The biggest advantage of antigen detection is that it is conducive to early detection and avoid the social mobilization of nucleic acid detection.
▲ on March 11, the medical administration of the National Health Commission announced the notice on printing and distributing the application scheme for covid-19 virus antigen detection (Trial) and the policy interpretation of the application scheme for covid-19 virus antigen detection (Trial). Figure / screenshot of the official website of the National Health Commission
Due to the superposition of imported cases and local cases, the current epidemic situation in China is characterized by local aggregation and multi-point distribution. To this end, on the afternoon of March 10, the video conference on epidemic prevention and control of the comprehensive group of the joint prevention and control mechanism of the State Council stressed the need to adhere to the early, small, strict and solid implementation of relevant epidemic prevention measures, move forward the normalized prevention and control gateway and resolutely curb the spread of the epidemic.
On March 11, the National Health Commission issued a notice that the comprehensive group of the joint prevention and control mechanism of the State Council decided to add antigen detection as a supplement on the basis of nucleic acid detection. On March 12, the State Food and Drug Administration announced that it had approved the application change of covid-19 antigen product self-test application of Nanjing Nanjing Vazyme Biotech Co.Ltd(688105) , Beijing jinwofu, Shenzhen Huada Yinyuan, Guangzhou Guangzhou Wondfo Biotech Co.Ltd(300482) , Beijing huaketai biology.
Since then, five covid-19 antigen self-test products have been officially launched. This is undoubtedly a positive measure to further optimize China’s covid-19 virus detection strategy, move forward the normalized prevention and control gateway, more effectively grasp early and small, and serve the needs of current epidemic prevention and control.
▲ recently, the State Food and Drug Administration issued a notice approving the application change of covid-19 antigen self-test application of Nanjing Nanjing Vazyme Biotech Co.Ltd(688105) and other covid-19 antigen products. Since then, five covid-19 antigen self-test products have been officially listed. Figure / screenshot of the official website of the State Drug Administration
is simple and easy to use, which is the advantage of antigen detection
Since the outbreak of covid-19, one of the effective and important means to combat the epidemic is nucleic acid detection, also known as the gold standard. Now, adding antigen detection is an additional detection method.
According to the principle of immunology, any substance that can induce the immune response of the body is an antigen. Therefore, the virus itself, the nucleic acid of the virus, and part of the shell and envelope of the virus are antigens.
In fact, detecting nucleic acid is also detecting antigen. Moreover, it should be recognized that nucleic acid detection is more accurate than antigen detection, because it uses polymerase chain reaction (PCR) to amplify the nucleic acid fragment of the virus to a certain extent to show whether it is infected with the virus.
However, nucleic acid detection has many technical conditions and personnel restrictions, and takes a long time. It takes at least one day to produce results. In contrast, the advantages of time-saving, labor-saving and simple antigen detection appear.
First of all, you can buy antigen detection kit or test paper on the market. It is easy to operate, and the test results can be obtained in 15 minutes. It is very suitable for home self-test.
In addition, the cost of antigen detection is almost the same as that of nucleic acid detection, but after several antigen self-test products are listed this time, the cost can be lower than that of nucleic acid detection. Some professionals believe that the ex factory price of antigen detection kit is about 5 yuan for one person and 8-10 yuan for two people, and the terminal price is about 20 yuan / person.
In addition to the price, the biggest advantage of antigen detection is that it is conducive to the early detection and avoidance of the social mobilization of nucleic acid detection, and therefore avoid the further infection caused by the temporal and spatial aggregation of concentrated nucleic acid detection population.
Due to its simplicity and ease of use, individuals can purchase antigen test kits for self-test when they feel uncomfortable. If there is any abnormality, further measures shall be taken in time.
Therefore, the increased antigen detection can be conducive to the current epidemic prevention and control in many aspects, and meet the needs of grasping early, grasping small and moving forward.
active self-test, conducive to the forward movement of the prevention and control gateway
Of course, as a medical test, personal self-test antigen also needs to master some principles and methods.
In terms of methods, samples can be collected with nasopharyngeal swabs, oropharyngeal swabs and nasal swabs according to the basic requirements and procedures for covid-19 virus antigen detection in primary medical and health institutions, and the operation can be standardized according to the requirements of the reagent instructions. Adults can take samples on behalf of self inspectors aged 2 to 14; Those over 14 years old can conduct nasal swab sampling by themselves.
In terms of suitable population, we should distinguish who is suitable for antigen detection and who should do nucleic acid detection.
If the medical institution has the ability of nucleic acid detection, the first choice should be nucleic acid detection for the personnel with respiratory tract, fever and other symptoms who have appeared within 5 days; If you have the ability to detect nucleic acid, you can’t detect antigen first.
For isolated observers, including those in home isolation observation, close contact and secondary close contact, entry isolation observation, sealed control area and control area, nucleic acid detection shall be carried out according to the current prevention and control plan during the isolation observation period, but antigen self-test can be carried out once a day in the first five days.
Other individuals who are willing to self-test or feel uncomfortable can purchase antigen detection reagents and take the initiative to self-test through retail pharmacies, online sales platforms and other channels.
If the isolation observer’s antigen test is positive, it must be confirmed by nucleic acid test immediately; Individuals with positive self antigen test, regardless of respiratory tract, fever and other symptoms, shall immediately report to the community (village and town) where they are located, and the latter shall transfer them to the medical institution with fever clinic for nucleic acid test in accordance with covid-19 guidelines for the transfer of personnel related to the pneumonia epidemic.
According to regulations, if nucleic acid is positive, regardless of the antigen result, it shall be treated according to infection or diagnosis; If the nucleic acid is negative and the antigen is positive, it shall be regarded as covid-19 virus infected, and centralized isolation and other measures shall be taken. For grass-roots medical and health institutions, nucleic acid detection should be preferred if they have the ability.
Because the recent epidemic situation is characterized by the majority of asymptomatic infections, because there are no symptoms, there are not many people who actively and passively carry out nucleic acid testing, which is easy to produce epidemic prevention loopholes.
In this case, timely and full publicity and good use of antigen detection methods for screening are conducive to the early detection of infected persons. When antigen detection can facilitate more individuals, its anti epidemic efficiency and good results will further appear, which is greatly conducive to moving forward the prevention and control gateway, blocking the transmission route of the epidemic as soon as possible, and helping to realize the dynamic clearing of the epidemic.
