Corona tests play an important role in the fight against the corona virus, also in Germany.
Test capacities are being expanded.
But is that the right strategy?
US researchers doubt it.
The corona pandemic * has been challenging countries around the world for months.
The number of corona cases has been rising again in Germany for weeks.
One strategy to contain the coronavirus are corona tests.
US researchers find clear words on this.
New York - Germany relies on
Corona test
in the Corona crisis
.
"Testing is an essential part of a comprehensive pandemic control strategy," can be read on the website of the Robert Koch Institute (RKI).
This is the only way to quickly and precisely grasp the situation in Germany.
The number of tests is increasing continuously.
The test capacities have been expanded for months.
Currently, 1.4 million smears can be examined per day, most recently more than 900,000 corona tests were carried out per week, said a spokeswoman for the Federal Ministry of Health in Berlin on Monday.
The analysis devices run non-stop in the German laboratories.
Experts called for a change in the corona test strategy and warned.
In many laboratories, the number of tests has already exceeded the rationed delivery quantities of reagent and consumable materials.
With a view to autumn and winter, the laboratories sounded the alarm.
In addition, there are doubts as to whether these tests actually depict the infection process and whether a second corona wave * can be detected in good time.
Coronavirus in Germany: Debate about coronavirus tests
The daily reporting figures would say little about the actual new corona infections, criticizes
Professor Gerd Antes
, medical
statistician
and former director of the German Cochrane Center in Freiburg.
"We don't see the number of actual
new infections
, but the number of positive tests," explained
Professor Gerd Antes
in Merkur.de *.
Next to it would be the unknown number of unreported cases * of those infected who were not tested.
In his opinion, a viable test concept is still missing: "Figuratively speaking, we are observing a completely uncoordinated fishing for infected people in order to break the chains of infection." The result is a mess and "an extremely harmful waste of resources for the population's infection process."
Leading US researchers are now questioning the current coronavirus testing strategy in many countries, reports the New York Times.
The frequently used corona tests, the so-called PCR tests, only offer a simple “yes” or “no” answer.
According to Dr.
Michael Mina, Harvard University epidemiologist, insufficient.
However, the standard test cannot tell whether the patient who tested positive is actually contagious.
In his opinion, it is therefore important to determine the viral load of an infected patient.
Coronavirus in Germany: Uncertain detection of infected people
The scientist calls for a threshold value for the Sars-CoV-2 viral load to be determined in a sample.
The so-called Ct value (stands for cut-off) is important when evaluating the laboratory results.
The higher the Ct value, the lower the virus concentration in the examined sample.
The RKI recommends a Ct value of 30. A reasonable limit value is according to Dr.
Michael Mina at 30 to 35. With this threshold, 70 percent of the previous positive corona tests - would be classified negative, writes the New York Times and cites a US virologist.
In contrast, actually infectious people would fall through the cracks because the test capacities would be limited and the results would be available very slowly.
Coronavirus infected people are particularly contagious in a certain period of time, as various studies have shown.
One to two days before symptoms appear and up to five days afterwards.
According to the current test strategy in the USA, however, it is unlikely to detect an infected person in this time window, according to Dr.
Mina across from the newspaper.
It is a problem that is also causing discussion in Germany.
Cheaper rapid tests could relieve laboratories.
In
a Zeit interview
,
Prof. Alexander Kekulé
called for the use of so-called corona rapid tests in the fight against the pandemic.
At the same time, the microbiologist admitted that their work was often unreliable, but PCR tests, which were previously the gold standard, are not sufficient for mass tests.
What are PCR Tests?
A PCR test (polymerase chain reaction / polymerase chain reaction) is used to detect a current coronavirus infection.
For PCR testing, samples are taken either deep in the throat or in the nasal cavity.
A PCR test is used to determine whether the genetic material (RNA) of the SARS-CoV-2 pathogen is present in the smear material and whether there is an infection with the coronavirus.
The PCR test does not say anything about the stage of the infection the patient is at or someone has symptoms of Covid-19.
The coronavirus pandemic remains the topic in Germany.
In a city of millions, illegal corona parties are causing trouble, there is the next Covid-19 outbreak after a wedding.
All information about Corona in Germany can be found here in our news ticker.
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