Experts fear: Antigen tests do not detect omicron

In the shadow of the alarming rise in morbidity in the omicron strain, experts warn that the rapid antigen tests we all rely on may have a false negative result in the case of variant infection

Liora Barzag Pro

29/12/2021

Wednesday, 29 December 2021, 15:37 Updated: 16:19

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In the video: The epidemic treatment team explains its recommendation for a fourth vaccine (Photo: GPO)

Do the rapid corona tests miss the omicron strain that disrupts our lives?

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has announced that according to a preliminary study, rapid antigen tests may be less sensitive in identifying the omicron variant.

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The FDA has not for the time being instructed to stop using antigen tests.

"The FDA continues to approve the use of these tests as instructed on the authorized label and people should continue to use them in accordance with the guidelines contained in the tests," the agency said in a statement. ) ".

The FDA recommends that people who get a negative result on an antigen test but feel disease symptoms go and get tested on a PCR test as well.

Less sensitive.

Antigen test (Photo: ShutterStock)

How is the sensitivity of the test detected?

In order to determine the reliability of any medical examination there are two important metrics: sensitivity and specificity.

These two basically consist of a formula of four criteria - a true positive result, a true negative result, a false positive result and a false negative result.

Sensitivity is basically the ability of a test to identify a positive or negative result, and specificity refers to the specificity of the same disease, or in other words - its ability to confirm that a healthy person is indeed healthy.

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To learn how effective antigen tests are in detecting coronary variant varicose veins, FDA researchers, along with researchers from the U.S. National Institutes of Health, used samples from patients confirmed to be infected with the omicron strain to investigate how antigen tests work. that testing antigen "Find variant omicron, but may have reduced sensitivity." this means that the tests may miss the virus and give a false negative result.

nevertheless, as stated, as of this moment the guidelines for testing antigen velocity does not change. "Although the data They are preliminary, the FDA believes it is important to share with the public, "said FDA spokeswoman Stephanie Kakomo," We will continue to update the public if more information arrives. "

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