Dahe Net News Just like using a pregnancy test stick to test whether you are pregnant or not, in the future, if you want to know if you are infected with the new crown virus, you can also do the test yourself at home.
On March 11, the official website of the National Health and Health Commission released the “Notice on Printing and Distributing the New Coronavirus Antigen Detection Application Plan (Trial)” (referred to as the “Notice”), indicating that it has decided to increase the number of antigens on the basis of nucleic acid detection. As a supplement, the “New Coronavirus Antigen Detection Application Plan (Trial)” (referred to as the “Trial Plan”) was formulated.
What is an antigen test? What is the difference between antigen testing and nucleic acid testing? Who can perform antigen testing? How to test yourself at home? Henan CDC’s “Healthy Banyue Talk” column interviewed Xu Yuling, deputy chief physician of the Infectious Disease Prevention and Control Institute of the Henan Provincial Center for Disease Control and Prevention.
What is an antigen test?
Xu Yuling said that antigen detection is a method for rapid detection of novel coronavirus antigens. antigen.
What is the difference between nucleic acid testing and nucleic acid testing?
Xu Yuling introduced that compared with nucleic acid testing, antigen testing has two advantages:
The first is convenience. Rapid antigen testing kits are similar to pregnancy testing. Great, you can do it at home without relying on complex equipment like nucleic acid testing.
The second is fast. The nucleic acid test takes 4 to 6 hours at the fastest, while the antigen test only takes 10 to 20 minutes to get the result, so it is advisable to wait immediately.
Why do I need an antigen test?
“Antigen detection can be used as a supplementary method for screening specific populations, which is conducive to improving the ability of ‘early detection’.” Xu Yuling said that antigen detection has always been used in many countries, including It is used in Hong Kong, my country. Antigen testing can be carried out in primary medical institutions, communities, village clinics, and even school infirmaries. It is relatively simple to operate. If there is a multi-point sporadic and clustered epidemic, the infected person can be detected faster through antigen testing, and isolation measures can be taken earlier.
Who can self-assess?
According to the “Trial Plan”, antigen detection is mainly suitable for these three groups of people:
First, those who go to primary medical and health institutions, have symptoms such as respiratory tract, fever, etc. Persons with symptoms within 5 days. When receiving such personnel, primary medical and health institutions should firstly conduct nucleic acid testing if they have nucleic acid testing capabilities; if they do not have nucleic acid testing capabilities, they should conduct antigen testing.
The second is isolation observation personnel, including home isolation observation, close contact and sub-close contact, entry isolation observation, closed control area and personnel in control area.
The third is community residents who need antigen self-testing.
How do I test myself at home?
1. Wash your hands and blow your nose. Wash hands with running water or hand sanitizer.
2. Understand the testing process. Carefully read the instruction manual of the antigen self-test reagent and the precautions related to the antigen self-test.
3. Reagent preparation. Check whether the antigen self-test reagent is within the shelf life, and check whether the contents of the nasal swab, sampling tube, test card, etc. are missing or damaged. If the reagent expires or the contents of the reagent are missing or damaged, the detection reagent should be replaced in time.
4. Sampling. When sampling, the nasal swab was inserted into the nasal cavity 1-1.5 cm, rotated 4 times, and then another nasal cavity was sampled.
5. After taking out the swab, open the sampling tube, insert it, squeeze it against the wall and mix it evenly, then close the lid.
6. Drop 4 drops into the detection hole and observe the result within 20 minutes. If there is a strip on the T line, it means it is positive, if not, it means the result is negative. If the C line does not come out, it means that the quality control line does not come out, indicating that the experiment is not established, and the operation needs to be repeated. (Yao Qingwen, intern, Hu Zhenyan, Li Mengshi, Li Yunna, Shen Chonglin/video)