First Thai-made coronavirus test kits delivered

[snoop1130]

First Thai-made coronavirus test kits delivered

By The Nation

 

 

The first coronavirus test kits made in Thailand are on their way to laboratories around the country after being delivered to Government House on Thursday (April 16). Developed by Siam Bioscience and the Department of Medical Science, the RT-PCR virus test kits meet World Health Organisation standards and will go straight into battle against the nationwide pandemic.

 

Siam Bioscience International was established in 2009 under the guidance of His Majesty King Rama IX the Great to improve the health of Thais. After the Covd-19 outbreak, the company decided to adapt parts of its factory for the urgent production of RT-PCR kits.

 

It has now delivered the first shipment of 20,000 test kits, out of a total 100,000, to send to medical laboratories across the country for speedier detection of the virus so that patients can be quarantined to reduce the spread of infection.

 

"The production of this virus test kit embodies our aim of ensuring good health for Thais and answering the nation’s needs through the dedication and collaboration of our staff, including executives, researchers, and work teams,” said Nualphan Lamsam, Siam Bioscience’s corporate communications director.

 

“We are proud to add a spark of hope in efforts to control this epidemic.”

 

Source: https://www.nationthailand.com/news/30386416

 

-- © Copyright The Nation Thailand 2020-04-20

 

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[anterian]

Is this an antibody detection kit or active virus detector. Where is it sourcing it chemical agents from?

 

[wobblyjohn]

Perhaps (if they are made public) true figures of actual case's infections will be known 

I find it hard to belive Thailand infection rate is so low considering Thais like to congregate in large groups Wetherby to eat drink of go shopping in the market

[ukrules]

17 minutes ago, anterian said:

Is this an antibody detection kit or active virus detector. Where is it sourcing it chemical agents from?

 

It's a PCR test, these are used to detect the virus itself.

[Thailand]

7 minutes ago, ukrules said:

It's a PCR test, these are used to detect the virus itself.

That could be information they don't want?

[papao123]

So that mean, from the beginning the govt used china test kits, which have a poor accuracy rate (30% probability of detecting the virus compare to normally 80%) and even faulty test kits (spain, uk,...return faulty test kits to China). hmmm. Hope they will test again the 142k people they tested before, because in S. Korea even the recovered patients was tested positive again

Edited April 20, 2020 by papao123

[kotsak]

Since they are locally produced should we expect a reasonable price, meaning the majority of the population would be able to get tested and get a more realistic picture of what is going on here? ????

 

On the other hand, ignorance is bliss..

 

[dabhand]

15 minutes ago, papao123 said:

So that mean, from the beginning the govt used china test kits, which have a poor accuracy rate (30% probability of detecting the virus compare to normally 80%) and even faulty test kits (spain, uk,...return faulty test kits to China). hmmm. Hope they will test again the 142k people they tested before, because in S. Korea even the recovered patients was tested positive again

The faulty test kits were the antibody type. Hmmm indeed.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-04-07/new-test-hopes-dashed-as-u-k-finds-antibody-kits-don-t-deliver

[FarFlungFalang]

37 minutes ago, wobblyjohn said:

Perhaps (if they are made public) true figures of actual case's infections will be known 

I find it hard to belive Thailand infection rate is so low considering Thais like to congregate in large groups Wetherby to eat drink of go shopping in the market

The authorities know the numbers are low and that they are only testing in limited numbers and they make no secret of this and are waiting for cheap antibody tests to get a clearer picture of the extent of the infections.

[mrfill]

14 hours ago, papao123 said:

So that mean, from the beginning the govt used china test kits, which have a poor accuracy rate (30% probability of detecting the virus compare to normally 80%) and even faulty test kits (spain, uk,...return faulty test kits to China). hmmm. Hope they will test again the 142k people they tested before, because in S. Korea even the recovered patients was tested positive again

Even at 80% accuracy, that means a 20% inaccuracy. Which could easily explain false positives for 'repeat' infections.

[DrTuner]

Reagents for the PCR test, well, good, now they don't have to import from DE or US. No excuse not to test because of shortage.

 

Where are the PTT/MIT/co kits? Disappeared from the face of the earth?

[DrTuner]

14 hours ago, papao123 said:

So that mean, from the beginning the govt used china test kits, which have a poor accuracy rate (30% probability of detecting the virus compare to normally 80%) and even faulty test kits (spain, uk,...return faulty test kits to China). hmmm. Hope they will test again the 142k people they tested before, because in S. Korea even the recovered patients was tested positive again

No, they used reagents imported from manufacturers in US and Germany. The catalog numbers are here:

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

 

I'm not sure how well stocked they were before or if these new ones are cheaper. There could have been shortages.

Edited April 21, 2020 by DrTuner

[pmarlin]

Since they " meet World Health Organisation standards"  could be a problem. Lot of Chinese kits they approved didn't work.

[brain150]

And the SPAMdemic goes on and on and on ... 

 

Scientists around the world are speaking out against the madness ... somehow people want this Pandemic to be true !!!

[473geo]

2 minutes ago, brain150 said:

And the SPAMdemic goes on and on and on ... 

 

Scientists around the world are speaking out against the madness ... somehow people want this Pandemic to be true !!!

It rather is true for those no longer around to contradict

[Logosone]

"It has now delivered the first shipment of 20,000 test kits, out of a total 100,000, to send to medical laboratories across the country"

 

So medical laboratories got the tests. So presumably they will hold on to them to use them when exactly? Are they going to distribute them, I doubt it. These labs will keep them so they can use them in specific instances when called upon by hospitals to do tests I suspect.

 

That means the odds of the person in the street in Thailand getting a test are not much better than they were yesterday.

[Logosone]

Intentionally left blank.

Edited April 21, 2020 by Logosone

[Pesche]

This test is not accurate!

 

Despite its major advantages, RT-PCR is not without drawbacks. The exponential growth of the reverse transcribed complementary DNA (cDNA) during the multiple cycles of PCR produces inaccurate end point quantification due to the difficulty in maintaining linearity.^[45] In order to provide accurate detection and quantification of RNA content in a sample, qRT-PCR was developed using fluorescence-based modification to monitor the amplification products during each cycle of PCR. The extreme sensitivity of the technique can be a double edged sword since even the slightest DNA contamination can lead to undesirable results.^[46] A simple method for elimination of false positive results is to include anchors, or tags, to the 5' region of a gene specific primer.^[47] Additionally, planning and design of quantification studies can be technically challenging due to the existence of numerous sources of variation including template concentration and amplification efficiency.^[

 

^Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reverse_transcription_polymerase_chain_reaction

[DrTuner]

1 minute ago, Logosone said:

It has now delivered the first shipment of 20,000 test kits, out of a total 100,000, to send to medical laboratories across the country

 

So the labs will hold on to the tests until called on by hospitals to do tests.

 

So the odds of the person in the street in Thailand getting a test are not much better now than they were yesterday

Odds have always been zero if you don't have symptoms, won't fit in the PUI queue.

[Borzandy]

16 hours ago, papao123 said:

So that mean, from the beginning the govt used china test kits, which have a poor accuracy rate (30% probability of detecting the virus compare to normally 80%) and even faulty test kits (spain, uk,...return faulty test kits to China). hmmm. Hope they will test again the 142k people they tested before, because in S. Korea even the recovered patients was tested positive again

Don't worry it's only a copy made in Thailand.

[Caldera]

Let's hope these test kits work.

[Artisi]

1 hour ago, Borzandy said:

Don't worry it's only a copy made in Thailand.

Psst, psst - I got copy wolex, omegan and vilus test kid, velly good n'jeep - you wan by.... 

[RichardColeman]

18 hours ago, Thailand said:

That could be information they don't want?

Think you missed the words 'to publish'

[rabas]

3 hours ago, Pesche said:

This test is not accurate!

 

Despite its major advantages, RT-PCR is not without drawbacks. The exponential growth of the reverse transcribed complementary DNA (cDNA) during the multiple cycles of PCR produces inaccurate end point quantification due to the difficulty in maintaining linearity.^[45] In order to provide accurate detection and quantification of RNA content in a sample, qRT-PCR was developed using fluorescence-based modification to monitor the amplification products during each cycle of PCR. The extreme sensitivity of the technique can be a double edged sword since even the slightest DNA contamination can lead to undesirable results.^[46] A simple method for elimination of false positive results is to include anchors, or tags, to the 5' region of a gene specific primer.^[47] Additionally, planning and design of quantification studies can be technically challenging due to the existence of numerous sources of variation including template concentration and amplification efficiency.^[

 

^Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reverse_transcription_polymerase_chain_reaction

I think it's the other way around. Look at the OP image.

 

In order to provide accurate detection and quantification of RNA content, qRT-PCR was developed using fluorescence-based modification

 

The Thai are making real time RT-PCR (qRT-PCR) which is more accurate. Using a florescent dye makes the signal cleaner and watching it real time allows more accurate calibration .

 

But!

4 hours ago, DrTuner said:

Where are the PTT/MIT/co kits? Disappeared from the face of the earth?

 

Edited April 21, 2020 by rabas

[johng]

1 hour ago, Artisi said:

Psst, psst - I got copy wolex, omegan and vilus test kid, velly good n'jeep - you wan by.... 

Got any Revi 501's or Layban Aviators ?

[Sunderland]

21 hours ago, papao123 said:

So that mean, from the beginning the govt used china test kits, which have a poor accuracy rate (30% probability of detecting the virus compare to normally 80%) and even faulty test kits (spain, uk,...return faulty test kits to China). hmmm. Hope they will test again the 142k people they tested before, because in S. Korea even the recovered patients was tested positive again

They haven't tested 142,000 people. They tested around 40,000 people - also known as patients under investigation. Patients who are positive will be tested again until they become negative.

Edited April 21, 2020 by Sunderland

[ukrules]

3 hours ago, Caldera said:

Let's hope these test kits work.

Does it really matter? If you're ill with a lung infection then they will treat it as presumptive COVID. Not that there's many or indeed any proven treatments available anyway.

 

It only really matters to the number counters.

[wotsdermatter]

22 hours ago, wobblyjohn said:

considering Thais like to congregate in large groups Wetherby to eat drink of go shopping in the market

Rather strange they would gather together in Wetherby which is located about 15 miles from Leeds in Yorkshire.  Long and expensive commute.

'nuf sed.

Edited April 21, 2020 by wotsdermatter
punctuation error

[DrTuner]

16 minutes ago, ukrules said:

Does it really matter? If you're ill with a lung infection then they will treat it as presumptive COVID. Not that there's many or indeed any proven treatments available anyway.

 

It only really matters to the number counters.

It should really matter to the policy makers.

[Artisi]

4 hours ago, johng said:

Got any Revi 501's or Layban Aviators ?

Lep, you had mony