Corona: does this completely new test bring about the turning point? Study with apparently promising results

The current "rapid antigen tests" are frowned upon as expensive and unreliable: A new corona test from the USA could now compete with them.

It should be much cheaper and easier to use.

• The German government is increasingly relying on

  rapid antigen tests

  .

  But they are controversial.

• A

  research team

  from the

  USA

  is now thinking in a different direction.

• You want to

  prove

  an infection with the

  coronavirus

  *

  in another way in the future.

Colorado - In the fight against the

, more

to be used in the

future

.

According to the new regulation from last Wednesday,

tests should be carried out more often

in

and, depending on the

also in schools or by ambulant emergency services.

As

the

for

return

from risk areas abroad will no longer be free

from

.

The costs for the additional rapid tests in Germany, however, should be covered by the

be taken over, so that contact persons of infected people * the prescribed

can be shortened from 14 to ten days if the test is negative.

The

that the Ministry has been considering for the project are now available in larger quantities and do not have to be evaluated in the laboratory.

But their results are considered less certain than those of the otherwise used

.

The

demands

a

always

be verified

by a

.

Virologist

told the

that one should not be "false security" with a negative test result

.

"Because these tests often fail in the

" continues the medical director of diagnostics at the Institute of Virology at the Freiburg University Hospital.

Antigen tests are not for laypersons - negative corona results can be deceptive

Just like the

the rapid tests, doctors are also concerned about

how they are carried

out.

“It is not a test for at home like a pregnancy test,” explained

, which is why the

throat and nose

“should also be carried out in professional facilities by specialists”.

However, a new test procedure could compete with the controversial rapid antigen tests *.

As virologists have already found out,

are

typical

- and this is exactly where the

.

The

has

examined

the

phenomenon in more detail.

In a preliminary study, the scientists have now presented an astonishing result.

According to your previous research, the so-called

just as effective as

tests

.

With the decisive advantage of being not only much cheaper, but also easier to carry out.

But can that really work?

In the fight against the coronavirus: are smell tests the future?

If you believe the preliminary

the US researchers,

actually be tracked down

with the help of the

.

Such an odor test should only

cost

around

and thus be considerably cheaper than a

.

In addition, this can be done without any other special equipment.

The

has one catch,

however: to be maximally effective, the

would have to be

every three days.

This raises many questions that

currently unable to answer.

How should

the

?

Don't suspectly infected people have to

spend

several days in

if the test only proves to be reliable by repeating it several times?

Preprint: COVID-19 screening and surveillance are critical, but molecular tests haven't come close to meeting needs, and temperature checks fail.

We modeled the epidemiological impacts of using loss of smell as a screening symptom.

Here's what we found.

1 / https://t.co/IqcVCSLNvW

- Dan Larremore (@DanLarremore) December 2, 2020

According to

, five clinical studies on

are currently

. More precise, tangible results are not yet available. The

is also a so-called “

”, i.e. a preliminary investigation. The researchers from the

have to discuss the results longer and evaluate them more precisely. In addition, there are

that could not be associated with

, according to the experts. That, too, could make it difficult for them to quickly put the study into practice and

bring

the

to market.