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Anvisa and Saúde held a meeting on self-tests on Covid-19 this Friday

The National Health Surveillance Agency (Anvisa) met with the Ministry of Health this Friday (21) to discuss the implementation of self-tests in the country.

However, proposals on the subject have not yet been made public.

Initially the meeting had been postponed to Monday (24), but the Ministry of Health requested that the meeting be kept to Friday (21).

According to Anvisa, at the meeting “the necessary details for the implementation of the self-test were discussed, seeking to fill possible gaps in the construction of the proposal”.

The meeting was attended by the Agency’s director, Romisson Mota, technicians in the area of ​​health products technology and, for the Ministry of Health, the executive secretary Rodrigo Cruz, the extraordinary secretary for dealing with Covid, Rosana Leite and technicians from that portfolio.

Saúde requested authorization from Anvisa to release self-tests in Brazil on January 13, 2021.

The document sent to the agency said that approval [do autoteste] It is a complementary strategy to the National Testing Expansion Plan, a public policy launched by the Ministry in September.

On Wednesday (19), Anvisa had asked the Ministry of Health for more clarification, about the public that will allow the use of Covid-19 detection self-tests in Brazil.

Anvisa criteria for self-test authorization

As a criterion, the agency establishes that the registration of self-testing of infectious diseases of compulsory notification, such as Covid-19, can only be done if there is a public health policy and action strategy established by the Ministry of Health.

The document sent by the Ministry says that antigen tests for the detection of SARS-CoV-2 are part of a public health policy consolidated by the MS, so that the self-test should be used in a complementary way, as a screening strategy.

How self-tests work

Tests can be done at home, by the person themselves — as well as indicators of diabetes or HIV. Anvisa, however, informs that the tests are not conclusive for the diagnosis.

The vice president of the Brazilian Society of Infectious Diseases, Alexandre Naime Barbosa, spoke to CNN that the use of the methodology is favorable, especially in the context of the increase in the number of cases of the disease in the country.

“In an emergency situation, self-tests have the facilitation of being able to confirm or not the result related to Covid, unburden the public system that is full of flu syndrome and take some of the exposure that health professionals are conditioned, due to the testing.”

Cardiologist and intensivist Ludhmila Hajjar is also in favor of the tests. However, she told CNN that there needs to be guidance aimed at the population, in order to teach about the use and, especially, about the notification of positive cases.

“With the self-test we want to increase the possibility of diagnosis for the population. For self-testing to be safe, we first need to teach the population, self-testing is simple by definition. The important thing is to have it released, approved, but that it trains the population”, he says.

With information from Anna Gabriela Costa, from CNN

Reference: CNN Brasil

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