Covid-19 Antigen Tests to Expand Test Coverage

Kompas/AGUS SUSANTO

A man undergoes a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) or swab test at Moh Ridwan Meuraksa Hospital, East Jakarta, Tuesday (16/6/2020). The mobile testing will serve people who have registered through the Covid-19 monitoring app and the results will be sent to their respective mobile phones.

JAKARTA, KOMPAS – The World Health Organization (WHO) has approved the use of antigen-based rapid diagnostic tests, or antigen detection rapid diagnostic tests (Ag-RDTs), for detecting Covid-19. This type of test is not only more affordable than other tests, but can also produce results in a shorter duration of between 15 and 30 minutes. Indonesia can take advantage of this scientific breakthrough to overcome the country’ shortage of swab tests.

“High-quality rapid tests show us where the virus is hiding, which is key to quickly tracing and isolating contacts and breaking the chains of transmission,” WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a written statement on Tuesday. (29/9/2020).

Tedros added, “The tests are a critical tool for governments as they look to reopen economies and ultimately save both lives and livelihoods.” According to the WHO’s recommendations, each region should test at least 1 person per 1,000 population per week.

Also read: Drafting the COVID-19 Vaccination Plan

The global health body has so far approved only the emergency use of an Ag-RDT kit produced by South Korea’s SD BioSensor. Meanwhile, the antigen detection test developed by the American company, Abbott, is currently being validated.

The WHO is working with the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC), the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Clinton Health Access Initiative (CHAI), and other partners to provide the Ag-RDTs to low- and middle-income countries. It plans to supply 120 million Ag-RDTs priced at a maximum US$5 per test over six months.

Also read: Prioritize Vaccines for Vulnerable Groups

KOMPAS/ZULKARNAINI

A man underwent a Covid-19 swab test at the Syiah Kuala University Laboratory in Banda Aceh, Aceh, Monday (21/9/2020).

The testing capacity for polymerase chain reaction (PCR) nasopharyngeal swab tests remains low in several countries, including Indonesia. Apart from the need for adequate laboratory facilities and trained medical technicians, the swab tests are relatively expensive, priced at between Rp 1 million ($69) and Rp 2.5 million.

To address the shortage of tests sin the country, Indonesia has been using the antibody rapid diagnostic tests (RDTs). In fact, according to epidemiologist Henry Surendra of the LaporCOVID-19 community coalition, the antibody rapid test is inadequate for use as a diagnostic tool. It tests for antibodies that the human body produces in response to the Covid-19 virus, while the Ag-RDT detects antigens. or viral proteins, that is part of the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes the disease.

Lagging behind

Indonesian epidemiologist Dicky Budiman at Griffith University in Australia, has called on the government to take advantage of the Ag-RDT.

"With the antigen rapid test, India has been able to test up to 1 million people per day," he said.

According to the Worldometer reference website, Indonesia ranks 157 out of 213 countries in testing capacity. Indonesia has a testing capacity of just 11.8 tests per 1,000 population. According to the Covid-19 Task Force, the country had tested a total of 27,891 people as of Tuesday (29/9), out of whom 4,002 people had returned positive test results for Covid-19. On the same day, the country recorded an additional 128 Covid-19 deaths.

Also read: The Race to Creating a Vaccine

Kompas

A medical worker gives coronavirus vaccine candidate to a volunteer during a trial at a community health center in Bandung, West Java, Indonesia, Friday, Aug. 14, 2020. Indonesia\'s only vaccine production company has started this week a so-called phase 3 clinical trials to test a potential coronavirus vaccine developed by a Chinese company.

Ungke Anton Jaya, a senior virology laboratory analyst at the Eijkman Institute for Molecular Biology in Jakarta, said that an antigen detection test was not as good as a PCR test, but it was more reliable than the antibody detection test in terms of diagnostic accuracy.

According a study conducted by the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the antigen detection test had a sensitivity of between 84 percent and 97.6 percent in comparison with the PCR test.

As many as 1,620 volunteers are expected to receive the vaccine on 16 Oct as planned.

As for vaccine development, 1,089 volunteers have received their first dose of the Covid-19 candidate vaccine produced by the Chinese biopharma company Sinovac. The candidate vaccine is now in third phase of its clinical trials, which are under way at Padjadjaran University in Bandung.

“As many as 1,620 volunteers are expected to receive the vaccine on 16 Oct as planned," Rodman Tarigan, the spokesman of the clinical trial team at Padjadjaran University, said on Tuesday. (AIK/TAM/EVY/INA)