In Liverpool, UK, for example, authorities are examining test-to-protect, test-to-release (from quarantine), and test-to-enable (safer return to restricted activities) regimens, alongside outbreak response and public open access to lateral flow testing. 4 However, repeated lateral flow testing may have value in combination with other measures. 4 Governments are purchasing them in large quantities, with some seeing a single test as a way to free an individual from quarantine obligations, a view not supported by the World Health Organization. They provide a rapid result but are less able to detect infections. Rapid antigen lateral flow tests offer an alternative. It is difficult to achieve this with large scale PCR testing. 1 2 3 Given the importance of presymptomatic or paucisymptomatic transmission, 1 measures that shorten the time between testing and results are essential for minimising onward transmission. In addition, some people who remain asymptomatic have a similar viral load to those who develop symptoms and may also contribute to spread, although the extent of this is unclear.
Rapid covid testing driver#
A further problem is that people may transmit infection before recognising symptoms 1-a key driver of spread. However, several days can elapse between requesting a test and getting and acting on a result, leaving a window in which infection may spread. Real-time reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (PCR) was the first, and still the most widely used, test. Governments have invested enormous resources in scaling up testing capacity in their responses to covid-19. Alex Crozier and colleagues look at how new technologies can be most appropriately used to support different testing strategies and examine the benefits and risks
0 kommentar(er)
