Binay cautions against COVID-19 antigen test amid surge as it may miss asymptomatic cases

MANILA (TO UPDATE) – Senator Nancy Binay on Wednesday urged the national government to review its decision to use rapid antigen test kits in an effort to increase testing for COVID-19 one year after the pandemic began.

Despite previous studies showing the unreliability of antigen tests for detecting COVID-19, especially in asymptomatic patients, the Philippine Pandemic Response Task Force previously said it would begin rolling out 30,000 rapid antigen tests by day as new cases of the virus surpassed the 10,000 mark.

“Antigen testing is a successful testing strategy,” Binay said in a tweet.

“The antigen only detects infectivity, not infection. It can only scan high viral loads, but it is not reliable in asymptomatic cases. In short, it can do more harm than good,” he said.

(The antigen only detects infectivity, not infection. It can only scan high viral loads, but it is not reliable in asymptomatic patients. In other words, it can do more harm than good).

Binay noted that the national government would have to spend between P375 million and P750 million to use antigen tests.

“We understand the convenience and the shorter waiting time, but I don’t think it is a wise and practical measure to spend close to a billion pesos on antigen kits,” he said.

“The price of about 1 billion pesos for a consumable quick-fix test is sayang lang (it will be a waste),” he said.

Instead, the government should push the Philippine Red Cross’s COVID-19 saliva testing program, which is more likely to detect the virus, the senator said.

The RT-PCR swab test remains the gold standard in COVID-19 testing.

EXPERTS PASS ANTIGEN TESTS

Meanwhile, some health experts said Wednesday that they favor the use of antigen tests to boost COVID-19 detection amid rising infection.

In an interview on TeleRadyo, infectious disease expert Dr. Rontgene Solante said that the use of antigen tests would speed up the detection and isolation of COVID-positive cases, as it yields faster results compared to the test. with swab.

Antigen tests are cheaper, too, he said.

“This is important to track the contact of those who have been exposed and then our quarantines (of those exposed and in need of quarantine) so that it improves, increases the number of individuals that we can test (we can test) compared to (with) RT -PCR, ”he said.

But he said the antigen kit to be used must have passed Food and Drug Administration standards and have a test sensitivity of more than 80 percent.

Pediatric infectious disease specialist Anna Ong-Lim also agreed with the use of antigen testing, noting that it has long been approved for preliminary screening.

RELATED VIDEO