The on-going global battle with COVID-19 continues on its course, with fear and uncertainty still dominating mindsets. Many people are still unclear as to how to determine if they are displaying signs of that virus, or those of influenza. Both seem to carry similar symptoms such as: high fever, coughing, shortness of breath, muscle fatigue, sore throat, headache, nausea and diarrhea.
It is of course, vitally important to establish if COVID is indeed present, so for many, testing is the only way to properly diagnose and the introduction of the antigen rapid test kit is a major step forward. These kits are lateral flow tests, for the uncovering of a specific antigen, through swabs or saliva. It has a 15 minute detection time frame, hence the term rapid, and is less invasive than other procedures. The basics of the results process centre around the presence of two coloured bands, indicating a positive detection of COVID protein, whereas just one coloured band would signal that the specimen is negative, or at least the antigen level is below the detection limit. If no coloured bands appear then the test should be regarded as invalid, and the procedure retaken.
The test itself is simple and painless. The tip of the swab provided should be inserted into one nostril until resistance is felt; it should then be rotated five times against the wall of the nasal passage, before removal. This usually takes between 10 and 15 seconds and needs to be repeated in the second nostril. It is stressed however, that merely leaving the swab inside the nostril, or twirling against just part of the inside of the nose, is not sufficient and is likely to lead to an invalid result, or a false reading.
The benefits of these tests are enormous, considering that more or less every individual on the planet is at risk of this potentially deadly virus. There is minimal training or direction required to undertake the test and there are significant financial savings too. The results can be seen with the naked eye and the advantage that these tests have over an antigen rapid test kit, is that a foreign antigen in the system can be identified immediately, whereas antibodies can take much more time.
Scientifically these test kits have received the recommendation of both the World Health Organization(WHO) and the European Commission, who recognize the huge benefits that they bring to the table, in terms of their ease of implementation and capability to monitor trends.
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