[ad_1]
Coronavirus testing in Hungary is running at high capacity, with designated labs often testing samples late at night, but more and more patients are complaining that they have to wait long days for their results. A rural GP told hvg.hu that he had a patient who had been waiting for his result for more than five days. Anyone who spends their slow days in quarantine, rather than having to return to work with a negative result, is impatient.
However, we also know of an epidemic hospital where samples sent in the morning are tested in the evening, meaning that no more than 24 hours are needed to establish infection.
Despite the epidemic since spring, things are still not going well, so, due to the overcrowding of ambulances, public laboratories or the administration, it is difficult to disperse, and if it is up to the public authorities, it will not be more clear. Image: Since March, our newspaper has been trying to find out with the government how many tests they can take in the country per day and what prevents them from doing so, but so far we have never received an appreciable response. When the negative PCR test became a condition for outpatient care in May, the Ministry of Human Resources assured us that the capacity of the laboratories designated by the National Center for Public Health exceeded the expected load, to which the Chief Medical Officer Cecília Müller added that they know.
We do not know if the capacity of the laboratory has been expanded since then, in any case, the National Center for Public Health announced on Tuesday night (to the MTI) that, according to the instructions of the National Chief Medical Officer on Tuesday
increase capacity to test for coronavirus.
This is due to the increased demand for coronavirus tests in the last 24 hours. Pursuant to the decision of the National Medical Director, he designated all licensed and publicly funded motor vehicles of licensed health care providers as patient transporters and also involved them in transporting samples taken for PCR testing. The task is coordinated by the National Ambulance Service (OMSZ), but it is not about the capacity of the laboratory, so it is not possible to know if this will really mean more tests in the near future.
At the beginning of May, not only the number of registered infections, but also the number of samples taken was lower than today. Just one example: on the day of publication of our aforementioned article, that is, May 5, a total of 1,599 tests were carried out in the country and 30 new infections were found. A few weeks later, the coronavirus information page reported 5,000 daily tests, with the highest value on May 22, when 8,290 samples arrived in laboratories (it should be noted that only 37 of these tested positive).
By comparison, the number of registered coronavirus infections in Hungary has increased dramatically in the last two weeks. The record so far was recorded on September 7, when 576 positive cases were found, a nearly ten-fold increase compared to the May average. Assuming how many potential contacts that many people would have had, the number of samples should have increased significantly, but this was not the case. There is some increase, of course, but by no means to the expected extent: in the first week of September, the number of daily tests was around 6-7,000. The exception was only reported on September 7, when 11,424 samples were sent to the labs.
Compared to May, a significant change is that many tests in Hungary are not carried out due to a suspected infection, but due to the border closure introduced on September 1. If someone comes home from a foreign country, they can only activate a two-week quarantine if they can present two negative PCR test results, performed within two days. Many also want to be tested because it has been discovered that they are infected with a coronavirus in their environment, but they are not in close contact, so they turn to private laboratories.
How much is that?
It’s no wonder that in recent weeks not only laboratories but also ambulances have reported brutal workloads. HE World economy According to his information, last week it was not uncommon for rescue units taking samples to go to 25 addresses in one day, and they were even assigned to work in Budapest from a distance of 100 km. Therefore, it is almost impossible to prove suspected cases in 24 hours. This was also reported to hvg.hu by the mother whose son had a fever for the first time, but when the ambulance arrived, the asymptomatic father had already been found to be infected.
Meanwhile, more and more experts are talking about the fact that if we want to successfully fight the second wave of the coronavirus, we have to change our strategy and try more. Beatrix from Russia, a lead epidemiologist at the Ministry of Innovation and Technology, directly suggested at a conference that the number of free trials should be increased, as many foreign countries are doing. Béla Merkely, Rector of Semmelweis University, is InfoRadio And on his Arena show, he talked about rethinking the state assessment for high-risk people, including teachers.
However, there is a big problem with this: although it would be vital to test as many people as possible, there is officially no information on exactly how much testing capacity is available in Hungary. We also asked the Ministry of Human Resources and Operational Personnel about the data, from whom we also wanted to know what explains the aforementioned delays, but we did not receive a response until our article was published.
On the other hand, we know that in Hungary, under current conditions, NNK-accredited laboratories can perform between 10 and 11 thousand PCR tests daily. This also means that the system was likely completed on September 7, as evidenced by the fact that the number has not been higher since then.
According to the experts interviewed for our work, although it would not happen overnight, this capacity could be expanded even further, either by expanding existing laboratories or creating new ones. The necessary materials are also available, so far there is no problem in their supply. Ferenc Falus, a former national medical director, told hvg.hu: There are still many laboratories that can participate in the tests, such as the appropriate institutions of the National Office for Food Chain Safety.
They go safe
According to the table on the NNK website, PCR testing can currently be performed at 154 locations across the country (free of charge in the state, the price is around HUF 30,000 on private roads), but the number The number of laboratories that analyze samples is significantly less: 5 largest accredited private laboratories work day and night with a bit of hype.
In the central laboratory of Synlab Kft., For example, around 1500-2000 PCR tests are carried out daily, the capacity has tripled in recent months – Tamás Póda, commercial and marketing director of the company, told hvg. hu.
As he said, epidemiology has never been unknown to the company, which is why they have been able to perform the necessary PCR tests from day zero of the coronavirus epidemic. As one of the fund institutions of the National Center for Public Health, they did not even admit private patients for months, they helped the state care system to their full capacity. At present, their territorial supply obligation extends to Budapest and some nearby counties, from where the samples arrive.
The time it takes to complete and evaluate a test depends on many factors, and Synlab currently has a 48 hour window. Of course, this can be less or more, but according to Tamás Póda, he was able to count with both hands how many times he has left the 60,000 tests carried out so far.
In your case, the time frame of two days is necessary because after performing a PCR test, the incoming sample is administered first, then separated by human labor, then sent to the isolation robot, and then to the PCR device. This gives the first result, which can be negative, positive, inconsistent (that is, not clear), or invalid; the latter occurs if the patient did not follow instructions, such as eating, drinking, sucking candy within four hours prior to sampling, used an anti-allergy nasal spray or smoked a cigarette, possibly damaging the material during shipment and therefore not you can conduct an investigation.
The total processing time for a sample can take four to six hours, after which the results even need to be validated, otherwise, by specialists in microbiology. In the case of a non-negative result, the sample is weighed several times to ensure its reliability. Thus, despite the fact that most findings are delivered within 24 hours, it is necessary to maintain the 48 hour period due to the high quality of the repetitions and inspections.
Tamás Póda listed as one of the difficulties that the laboratory’s workload is not constant, there may be a day when an extraordinary number of samples arrive. In this case, there may be small deviations due to the laboratory schedule already done, but this is very rare, much more common that staff voluntarily come to work to do everything on time.
By the way, Synlab has 900 employees in Hungary, currently 60-100 people work with coronavirus PCR tests on a rotary system. Networking allows other microbiological samples to be sent to the field if the load is high in the center, which can also be processed by regional laboratories.
But do I need so much proof?
According to the latest epidemiological procedure available on the NNK website, only those showing symptoms should be tested, this is also the procedure for contacts, they should be quarantined for 14 days. This, in turn, is causing increasing confusion not only in the workplace but also in schools, as entire classes can drop out of education for weeks. For this reason, the procedure has recently been modified so that the closure of close contacts can be triggered by two negative tests, but the government still does not consider the massive tests justified, the Secretary of State for Education, Zoltán Maruzsa, recently told our newspaper.
Tamás Póda also emphasized that although PCR is currently the best measurement method to determine infectivity, it should not be forgotten that it is a complicated process and therefore not suitable for screening the entire population. “It’s not like a simple blood sugar test,” he said.
Also, if a lot of people want to do it, the system really gets overloaded and it takes a lot longer to evaluate the samples. Not to mention, the PCR test only takes a snapshot of our body’s current state, so we can get on a bus and catch the virus after the test. The cost of the PCR test is also high, since the tests are carried out on special high-value machines with expensive reagents, which have to be imported from abroad, and human resources are also required. According to Tamás Póda, therefore, the most important part of protecting against the virus continues to be thinking responsibly, wearing a mask and following the regulations, because with this we can minimize the risk and hotspots are not so easily formed.
[ad_2]
