With the increase in cases of Covid-19, The potential shortage of diagnostic tests for the disease to identify patients who most need confirmation is a major concern for health officials, said Wilson Scholnik, president of the Brazilian Association of Diagnostic Medicine (Abramed), in an interview with CNN this Thursday morning (13).
According to the Association, demand for Covid-19 tests increased by about 98% between the week of Christmas and the first week of January, both in pharmacies, laboratories and hospitals. The arrival of the more transmissible Ômicron variant caused an unexpected search for tests, which led to low inventories and lack of availability.
Inventories have been decreasing, the number of tests has increased, and positivity has been increasing since Christmas week: before we had about 7.6% positivity, now almost 40%, and reaching 50% in Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo and other capitals (…) Our concern is that the people who most need exams do not have access from one moment to the next.
Wilson Scholnik, president of the Brazilian Association of Diagnostic Medicine (Abramed)
The expert points out that one of the country’s difficulties in meeting Covid-19 testing demands is the fact that most private laboratories use imported inputs to carry out the exams – coming from places such as the United States, China, Europe and Korea. southern.
“We have seen an increase in testing in other countries as well, and these suppliers and manufacturers end up privileging the countries where they are located. So, we are once again fighting a competition to have the necessary inputs to carry out these laboratory tests. This has been happening all over the world, as has already happened at the beginning of the pandemic”, he said.
The Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (Fiocruz) and some associated entities have a national production of tests, which is mostly destined for the public network. “The Ministry of Health is responsible for distributing this production to central laboratories in the states and also in the municipalities”, explained Scholnik.
Reference: CNN Brasil
