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Corona test tube (symbol image)
Photo: Sven Hoppe / DPA
In the fight against the corona pandemic, the medical technology group Siemens Healthineers has launched a rapid antigen test to detect the coronavirus.
Potentially infected people could have certainty with the test within 15 minutes, said the Siemens subsidiary.
According to a spokesman, the test is already available.
Specialized laboratory staff or instruments are not required for the CE-certified test.
This means that the test is approved in all countries that recognize such a CE certification - that is essentially the European Economic Area.
Siemens Healthineers is also planning emergency approval from the US FDA.
Then the company wants to gradually offer the test in other regions of the world, it said.
For the rapid test, a nasopharyngeal swab must be inserted into a cannula with a special liquid.
This applies the liquid to a test cassette, which in turn shows a result after 15 minutes.
In Germany, however, such a smear is currently only allowed to be carried out by medically trained personnel.
The swab must be inserted very deep into the throat in order to obtain a sufficient amount of virus for the test.
This can provoke an uncomfortable gag reflex.
Experts therefore doubt whether people would take a correct throat swab from themselves.
According to the manufacturer, the test has a sensitivity of 96.7 percent, which means that it correctly recognizes infected people as coronavirus-positive at this percentage.
In the remaining 3.3 percent of cases, people infected with the coronavirus are not recognized as such by the test.
It also has a specificity of 99.2 percent, which means that this percentage also recognizes healthy people as healthy - and does not incorrectly identify as infected with Corona.
According to Siemens Healthineers, these numbers are based on a study with 317 participants.
Tests that tell you after 15 minutes whether you have been infected with the coronavirus or not are considered a possible way to get through the cold season without more drastic measures.
But mass antigen testing does not seem - at least for now - to be a panacea, a strategy for a lockdown effect without lockdown.
They first have to become more reliable, more practicable for self-users and also more cost-effective (read more about this here).
The announcement of the Siemens subsidiary was well received by investors: Siemens Healthineers shares rose by almost three percent.
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hej / wbr / dpa
