Lassa virus (LASV) is the causative agent of Lassa fever (LF), an often-fatal hemorrhagic disease. LF is endemic in Nigeria, Sierra Leone and other West African countries. Diagnosis of LASV infection is challenged by the genetic diversity of the virus, which is greatest in Nigeria. The ReLASV Pan-Lassa Antigen Rapid Test (Pan-Lassa RDT) is a point-of-care, in vitro diagnostic test that utilizes a mixture of polyclonal antibodies raised against recombinant nucleoproteins of representative strains from the three most prevalent LASV lineages (II, III and IV). We compared the performance of the Pan-LASV RDT to available quantitative PCR (qPCR) assays during the 2018 LF outbreak in Nigeria. For patients with acute LF (RDT positive, IgG/IgM negative) during initial screening, RDT performance was 83.3% sensitivity and 92.8% specificity when compared to composite results of two qPCR assays. 100% of samples that gave Ct values below 22 on both qPCR assays were positive on the Pan-Lassa RDT. There were significantly elevated case fatality rates and elevated liver transaminase levels in subjects whose samples were RDT positive compared to RDT negative.

拉沙病毒（LASV）是拉沙热（LF）的病原体，拉沙热是一种经常致命的出血性疾病。 LF 在尼日利亚、塞拉利昂和其他西非国家流行。 LASV 感染的诊断受到病毒遗传多样性的挑战，这种多样性在尼日利亚最为突出。 ReLASV 泛拉沙病毒抗原快速测试 (Pan-Lassa RDT) 是一种即时体外诊断测试，利用针对来自三种最流行的 LASV 谱系（II、三和四）。我们将 Pan-LASV RDT 的性能与 2018 年尼日利亚 LF 疫情期间可用的定量 PCR (qPCR) 检测进行了比较。对于初始筛查期间的急性 LF 患者（RDT 阳性，IgG/IgM 阴性），与两种 qPCR 检测的综合结果相比，RDT 的敏感性为 83.3%，特异性为 92.8%。两种 qPCR 检测中 Ct 值低于 22 的样品 100% 在 Pan-Lassa RDT 中呈阳性。与 RDT 阴性样本相比，RDT 样本样本呈阳性的受试者的病死率和肝转氨酶水平显着升高。