Five questions about the antigen test
Not waiting two days, but the results of the corona test within fifteen minutes. This will become possible if the rapid antigen tests are approved. Five questions about these rapid tests.
1. What is a rapid antigen test?
It’s a picture with a cotton swab. On the picture you can see within fifteen minutes whether you have antigens (pieces of coronavirus) in your nose. There will be two lines, just like a pregnancy test. The test should be taken within seven days of the onset of symptoms. You still need a caregiver for that, so you can’t do it yourself. The US government agency FDA has approved an antigen test for corona from Abbott. The manufacturer indicates that it can deliver 50 million tests per month in America from October.
2. Are these antigen tests reliable?
In general, antigen tests are less reliable than PCR tests, the FDA already wrote in its press release. Negative results (‘no corona’) in particular are less reliable. The test will only be positive if you carry a lot of virus with you. In the event of a negative result, the doctor must weigh up: how are the complaints of this person doing? And based on that, do a follow-up test with a PCR test. That is the very reliable (but slower) test that is also used in the GGD test line.
3. What is such a test useful for, if it is less reliable?
The test is less reliable, but it can help to generally estimate contamination risks in schools or in people in crucial professions. You can also think of checking the passengers of an airplane, or the visitors of a concert. Someone who really has a lot of virus among the members will be discovered. For example, a super spreader can be detected. The swab is shorter than in the PCR test, so that also makes it more accessible.
4. Can I get such a test now?
We have to wait and see for the assessment of the reliability of the aforementioned test, because the approval of the American FDA is not automatically adopted in Europe. The RIVM indicates on its website that research is being conducted to antigen testing. Virologist Alex Friedrich of the UMC Groningen has been arguing for more testing since the start of the corona crisis. He is excited Dagblad van het Noorden writes about the use of such a rapid antigen test, even if it is less reliable. Friedrich: ‘More specific antigen tests and the PCR technique remain necessary for medical diagnostics. But for wider use in society, such a rapid test would be an option’.
5. Wasn’t there still some kind of test?
In addition to the PCR and the antigen tests, you also have the serological or antibody tests, see here what the differences are. Such an antibody test is offered in a pharmacy in Woerden, wrote the Stentor. The RIVM calls this very unwise. “We’ve researched a lot of rapid tests and they are generally unreliable. There is therefore a chance that you think you have already had corona and that you have not, or vice versa,” spokesperson Marlies Hilhorst said to the newspaper.
6. Are there other types of rapid tests?
Yes, there is a lot in development. That leaves a nice report in the Volkskrant in the test street of the RAI in Amsterdam, where all kinds of new techniques are tried out. Think of faster variants of the PCR test, a breathalyzer test, a toy test or even a laser beam that detects the virus. Testing may therefore soon become a lot easier and faster.
