In an interview with CNN Radio, the infectologist at Instituto Emílio Ribas Jamal Suleiman assessed that the Covid-19 self-test should be approved at this time of the pandemic in Brazil.
This type of testing consists of an examination done at home by the person. “The tests that could be done individually, at home, at this time of the pandemic would be very important.”
According to Suleiman, they have “high sensitivity and specificity”. “The person doing it, without serious symptoms, can start home isolation quickly and seek the health system if there is a warning sign.”
“This would relieve the health system, which is congested with cases of Covid-19 and influenza,” he added.
However, the self-test is not authorized by the National Health Surveillance Agency (Anvisa).
(Anvisa) follows a pattern that, at this moment, is no longer supported. We are experiencing a data blackout, notification is flawed and the priority is to quickly intervene to identify who are the people living with the virus and put them in isolation.
Jamal Suleiman, infectious disease physician at Instituto Emílio Ribas
Testing against Covid-19 – which has been in high demand since the New Year’s festivities and there are already reports of lack of them in pharmacies – is essential on two fronts, as explained Suleiman.
One of them is the importance of detection for diagnosis, to know what this person has, which infectious agent is compromising him, and also to screen the people with whom this first case has had contact.
In addition, amidst the Covid pandemic and the Influenza outbreak, the test indicates the path to treatment – since the flu has specific antivirals – and isolation – as the diseases have different times of restriction.
“A test is capable of establishing an entire treatment and surveillance strategy”, he concluded.
*Bel Campos production
Reference: CNN Brasil
