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Hadeel Farfour wrote in “Al Akhbar”:
Sometimes, in “cold” cases, and in order to “buy time” and test so that the greatest number of people detect their infection with the coronavirus, three to five samples are collected and examined together. If the result is negative, the owners of the sample are considered healthy. In case of positive, the samples are reclassified and retested separately.
In principle, this technique (pooling) is used when conducting a large survey of large populations in which the infection rate is small. However, it is not entirely suitable in cases of generalized epidemic, as is the case in Lebanon today. However, what is happening on the ground goes beyond the issue of the effectiveness of this technology, to a dangerous stage represented by the practices of some laboratories, in the absence of strict control over their work in the face of health chaos.
According to information from “Al-Akhbar”, several laboratories “mix” a series of samples (sometimes exceeding five) in a single examination “to save costs and offer competitive prices to airlines and travel agencies.” Workers in various laboratories accredited to perform PCR tests confirm that some compact specimens that test positive inform all their owners that they are infected with the virus, to avoid retesting each specimen separately and identifying the infected specimen, in order to to save costs too!
In practice, this means that the number of reported victims per day may not be exact, a “charge” that has accompanied the numbers since the epidemic situation worsened.
The most dangerous, according to sources who work in the laboratories, is that one of the disadvantages of integrating samples is that if the owner of one of the samples was slightly infected, “it may not appear in the final result”, which means that some may be infected and report otherwise! This is confirmed to “Al-Akhbar”, owner of a travel agency who was organizing travel transactions for several Sudanese workers, and the laboratory informed him that two out of 10 lesions were positive “but it is difficult to know the identity of the owners »!
The adviser to the Minister of Health, Dr. Edmond Abboud, explained to “Al-Akhbar” that the ministry allowed pooling at the airport and at the borders “within certain controls and standards”, noting that this technology is internationally approved since it is applied to the population less vulnerable to the virus, and “but with the high rate of infections, it is not effective again”. The head of the Laboratory Owners Union, Myrna Germanus, confirmed, in contact with “Al-Akhbar”, that the union “will monitor the authorized laboratories and guarantee the correct performance of their performance”, indicating that the pooling is not considered “Cost effective” in the current circumstances with the high injury rate “This is because a positive result from any of the sample owners will require the laboratory owner to repeat the tests.”
Here is the essence of the debate, since the bet here is on the “conscience” of the laboratory owner who decides either to count the samples and perform the tests, or to include those who are not infected with the result of other samples.
Many questions arise here, the most prominent of which is: if this technology is losing its usefulness in cases of local epidemic spread, then why is it still used in some laboratories and not limited to its application at the airport? What are the control mechanisms established for conducting examinations, the daily number of which sometimes exceeds 9,000 laboratory tests? More importantly, if the epidemiological reality requires renewal of the tests for infected people, are the positive results recalculated each time? The ministry generally relies on lab statistics, so can their numbers be trusted if some of them take advantage of the lack of supervision and avoid retesting?
Again, the goal is not to question the ministry’s figures, but rather is related to sounding the alarm for dangerous data, especially if epidemiological reality requires precision.
Yesterday, the Ministry of Health announced the registration of 547 injured (544 residents and 3 expatriates), seven of them in the health sector (the total number of injured in the sector reached 778 people), and the number of actual injuries amounted to 16,390 people. Of these, 426 people are hospitalized, 109 of them in intensive care. The Ministry also announced the registration of five new deaths, bringing the number to 246.
As for recovery, the accountant registers high daily figures, with 431 people healing in one day, according to figures from the Ministry.
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