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When it comes to fighting the new coronavirus, more and more states in India are opting for “rapid tests” instead of traditional swab-based procedures, despite controversy surrounding their effectiveness, to dramatically increase the rate Of the tests. and evaluate more people with fewer symptoms.
This after South Korea, which topped the global coronavirus charts in early February, managed to avoid a national blockade and set a model for other states by aggressively moving to contain the pandemic through a test strategy. massive fast, among several other measures.
Representative image. Fake images
The 500,000 kits, which arrived in New Delhi on Thursday morning, will be used to screen people with fever, cough, and shortness of breath in 325 districts that are not currently affected by the coronavirus, beginning with those in states with a high number of COVID-19 cases, an official said Hindustan Times.
The calibrated approach is on the way
India, outside the coronavirus outbreak, took a “calibrated” approach to testing, with only symptomatic quarantined individuals, health workers, and contacts of positive cases tested. As of today, only 85,000 people have been assessed across India, even as Kerala, Delhi, Maharashtra, and Tamil Nadu, among other states, have been pressing the Center to adopt the “Korean model” in recent weeks.
In fact, it was Kerala, which has done remarkable work in fighting the coronavirus, the first to implement rapid tests in early April after receiving approval from the Indian Council for Medical Research (ICMR) on March 30.
Kerala, which has a strong health system and instituted a number of other measures, including contact tracing and cooked meals, has seen only 395 cases and only three deaths, ranking it tenth in terms of the number of cases in all the states of India. .
Compare Kerala’s success to Maharashtra, which has 3,205 positive cases and 194 deaths, and has seen an explosion of coronavirus cases in recent weeks, and whose officials admit that their fight against the disease “started badly.”
“Unlike Kerala, we started testing late,” said an official. Economic times. Kerala began testing in January at its airports and aggressively practiced domestic quarantine even for those who came from countries in the Middle East, even before the Gulf countries were not included in the initial list of countries needing mandatory quarantine. ” .
While Maharashtra is ready to implement rapid tests after the Center’s approval, the BMC complicates matters with its decision to selectively screen only high-risk asymptomatic individuals (i.e. close contacts of positive cases), according to a report in Yahoo News.
The BMC test criteria differ from the ICMR guidelines which state that all high-risk asymptomatic contacts, such as family members, between the 5th and 14th day of suspected exposure, must now be tested.
The Karnataka government’s COVID-19 working group decided on Thursday to purchase two additional lakh rapid test kits to identify coronavirus infections in the state more quickly. “Approvals have been given to a company named on the Chinese government’s official list for kit supply and once it arrives, the number of tests will increase further,” said Deputy Chief Minister Ashwath Narayana of the decisions made in the working group meeting, in a statement from his office.
PCR vs rapid tests
India has been using the Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) method to evaluate the coronavirus, which, according to the Indian Council of Medical Research, is infallible and widely used. According to a report in Indian Express, This is done after taking nasal or throat samples from the patient, from which the RNA is extracted and converted into DNA, which is then amplified before verifying confirmation of the virus. The test lasts up to nine hours.
According to a report in Money control, serology tests or rapid test kits are blood tests that track antibodies, created by the immune system to fight disease. The test requires only two drops of blood from a prick to detect a virus and it only takes 15 to 20 minutes to get a result. This test has three distinct advantages over traditional tests: they can be mass produced and are relatively less expensive and easy to administer.
Controversy over efficacy
According to the ICMR, while rapid tests can be a good tool to verify the community transition, it is not a confirmatory test for SARS-CoV-2 that causes coronavirus infection. The guidelines published by the ICMR on March 28 state that these quick kits should only be used for preliminary screening.
“A positive test indicates exposure to SARS-CoV-2. The negative test does not rule out Covid-19 infection, ”according to the guidelines. A subject, after taking the rapid test, must still take the PCR test to obtain confirmation that it is actually negative for the virus.
Evidence purchased, fingers burned
While there are reasons to be optimistic, India must exercise caution. Several countries that rushed to order these quick kits resulted in burned fingers. According to a report in Bloomberg, The UK, after stocking up on more than 4 million fingerstick antibody blood tests available on Amazon and in pharmacies, is now seeking a refund.
Spain, after buying thousands of antigen tests from a Chinese supplier, found that kits often do not detect the disease. The Czech Republic also found that the tests it bought from China are less reliable than stated, while leaders in neighboring Slovakia have criticized the kits, according to the report.
“Until we have independently validated tests, governments should not be in a rush to buy millions of them,” said Rosanna Peeling, director of the International Diagnostic Center at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. Bloomberg
Update date: April 17, 2020 11:30:00 IST
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