Diagnostic Society: "No Need to Introduce Rapid Antigen and Antibody Immunoassays for COVID-19"
On the 25th, organizations related to virus testing, including the Korean Society for Laboratory Medicine, held a press conference on the current status and measures of COVID-19 diagnostic testing at Seoul Square in Jung-gu, Seoul. Photo by Jinhyung Kang aymsdream@
View original image[Asia Economy Reporter Oh Hyung-gil] Domestic experts in the diagnostic field have expressed the opinion that rapid immunoassays using antigens or antibodies for the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19) lack accuracy and therefore do not need to be introduced in Korea.
The Korean Society for Laboratory Medicine, the Foundation of Laboratory Medicine, the Korean Association of Quality Control for Clinical Laboratories, the Korean Society for Clinical Microbiology, the Korean Society of Diagnostic Genetics, and the Korea Association of Specialized Clinical Testing Institutions jointly released a statement containing this content on the 17th.
The six societies stated, "Rapid immunoassays using antigens or antibodies have the great advantage of speed, providing results within about 10 minutes, but their accuracy is significantly lower compared to molecular genetic tests, only about 50-70%," and pointed out, "It is risky to introduce rapid immunoassays for diagnosing COVID-19."
They added, "Incorrect results may lead to infected individuals not being diagnosed and freely moving around, thereby risking infecting others, and healthy individuals may be unnecessarily hospitalized, wasting medical resources or being exposed to unnecessary infection risks, causing social confusion."
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In particular, they noted, "All countries worldwide use molecular genetic testing as the sole diagnostic method for COVID-19, and rapid immunoassays are only used supplementarily in some regions of China where fast testing is needed despite their inaccuracy," and suggested, "Korea is already capable of conducting 15,000 to 25,000 tests per day and can obtain accurate results in about six hours, so there is no need to introduce rapid immunoassays at this point."
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