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“I am coughing, I am stabbed in the lungs, my throat is scratched, I have a fever, I was tested for a crown and I am negative. How is that possible?” You can hear a story like this more and more often. Is the tests unreliable or is it simply that not all colds are a sign that you have Covid-19?
Epidemiologist Dr. Predrag Kon said that around 20 percent of Serbian citizens were infected with the crown and that there was no confirmation of that in any of the tests. Many had mild symptoms, some had no symptoms and a good portion of them had the virus on their feet.
– If 6,000 cases are confirmed in a day, it means that ten times more of them were infected that day, without even knowing it or without having confirmation that they are infected – Dr. Kon explained.
The Prof. specialist in infectious diseases also spoke about asymptomatic cases. Dr. Dragan Delic.
– The existence of asymptomatic cases is generally good, because whoever passes the asymptomatic form remains immune, and finds out that they were sick only when they are tested and protected from calls. Body IgG against a specific virus. In this way, it increases herd immunity – explains Delic.
He says that the virus is released two to three days before symptoms start, while the day before symptoms appear, the highest concentration of the virus is.
– Then, over the next seven to ten days, the concentration of the virus in the secretion drops, which means that a person pulls the virus for up to 12 or 13 days, which is a long period and a very unfavorable fact from the point of view of view of the spread of the virus – concludes Delic.
However, Emina Milošević, assistant professor of immunology at the Belgrade Faculty of Medicine, points out to Nova.rs that not all tests are equally reliable and that it is possible for someone to become infected with the corona, but the test does not confirm this. According to her, the PCR test is the gold standard for coronavirus diagnosis and there is no better method than this test.
– According to the guidelines of the World Health Organization, antigen tests are used only when the patient is expected to be positive, in patients with symptoms of the disease in the first five to seven days, as well as if no a PCR test – states.
PCR, he explains, detects the genetic material of the virus, while antigen tests detect the proteins of the virus. PCR has the ability to detect less virus in a sample than an antigen test can.
The sensitivity of all antigen tests is compared to PCR and it is recommended to use only those with a sensitivity greater than 80 percent.
On the other hand, our renowned virologist Ana Gligić says that the corona virus mutates and that the symptoms in people infected by it change.
– The problem is the mutations present in all viruses, but it has been shown that coronaviruses have a specific rapid mutation, because we already have mutants in the strain that appeared and now we have an even more intense form of the virus – says Dr. Ana Gligić.
An antigen test is not a definitive confirmation
The use of antigen testing is not recommended in circumstances where the proportion of positive individuals is small, such as when crossing the border or admitting patients without covidity to hospital treatment.
– A negative antigen test can in no way be considered a final confirmation that the infection is not present, because it is possible that the antigen test is negative and the PCR is positive, and that means that the virus is present – notes Dr. Milosevic.
Virus reproduction rate: six people
What worries the corona virus, according to Dr. Delic, is the so-called reproduction rate, which in this virus is one to six.
– This means that an infected person can transmit the virus to six people. At first, there was a story that there were about two, possibly three, and now the data says that it is up to six people, explains infectologist Delic.
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