Open antigen testing, you can test the new crown at home in the future!

On March 11, the Comprehensive Group of the Joint Prevention and Control Mechanism of the State Council issued a heavy message. It is necessary to promote the monitoring model of "antigen screening and nucleic acid diagnosis". If residents have needs, they can purchase antigen detection reagents to test for their own new crown.

Image source: People's Daily Weibo

More than two years have passed since the epidemic turned around, and everyone has become accustomed to centralized new crown nucleic acid testing, and has also preliminarily understood that other countries allow antigen testing. What's the difference? What does the liberalization of our country mean?

Today's hot discussion, today will briefly talk about the antigen test of the new crown.

Faster and easier antigen detection

Simply put, the structure of the new crown virus is divided into two parts, which is an RNA nucleic acid inside, and then there is a protein shell on the outside.

Nucleic acid testing is to find out whether there is new coronavirus RNA in the test specimen. Viral RNA is very small, so RT-PCR is used to circulate amplification to make them more detected. The fewer cycles required, the higher the content of specific nucleic acids in the sample.

The antigen detection kit is mainly a rapid antigen detection technology. Labeled with a polyclonal antibody against the new coronavirus nucleocapsid protein, pairing can find the nucleocapsid protein antigen on the surface of the virus in the sample. It is equivalent to having the new crown virus in the sample.

This method can be much faster than amplifying nucleic acids over and over again, just like a pregnancy test stick, and the results are immediately desirable.

Why not choose antigen testing before?

Nucleic acid testing is more accurate. Although no test is perfect, nucleic acid testing is obviously closer to perfection than antigenic methods. The data show that commonly used antigen test kits are only 58% accurate for asymptomatic infected people.

The data is relatively simple. Nucleic acid testing can know the amount of virus by the way, which is helpful for analyzing subsequent changes and controlling the epidemic as a whole. Antigen testing can only tell if there is an infection or not.

Data sharing is not easy to achieve. Nucleic acid testing is carried out in institutions, and the results are networked to facilitate query and locking. Antigen self-testing, notification relies on self-awareness, which is not conducive to the traceability of the epidemic.

Therefore, in general, when there is a ability to test nucleic acid, nucleic acid testing is still the mainstream.

Why is antigen testing now?

The focus is on the differences between different periods of the fight against the epidemic.

The sensitivity of antigen detection is low, and for areas with better epidemic control, the infection rate in the population itself is low, and it is obviously not cost-effective to choose such a low-sensitivity detection method as antigen. But when the epidemic is more serious, when the number of infections is relatively high in a community or school, it is economically meaningful to use antigen testing.

At present, the domestic epidemic situation has shown a trend of sporadic and rapid growth in many places. Some areas have the conditions to use antigen testing. For example, there is a cluster of transmission in Jilin City, so it may not be the best arrangement to let everyone queue up to test in such a situation, because it cannot be measured at once, and many people gather to test will increase the risk of infection and is not safe.

In addition, antigen test boxes are distributed for everyone to test themselves, which can know more quickly whether the tester is infectious, and isolate the most infectious patients early.

Antigen testing and nucleic acid testing should be complementary. Nucleic acids and antigens are important tests and have their own most applicable occasions. More convenient antigen testing can be used in cases where there is no nucleic acid detection capability, such as being far away from the testing point, or if you have symptoms of fever or cold in the middle of the night.

What will happen to us in the future?

Today, antigen testing is still only a supplement and not a major change in epidemic prevention.

The immediate and visible impact is mainly to reduce the pressure on grass-roots epidemic prevention and medical workers.

Secondary and tertiary hospitals often face admission, and doctors may determine that they do not have COVID-19 but have fever or respiratory symptoms. According to the current epidemic prevention policy, nucleic acids must be screened first, otherwise doctors must wear protective clothing, and patients cannot enter ordinary dialysis rooms, ICUs and operating rooms. If you encounter an emergency such as maternal, dialysis, or even cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases, it can cause delays.

If there is an antigen test, the antigen can be done first if there is an emergency need to reduce the risk. There are also many primary medical institutions that originally relied on dealing with some daily diseases to maintain their operations, but during the epidemic, they could not treat patients with fever and respiratory symptoms. With antigen testing, the people are more convenient to seek medical treatment, and there is also a guarantee for grass-roots medical institutions, and it is not necessary to push patients who need nucleic acid testing to higher-level hospitals, and it will also alleviate many doctor-patient conflicts.

Is the release of antigen testing also a signal of subsequent anti-epidemic changes?

At a press conference held after the closing of the Fifth Session of the 13th National People's Congress on March 11, a reporter asked: After the COVID-19 epidemic has lasted for two years, will China consider making the current dynamic zero epidemic prevention and control policy more sustainable? Is there a roadmap open to the world?

Premier Li Keqiang of the State Council said: "Since the outbreak of the epidemic, I have talked with the heads of international organizations and entrepreneurs of multinational companies, and they all hope to get the necessary exchanges. We have opened a fast track and a green channel to ensure normal production and operation. We will continue to accumulate experience, respond to possible changes in a timely manner, and gradually make the flow of logistics smooth and smooth."

The latest and hottest medical topic, today's hot discussion to give you an interpretation

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Curator: Eric | Executive Producer: Feidi

Cover image source: Dr. Lilac design team