Clinical Evaluation of the PANDAA Lassa Virus RT-PCR Assay in Sierra Leone

The PANDAA Lassa Virus single-reaction RT-PCR assay shows substantial diagnostic agreement with the dual-target RealStar(C) Lassa Virus RT-PCR Kit 2.0 on 79 Sierra Leone serum samples, with overall agreement of 87.34%.

• Why it matters: Lassa fever testing is hard in endemic settings due to LASV genetic diversity and limited lab capacity, and dual-target assays require separate amplification steps that add complexity and reagent use.
• What they did: The study evaluated the PANDAA assay using archived Sierra Leone serum samples, comparing results against the RealStar(C) dual-target kit and calculating percent agreements and Cohen’s kappa.
• The result: PANDAA achieved positive percent agreement of 78.12% and negative percent agreement of 93.62%, with Cohen’s kappa of 0.73, suggesting substantial concordance and motivating further optimization and prospective testing.

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