Today marks the one year of COVID-19 first case. The first case of COVID-19 referred as case number zero was found in Hubei provenience in China. There are many vaccines which are being declared effective since then. For now, only mask, social distancing and regular tests are the only tools to fight and stop the spread of Corona Virus. The tests of corona virus are done using two types of tests. The first type of test is RT-PCR and the second type of test is Antigen test.
Recently, Scientists have declared that Antigen tests does not provide accuracy in results
In fact, there were already doubts on the results of Antigen tests. Rapid Antigen test can give you the results within 30 minutes. The RDT detects the proteins and genes of the virus in your anti bodies. This type of test is only effective to detect early infection. So, ABC-19 is rapid antigen test which shows the result with 20 minutes. At first, scientists who developed the test in UK were excited with the results as they were amazing in sensitivity to detect COVID-19.
But soon, the scientists from Universities of Bristol, Cambridge found that the results are not that accurate. The results of research by Bristol’s scientists is totally contradicting the results of research done by Ulster study. The test’s sensitivity of ABC-19 found in Ulster study was 97.7 but a new study at Bristol says that the sensitivity of the test is as low as 84.7.
Moreover, the experts are saying that the volunteers chosen by Ulster university was not proper and thus the results of ABC-19 test’s sensitivity is overestimated.
In fact, many countries have turned their back to rapid antigen test’s result due to its low accuracy.