Infectologist Renato Kfouri, director of the Brazilian Society of Immunizations (SBIm), analyzed, this Monday (10), in an interview with CNN, that the risks of self-tests for the detection of Covid-19 are based on the misinterpretation of the results.
The Ministry of Health wants the National Health Surveillance Agency (Anvisa) to authorize the use of individual testing. According to information from the executive secretary of the portfolio, Rodrigo Cruz, to CNN, the request will be sent between this Wednesday (12) or Thursday (13).
“People may think they have the disease and they don’t. Or you think the result was a false negative. It is sometimes not simple to interpret these tests, especially if they are not collected properly,” noted Kfouri.
“A lot of the test result is dependent on how the collection is done, whether it is salivary, nasal or throat. If the person does not harvest properly, he may think it is negative and go around transmitting it. Or conversely, she may have a false positive and misinterpret it,” he continued.
A resolution by Anvisa is currently in effect that prohibits the use of self-tests to detect Covid-19 at home. However, in a statement released on January 7, the agency states that the adoption of the self-test can only be done “if there is a public health policy and action strategy established by the Ministry of Health.”
For Kfouri, it is not possible for the self-test to be established as a public policy in Brazil. In his opinion, home testing will be restricted to a small audience, which has more financial resources, and will be able to carry out health surveillance individually.
“Public policy in the country I think is very complicated, because we can’t even test our symptoms properly, with a quick test. We were unable to trace all of our contacts or positive cases. ‘Perhaps’ distributing tests to the population free of charge in large quantities in a country as diverse as ours”, he observed.
Reference: CNN Brasil
