The upward thrust of the 6th wave has brought about the sale of covid self-diagnostic antigen exams. In November, whilst the epidemic curve commenced to rebound again, extra than 1. three million exams had been bought in pharmacies, 115% extra than the preceding month, in line with facts compiled via way of means of the fitness consultancy, Iqvia. And the shopping for fashion maintains to upward thrust in current weeks: the proximity of the Christmas vacations and the upward thrust of the brand new wave - the occurrence is 442 instances according to 100,000 population at 14 days - keep the trend with those self-diagnostic exams that While they are able to come across fantastic instances, they may be now no longer foolproof. Epidemiologists warn that those exams can deliver fake negatives and warn of the misguided experience of safety that they generate: this check does now no longer exempt from compliance with different measures,
This Is How A Covid-19 Antigen Self-Analysis Check Is Done
Antigen checks were to be had in pharmacies without the want for a prescription considering the fact that ultimate summer. These checks perceive the presence of virus proteins and, in keeping with the Spanish Agency for Medicines and Health Products (AEMPS), there are approximately twenty gadgets at the market. The consulting corporation Iqvia has recorded that, in 2021, 8.7 million checks were distributed in pharmacies, however, income varies together with the epidemic curve. Thus, despite the fact that in July and August, throughout the 5th wave, 1. five and 1. nine million self-prognosis checks had been sold, respectively, in September and October —while the epidemic curve fell and the stream of the virus subsided— income fell to much less than one million a month. Now, with the upward push of the 6th wave, the method of Christmas, and the risk of the omicron variant,
In fact, alongside the traces of the one, the president of the Community of Madrid, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, introduced weeks withinside the past a unfastened take a look at for Every resident "so that in social and social situations, they can perform themselves safely," he said. But the epidemiologists consulted are suspicious of this huge use of this form of taking a look at due to the fact it could lead, they warn, "to a fake experience of security."
Daniel López-Acuña, former Director of Emergencies on the World Health Organization (WHO), recollects that “they do now no longer have the identical specificity [ability of the product to recognize the Absence of the marker connected to the disease] and sensitivity [the competence of the test to detect the presence of this marker] than PCR ”. The professional asks for caution: “We can not promote that its miles a convincing sure or no. And it can not be the excuse for now no longer getting vaccinated, now no longer having the covid certificates so as or exempting us from using a mask, distance, and airflow in corporations of non-cohabitants ”.
Antigen exams aren't foolproof. They can supply fake negatives and fake positives. Not surprisingly, the Alerts Report of the Ministry of Health already talked about the final summer time season that a wonderful in those self-prognosis structures might be taken into consideration a suspicious case and could verify the contamination with every other test. But there may be nobody to display or manipulate the result. Individual obligation rules.
According to the Alert Report, pharmacies will need to deliver clean statistics on the way to continue if the end result is fantastic, however, the very last selection is made via way of means of the user. Some communities, says the General Council of Pharmacists, have deployed a protocol to facilitate the opportunity of registering the check end result from pharmacies, on every occasion the citizen wants. What the Alert Report does suggest is that, if someone exams fantastic in those self-prognosis exams, they'll need to provoke domestic isolation and phone the fitness services (via the channels hooked up of their community) to verify that it is. , effectively, from a coronavirus infection.
The file of the consulting frame of Health additionally warns, on the alternative hand, that "bad effects do now no longer exclude the opportunity of infection." This is what happened, in effect, withinside the huge outbreak of medical examiners in Malaga, wherein all folks that attended the dinner had taken an antigen check and it grew to become out that there have been fake negatives: greater than eighty humans have been infected. Also withinside the 3 song fairs held ultimate June in Catalonia: antigen exams have been completed earlier than entering, however, greater than 2,000 attendees have been infected, in keeping with a take a look at with the aid of using the Government.
So what's a self-diagnostic antigen check for? It is one extra defensive barrier, just like the masks or social distance, insists Óscar Zurriaga, VP of the Spanish Society of Epidemiology. The message is that the size of each one is important: check, and keep everyone else. Basing the entirety on an unmarried degree is a terrible idea, "says the epidemiologist.
In practice, the first-class overall performance of those exams is carried out in symptomatic people, withinside the first 5 or seven days after infection. But the predictive price of the check "relies upon lots at the epidemic state of affairs and the signs," says Salvador Peiró, an epidemiologist on the Foundation for the Promoting the health and biomedical research of the Valencian community (Fabio). "If you've been given signs and symptoms, you check the bait positively, and you are almost really positive. If you've got signs and also you check negative, it's miles greatest which you verify it with a PCR due to the fact this check handiest detects excessive viral hundreds and if it catches you at the start of the infection, withinside the incubation period, it could now no longer discover the viral load ", says the specialist . But things "get very complicated" with asymptomatic people, due to the fact there may be fake positives and negatives. Peiró notes, however,
Doesn't Keep Away From All Risks
However, the epidemiologist from Fisabio insists: “It is a mistake in case you take this degree to update the others. A check regulations out a few risks, however, it does now no longer keep away from them all ”. And it warns that mishandling of those exams lets the virus circulate. "For example, if you are in close contact with each other, the antigen test produces bad results and you no longer isolate yourself. And if you have a touch-up off. yesterday, it'll take 4 days for you to check positive. In the primary 4 or 5 days of incubation, there isn't sufficient viral load for the exams to be positive ”. In addition, there can be troubles while doing the check: the effectiveness of the exams has been confirmed in laboratory settings, however, human beings in your house can do the check wrong, contaminate the pattern or make a mistake withinside the manner and modify the result.
López-Acuña insists that "we need to forestall promoting self-diagnostic exams just like the silver bullet as it does now no longer supply the definitive and forceful answer." And take into account that, further to a skyrocketing prevalence in Spain, “uncertainty with the omicron variation” continues, the brand new lineage of the virus that has positioned the sector on alert and that, consistent with the primary indications, it may be greater transmissible than the variation presently dominant (the delta). Sonia Vizoso (EP).
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