapid diagnostic test (RDT) in a blinded study with 61 human samples. We compare the performance of the RDT in whole blood and separated plasma and highlight that plasma yields a 39% increase in positivity agreement with PCR in samples collected from patients with early infections. We further legitimize the increase in positivity agreement rate with the help of an independent evaluation by 10 previously untrained users. The H.E.R.M.E.S plasma separation system circumvents the need for assay optimization in whole blood and furthers the legitimacy of incorporating SARS-COV-2 serology RDTs at the point-of-care. The data highlighted in this work makes a compelling case for the incorporation of the H.E.R.M.E.S system in large scale efforts to perform SARS-COV-2 serology testing in decentralized testing environments.

The requirements and challenges of a mobile laboratory for onsite water microbiology assessment

Drinking water of good quality is essential to ensure the health and economical sustainability of human communities worldwide. The assessment of drinking water microbial quality is generally performed by detecting and/or quantifying faecal contamination indicators which may not provide an adequate evaluation of the health risks posed by several waterborne pathogens, for example Norovirus, Vibrio cholerae, and Cryptosporidium. In many instances, decentralized testing done in a mobile or more compact laboratory could increase the speed and capacity of predicting (or determining the source of) waterborne disease outbreaks, while offering unique opportunities to sensitize and train local populations on water and health issues. In this work, we describe the water molecular microbiology programme of the classical and molecular microbiology module of the Atlantis mobile laboratory complex, as well as the scientific, operational and design requirements that served to build a quite unique infrastructure used to study the microbial quality of drinking water in Northern Québec, Bermuda, and the Caribbean islands.