Virus testing ready to reach warp speed

By The Nation

 

File Photo

 

Thailand has 35 laboratories that can test 100-200 specimen samples a day for the Covid-19 virus and will soon open another 20, but there’s also a super-lab that can run 4,000 tests a day.

 

The facility, unveiled on Friday (March 13) by the Public Health Ministry’s Department of Medical Sciences, uses the rapid polymerase chain reaction (PCR) method.

 

A large quantity of the chemical solution needed for the speedy testing will be imported next week, a department official said.

 

Expected to be available starting next month once it’s cleared by the Food and Drug Administration is a 15-minute Rapid Medic Kit also developed by the department.

 

It scans a blood sample taken from the fingertip or mucus swabbed from the throat and confirms either viral infection or sound health within minutes.

The kit costs about Bt1,000, while a lab test can cost Bt3,000 or more. 

 

Several hospitals are developing their own versions of test kits.

 

The Commerce Ministry has meanwhile asked the government of China for 1.8 million surgical facemasks and N95 masks.

 

Supplies for medical personnel are being depleted amid high public demand due to both the virus and heavy urban air pollution.

 

Source: https://www.nationthailand.com/news/30384005

 

-- © Copyright The Nation Thailand 2020-03-13

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I feel a "virus testing hub" announcement coming.......

The doctor's hair in the picture could sweep up all airborne viruses in seconds.

49 minutes ago, webfact said:

Expected to be available starting next month once it’s cleared by the Food and Drug Administration is a 15-minute Rapid Medic Kit also developed by the department.

 

It scans a blood sample taken from the fingertip or mucus swabbed from the throat and confirms either viral infection or sound health within minutes.

The kit costs about Bt1,000, while a lab test can cost Bt3,000 or more.

This is interesting as the two types of tests they talk about here are testing for very different things and completely different.

 

I can only assume that they're about to approve an antibody test, I've read about various antibody tests being developed in multiple researchers around the world and when the antibodies show up it should be easy, cheap and quick to test for them.

 

 

And then there are WHO reference labs that are used for comfirmations, which can process maybe a dozen per day, depending on who's keeping their foot on the pipe. Expect the PUI count to explode but official confirmations to stay low.

27 minutes ago, ukrules said:

I can only assume that they're about to approve an antibody test, I've read about various antibody tests being developed in multiple researchers around the world and when the antibodies show up it should be easy, cheap and quick to test for them.

Yes, but the antibodies may only appear in detectable quantities long after symptom onset. It's good for checking how many in a given population have already had the virus.

All the latest testing kits Etc, are only as good as the people that use them.

I have been on the receiving end of some Thai Medical procedures, and most are not conducted well.

2 minutes ago, DrTuner said:

Yes, but the antibodies may only appear in detectable quantities long after symptom onset. It's good for checking how many in a given population have already had the virus.

Anti body tests are also good for testing retroactively to get more accurate case numbers,but I don't think they will catch on here until well after the hot wind has died down to protect a lot of fa(r)ces.

"A large quantity of the chemical solution needed for the speedy testing will be imported next week, a department official said." 

 

Let's hope it's not manufactured in locked down Wuhan.

1 hour ago, webfact said:

The Commerce Ministry has meanwhile asked the government of China for 1.8 million surgical facemasks and N95 masks.

or just talk to that politician's mate. He has 2 million. ????

8 minutes ago, thequietman said:

or just talk to that politician's mate. He has 2 million. ????

hang on they told me weeks  ago there  was  no  problem with mask  supply

*yawn*

 

Is he finished bragging yet?

Is that dirty farang doctor/ technician not wearing gloves? Oh, hold on, he's not a farang. Who'd a thought it?

28 minutes ago, Tayaout said:

 

 

Let's hope it's not manufactured in locked down Wuhan.

Shopee and Lazada free shipping from China 14 to 21 days.

1 hour ago, Tayaout said:

"A large quantity of the chemical solution needed for the speedy testing will be imported next week, a department official said." 

 

Let's hope it's not manufactured in locked down Wuhan.

German or US, probably: https://www.who.int/docs/default-source/coronaviruse/conventional-rt-pcr-followed-by-sequencing-for-detection-of-ncov-rirl-nat-inst-health-t.pdf?sfvrsn=42271c6d_4

 

Quote

1.1 Macherey-Nagel Nucleospin RNA virus (Cat. No 740956)

1.2 Invitrogen superscriptTM III Platinum One-Step Quantitative (Cat No. 11732-020 or 11732-088)

https://www.mn-net.com/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Invitrogen

3 hours ago, webfact said:

The Commerce Ministry has meanwhile asked the government of China for 1.8 million surgical facemasks and N95 masks.

 

Supplies for medical personnel are being depleted amid high public demand due to both the virus and heavy urban air pollution.

 

   

 

Kindred spirits in dictation. Big and little brothers in arms.

 

1 hour ago, Chazar said:

hang on they told me weeks  ago there  was  no  problem with mask  supply

Don't worry. It's all "under control".... 

1 hour ago, DrTuner said:

And then there are WHO reference labs that are used for comfirmations, which can process maybe a dozen per day, depending on who's keeping their foot on the pipe. Expect the PUI count to explode but official confirmations to stay low.

 

Last time I checked, according to the DDC's daily reports, the backlog of CV PUI awaiting CV test results was in the neighborhood of 1800 people...

Edited March 13, 20206 yr by TallGuyJohninBKK

Interesting exclusive from CNN, Koreans have the lead: https://edition.cnn.com/2020/03/12/asia/coronavirus-south-korea-testing-intl-hnk/index.html

13 minutes ago, TallGuyJohninBKK said:

Last time I checked, according to the DDC's daily reports, the backlog of CV PUI awaiting CV test results was in the neighborhood of 1800 people...

Yeah, and now we're starting to see reports in social media of people having been diagnosed positive, but not included in the official count. Those would likely be in that 1800+ group.

6 minutes ago, DrTuner said:

Yeah, and now we're starting to see reports in social media of people having been diagnosed positive, but not included in the official count. Those would likely be in that 1800+ group.

 

As you know, there's the initial test (often called the "presumptive test" elsewhere) that can be done by varieties of hospitals), and then there's the subsequent confirming test or tests by just the couple government labs in BKK. Dunno if they're ever going to change that protocol.

 

Ya, re that 1800 figure, I don't think that represents people waiting for test results from the frontline testing hospitals. I'd imagine, it's entirely or mostly related to people waiting for the confirming tests from the govt. labs in BKK.

 

 

 

Edited March 13, 20206 yr by TallGuyJohninBKK

3 hours ago, DrTuner said:

And then there are WHO reference labs that are used for comfirmations, which can process maybe a dozen per day, depending on who's keeping their foot on the pipe. Expect the PUI count to explode but official confirmations to stay low.

 

I thought I'd take a look at how things have progressed (deteriorated???) in Thailand during the past month, so I called up the daily reports of the Thai DDC for Feb. 10 to compare with March 10, as follows:

 

(The only numbers that haven't skyrocketed during the past month are the government's tally of "confirmed cases". But cumulative PUI, PUI current hospitalizations, and PUI awaiting lab results all have.

 

Cumulative Patients Under Investigation:

Feb. 10 -- 702

March 10 -- 4848

 

PUI Patients Hospitalized as of that date:

Feb. 10 -- 351

March 10 -- 1903

 

Confirmed Cases:

Feb. 10 -- 32

March 10 -- 53

 

PUI Cases Awaiting Lab Results

Feb 2 -- 405*

*(the govt. stopped publicly reporting this data for a period in Feb. that included Feb. 10, so Feb. 2 is the closed prior date available.)

March 10 -- 1921

 

Feb. 10:

 

 

March 10:

Edited March 13, 20206 yr by TallGuyJohninBKK

the test kits cost 2.5 euro to produce and about 10 euro all up when you account for labor/testing etc

 

im not gonna pay for a couple hundred euro to get tested. just going to stay home and ride this out

Can we expect a spike in the total cases in Thailand once this becomes easier to test?

1 hour ago, TallGuyJohninBKK said:

 

I thought I'd take a look at how things have progressed (deteriorated???) in Thailand during the past month, so I called up the daily reports of the Thai DDC for Feb. 10 to compare with March 10, as follows:

 

(The only numbers that haven't skyrocketed during the past month are the government's tally of "confirmed cases". But cumulative PUI, PUI current hospitalizations, and PUI awaiting lab results all have.

Good job. And then it's been a month so most likely some that were waiting for confirmation at the hospital recovered and were released. They were also likely to have a positive "interim" result, but when they got better the confimation test was pulled out of backlog. 

 

Another interesting thing that's murky is what happened to the critical cases they used to publish in the beginning. One died, the others can't be doing all that well if they are still being treated, since it's been weeks, or they recovered. The staff at Bamrasnaradu probably knows, as it's likely they were being treated there.

Don't bet your life on this as it isn't peer reviewed but there's at least one recent study that concludes high temperature and high humidity "significantly reduce" the transmission of COVID-19.  

 

https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3551767

6 hours ago, EricTh said:

Can we expect a spike in the total cases in Thailand once this becomes easier to test?

Probably. But this is the right thing to do is test widely then chase down everyone they had in contact with and test them.

Yes, it smells "hub". It does.

 

Anyway.

 

At last, they will be able to clear those pesky "results are pending for remaining 1,921 PUI." (report march 10) in a matter of... hours.

 

Right ?

 

And Thailand's honor will be "cleared" as well...

 

And yes... there is worse, much worse than Thailand... Here is the number of "tests" done per day by the CDC in the so called "superpower".... America !

 

https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/testing-in-us.html

 

As you see, it's easy to make fun of our thai friends.... but USA is just.... mind boggling of sabotage, lazyness, intellectual dishonesty, corruption.... lack of words !

 

You have to wonder... Who the US CDS is working for ? They look like a fifth column, it's amazing. And it seems that Trump was their prime target...

9 hours ago, EricTh said:

Can we expect a spike in the total cases in Thailand once this becomes easier to test?

I'd say yes, lot's of potential cases have been ignored so who knows what the real number is. The two good things here is it's very hot and the hospitals are apparently not swamped with patients. Maybe the heat is slowing down the spread

"Ready to reach warp speed" oooohkaay

I wish to point out that "warp speed" doesn't exist, it is part of "science fiction", which may be a subconscious reason they used that phrase