Loop-Mediated Isothermal Amplification for Diagnosing SARS-CoV-2 Infection in Two School Children and a Neonate

Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has spread worldwide and become a major public health problem. Although real-time reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) is the gold standard for diagnosing coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and there are many reports discussing it, reports about loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP) tests for SARS-CoV-2, especially in children, are limited. In this study, we present the results of LAMP test in three children with COVID-19 in a family cluster, and assess these results. The LAMP test results of these children showed a sensitivity and specificity of 63.6% and 100%, respectively, and that was comparable to the RT-PCR results. The results of both LAMP test and RT-PCR test using nasopharyngeal swab (NPS) were almost consistently similar in two school children throughout hospitalization except at the very early stages of infection. The preliminary results suggest that saliva samples would be less sensitive than NPS for LAMP testing in the late stages of infection, and that LAMP test would not provide accurate results in neonates.