In the NDR podcast, virologist Sandra Ciesek spoke about Jens Spahn's corona strategy - and criticized him on one point.
In episode 57 of the NDR's Corona * podcast,
Drosten representative Sandra Ciesek spoke.
She
supports
the proposal of so-called
fever clinics
by Health Minister
Jens Spahn
.
However, the virologist also criticized one aspect of the fever clinics in the podcast.
Munich - Compared to other European countries such as France or Austria, which are struggling with high levels of new corona infections, the situation in
Germany
still
seems to
be well managed.
Nevertheless, the number of cases is also increasing in this country.
A new corona hotspot recently developed in North Rhine-Westphalia.
In the
NDR podcast
, Christian Drosten's representative, Sandra Ciesek, spoke about so-called “fever clinics”, among other things.
Coronavirus in Germany: fever clinics?
- Virologist criticizes a certain aspect
With regard to autumn and winter as well as other viruses that will get into circulation in the coming months,
Health Minister Jens Spahn
announced fever ambulances as a corona strategy.
"In general, I think it's a good idea for autumn and winter," said
virologist Sandra Ciesek
, assessing
the plan in the weekly NDR podcast, but criticized the name as "not so successful" because "not everyone has to have a fever and that suggests that only someone with a fever
can go
to this
outpatient clinic
and of course that shouldn't be the case. ”A positive aspect of such outpatient clinics is the relieving of the burden on general practitioners and the reduction of the risk of infection for other patients in the waiting room.
However
, as she explains in the podcast, the virologist does not believe in offering
so-called
antigen tests
in such fever clinics.
Although this type of test delivers a result after just a few minutes, "I'm not in favor of that," emphasized Ciesek.
“With symptomatic patients, the correct diagnosis should be made with a sensitive test, ie the
PCR
.” This takes several hours, but is considered the
“gold standard”
. How conclusive the test, which is carried out using a smear, is ultimately from depends on many factors.
Coronavirus in Germany: self-smears, saliva tests, stool and wastewater samples
The
virologist also
addressed the subject of a “self-smear” to test for the coronavirus *
in the podcast.
"That already has enormous advantages and of course also spares the public health service [...] and that's why there are many efforts to look for other materials that everyone could remove themselves." However, a negative aspect of this is that you don't know how laypeople would actually cope with it.
The
virologist
also
cited
the
saliva test
as a means for more reliable diagnoses
.
However, these are very extensive and also very expensive in terms of space in laboratories.
As
Ciesek
explained, you need a not exactly insignificant amount of saliva: 40 to 50 milliliters.
Coronavirus: Detection of the virus in sewage - "did not find that it was infectious"
The
significance of
stool samples
depends on
the time at which they were
smeared
.
“You can detect the virus [...] in the stool for a very long time.
Longer than partially in the throat. ”However, this is not very useful as a general screening.
It
is an effective means of confirming the
diagnosis
, but it is not very easy to use in the laboratory.
A study also found that the virus could be detected in wastewater.
On the basis of this study it was then seen that the amount of viruses in the wastewater correlated with the number of infections in the district.
“But you have to be very clear: We haven't found that this (waste water,
editor's note
) is infectious.
I think it is extremely unlikely that you will become infected through this. ”These are probably small gene segments, as Ciesek explained, that were in the water and fortunately were not infectious.
* Merkur.de is part of the nationwide Ippen network