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After the controversy generated last week by the guardianship ruling that revived the requirement of the PCR test for travelers arriving in the country, a committee of more than 200 experts representing 62 scientific societies, 10 universities and 14 IPS gave its concept on the subject.
In an official statement, the Colombian Association of Infectology (Acin) and the Colombian consensus on care, diagnosis and management of covid-19 infection indicates after reviewing the scientific evidence that this requirement is not recommended to enter Colombia.
“It is recommended not to require the performance of the PCR test for Sars-CoV-2 virus prior to entering Colombia”, they affirm.
(Read: Judge who revived PCR tests on travelers will meet with Minsalud)
“In the first instance, it is found that the sensitivity of this test in asymptomatic people is on average 44 percent. In such a way that it is impossible to rule out the presence of infection in asymptomatic people with a negative result. Additionally, there is no universal standardized technique that allows ensuring the reliability of the sampling process in different countries and its final result “, they expose.
On the other hand, they explain that there is a very high risk of falsely negative results of this diagnostic test, since an infected person may have a negative test result and thus generate a wrong sense of security, accompanied by a decrease in the compliance with the measures that have been shown to be effective in preventing the transmission of the virus, generating a greater risk of contagion through close contacts.
“The implementation of surveillance systems for PCR results at the airport creates technical language barriers and social of the people in charge of reading them, who ideally should be professionals with knowledge in laboratory or medicine, generating access difficulties, with a very high risk of agglomerations within the airport services ”, they add.
(Also: The legal debate for a ruling that orders PCR tests for travelers)
Additionally, to date, the variability between the viruses that circulate in different parts of the world has not been shown to be significant, which reduces the risk of the reintroduction of a virus with different epidemiological or clinical implications, the experts conclude.
Another issue that the specialists discussed and that also has to do with the guardianship that revived the tests is the mandatory 14-day quarantine for each of the passengers.
In the opinion of infectologists and other specialists, “It was found that Colombia is one of the countries with local circulation of the virus. In such a way that, the implementation of quarantine to people arriving from other countries, who do not present symptoms, does not provide any particular benefit in the prevention of the transmission of the virus. Quarantine is recommended exclusively when the individual has been in close contact with people known to carry the Sars-CoV-2 virus in a symptomatic or asymptomatic way ”.
(In context: ‘There will be no contempt, but it will be impossible to comply,’ says Minsalud)
Finally, they insist on the importance of maintaining measures that have proven to be useful against the virus, such as hand washing, social distance, the constant use of masks and avoiding crowds.
It is worth remembering that the guardianship was contested last week by the Ministry of Health and the results of this procedure are awaited. Meanwhile, currently the test is still not required to enter Colombia.
HEALTH UNIT
