Medical body warns against testing for Covid-19 with kits bought online

By The Nation

 

File photo

 

The Association of Medical Technologist of Thailand (AMTT) has warned people against purchasing test kits online and examining themselves for Covid-19 at home.

 

In a statement, the AMTT said some illegal Covid-19 test kits had leaked for sale on social media. AMTT warned people against buying these kits since they might be unverified or ones that had not passed the FDA standard. if the test result is not interpreted by an expert, it might cause more harm than good, it warned.

 

Moreover, blood tests at home also open the opportunity for the spread of Covid-19, as well as other pathogens that could be transmitted through the blood, such as Aids and hepatitis to spread to the community quickly and widely as well.

 

Source: https://www.nationthailand.com/news/30385058

 

-- © Copyright The Nation Thailand 2020-03-30

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And worst of all, they would show the true extent of the epidemic, unlike the throttled official confirmations.

10 minutes ago, DrTuner said:

And worst of all, they would show the true extent of the epidemic, unlike the throttled official confirmations.

Puts an end to what I thought I could do.  No wonder the company denied my purchase......

I

It would be very naive  ( that’s what Scammers hope   )to buy anything online given the emergency we’re facing .

The truth will become known, these antibody tests will be very widely available very soon and they're going to be cheap and produced under the watchful eye of European and US FDA equivalents.

 

I imagine they will do everything possible to prevent the import of any of these tests.

 

 

2 hours ago, ukrules said:

The truth will become known, these antibody tests will be very widely available very soon and they're going to be cheap and produced under the watchful eye of European and US FDA equivalents.

 

I imagine they will do everything possible to prevent the import of any of these tests.

PTT & co bankrolled their own Thai version, I have yet to see confirmation if it's antibody or CRISPR. Regardless, there's ton of profit to be made, why let ze evil foreigners in.

 

The kits are available already, f.ex. http://sugentech.com/products/products-view.php?ct=7&target=32 from Korea.

 

Edited March 30, 20206 yr by DrTuner

Sure but considering the topic heading and the warning from the AMTT, this is from the Sugentech's own website home page:

So many fakes out there atm. From my understanding, the Wondfo ones are the only ones cerified by the European medical councils and approved for supply in Australia. We bought a few just in case things went south. You can get them in Bangkok.

Edited March 30, 20206 yr by david2017

Medical body warns against testing for Covid-19 with kits bought online

Nah, no way Jose. Better to wait for the government-approved testers.

 

And wait

and wait

and wait..

 

Then wait some more...

 

Life's grand ain't it? Maybe a little shorter than you thort, but grand.

 

 

1 hour ago, DrTuner said:

PTT & co bankrolled their own Thai version, I have yet to see confirmation if it's antibody or CRISPR. Regardless, there's ton of profit to be made, why let ze evil foreigners in.

 

The kits are available already, f.ex. http://sugentech.com/products/products-view.php?ct=7&target=32 from Korea.

 

 

Note that this is an antibody test an may therefore give a false negative in the first 10 days of infection. For this reason it is not useful for diagnosis of current infection an certainly not what one would want to use to determine who needs to be isolate. Indeed, many - arguable most - people positive on this test do not need isolation. They had the infection in the past, recovered and are now immune.

 

Very misleading blurb on that video. Suggesting that people who are antibody positive need to be isolated is so egregiously wrong that I have to suspect this is not from a bona fide medical company.

 

Information on whether someone has antibodies (and, on a population level, what percent of the population have them) is very valuable information but not for diagnosing a  current infection.

Just now, Sheryl said:

Note that this is an antibody test an may therefore give a false negative in the first 10 days of infection.

Yes, correct. Here's one study from Finland that showed in that case antibodies were not present in detectable amounts until a few days after symptom onset: https://www.eurosurveillance.org/content/10.2807/1560-7917.ES.2020.25.11.2000266

 

They also pointed out some data about SARS-CoV, the original SARS:

Quote

The time of first appearance of anti-SARS-CoV antibodies has ranged from Day 3 to 42 and Day 5 to 47 for IgM and IgG antibodies, respectively 

 

It's good for locating outbreaks about to happen and contact tracing. The stuff that needs to happen at the same time as social distancing. Add big data and machine learning and you're on your way to winning. 

 

But in Thailand, it's don't test -> no data -> no information to act upon -> uncontrolled epidemic.

2 hours ago, DrTuner said:

PTT & co bankrolled their own Thai version, I have yet to see confirmation if it's antibody or CRISPR. Regardless, there's ton of profit to be made, why let ze evil foreigners in.

This is based on CRISPR. The first link is the initial announcement of a fast COVID-19 test developed by Vidyasirimedhi Institute, MIT, and PTT. This detects virus RNA like the current 6 hr PCR tests. The second announcement below discusses CRISPR directly.

 

Original anouncment of fast Thai COVID-19 tests by Vidyasirimedhi Institute, PTT

Thai PBS World announcement of same development based on CRISPR  (30-45 minute time, $15 cost/test, 10000s of tests)

MIT, Broad Institute CRISPR-Cas13 News, general background

 

The is what we need, but, not what is being sold openly (antibody tests)

Edited March 30, 20206 yr by rabas

In an ideal world where tests of all kinds are plentiful I would like to be tested for antibodies and live virus on a swab.

 

That would show if you have it, have had it and likely indicate how long you've had it if you still have it ????

10 minutes ago, rabas said:

This is based on CRISPR. The first link is the initial announcement of a fast COVID-19 test developed by Vidyasirimedhi Institute, MIT, and PTT. This detects virus RNA like the current 6 hr PCR tests. The second announcement below discusses CRISPR directly.

 

Original anouncment of fast Thai COVID-19 tests by Vidyasirimedhi Institute, PTT

Thai PBS World announcement of same development based on CRISPR  (30-45 minute time, $15 cost/test, 10000s of tests)

MIT, Broad Institute CRISPR-Cas13 News, general background

 

The is what we need, but, not what is being sold openly (antibody tests)

I certainly hope it is indeed CRISPR and PBS didn't copy my post from TVF when I first saw that press conference and posted about it ????

 

Yes, if that can be produced in mass, distributed all over and the results gathered in an open database in real time ( an app that actually works, for example .. ), it could be a real game changer. With that raw data all sorts of early warning systems would become possible.

6 minutes ago, DrTuner said:

I certainly hope it is indeed CRISPR and PBS didn't copy my post from TVF when I first saw that press conference and posted about it ????

I thought about that before posting