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Internist: Use of rapid test kits led to COVID-19 transmissions
By LLANESCA T. PANTI,GMA News The use of the rapid test kits to check if employees returning to work had COVID-19 caused problems, if not widespread transmissions of the illness, a doctor said Tuesday.
Dr. Antonio Dans of the Philippine Society of General Internal Medicine said that doing away with rapid test—which detects the presence of IgM (immunoglobulin) and IgG (immunoglobulin G) antibodies—was one of the recommendations of several physician's groups because the test was giving the public a false sense of security.
Testing positive for IgM is a sign of active COVID-19 infection while testing positive for IgG indicates that a person had recently recovered.
“Iyong rapid test, hindi naman niya nakikita ang virus kasi ang nakikita niyan, antibodies. Ang nangyayari, iyong mga nag -negative sa rapid test, sila yung kumakalat sa lipunan. Eh ganoon lumalaganap ang COVID-19 e kasi nga, 'negative' sila,” Dans said in an online forum.
“Iyong paggamit ng rapid test sa workplace, naging problema at nakadagdag sa paglaganap [ng COVID-19],” he added.
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“Iyong RT-PCR, pang isang araw lang iyon. Iyong iba, sabi RT-PCR test every two weeks. Eh iyon nga, protektado ka ng isang araw. Paano iyong 13 araw?” Dans pointed out.
Given the situation, Dans said that employees returning to work should instead be checked for symptoms and exposure every day.
“Ito pong symptom at exposure check, kung meron po kahit onting ubo, sipon, o sinat, o kung may nakasama silang may sintomas, kaya po nating gawin ito every day,” Dans said.
The Philippines has recorded 106,330 COVID-19 cases. Of this number, 65,821 have recovered, while 2,104 had died.
There were 38,405 active COVID-19 cases. — DVM, GMA News