The nasal swab is now open to the youngest.
The High Authority for Health (HAS) reveals, in a press release, that antigenic tests and self-tests can now be carried out by children under the age of fifteen.
"Antigenic tests on a nasal sample appear relevant for breaking chains of contamination, especially in schools," writes the HAS.
One less thorn in the side of the government, which will be able to use this new decision to support the reopening of schools, which began on Monday.
"The lack of studies in children had led the HAS to limit (the use of antigenic tests and self-tests) to over 15s," recalls the High Authority for Health in its press release. "A meta-analysis shows encouraging results in children, which now makes it possible to extend the indications and to consider the use of antigenic tests on nasal swabs in schools", now explains the HAS.
Concretely, the High Authority of Health looked at the effectiveness of these tests on the youngest.
"The result is excellent specificity, of the order of 99% or 100%", concludes the HAS.
And the institution to recall, as it had already observed, "that there is, on the other hand, a strong heterogeneity of sensitivity performances".
The test works at 81% in symptomatic patients, and between 50 and 58% in asymptomatic patients, "acceptable performance in the context of targeted iterative screening".
Tests in schools
The Haute Autorité de santé therefore recommends the use of these tests in schools, recommending "the establishment of iterative large-scale screening by antigenic nasal self-tests in nursery and primary schools, colleges, high schools and universities, both among students, teachers and staff in contact with students ”.
The government has conditioned the reopening of schools on a campaign of height tests in schools. In nursery and primary schools, 400,000 saliva tests should be deployed, with a target of 600,000 per week by mid-May. The government had also ordered 64 million self-tests, by nasal swab, for students, teachers and other staff of the National Education. Thursday, during his press conference, Jean Castex announced the upcoming opinion of the High Authority of Health to be able to use them with younger children, until then limited to saliva tests.