COVID-19: Bangladesh begins antigen tests in 10 districts

People wait for antigen tests in Madaripur on 5 December 2020Prothom Alo

Bangladesh on Saturday launched rapid antigen test in 10 districts for detecting novel coronavirus infection, reports news agency UNB.

Health minister Zahid Maleque inaugurated the antigen testing through a videoconference in the morning.

The 10 districts are -- Gaibandha, Munshiganj, Panchagarh, Madaripur, Brahmanbaria, Jashore, Meherpur, Sylhet, Joypurhat and Patuakhali.

The minister said there is no PCR testing facility in the districts due to lack of bio-safety labs. “Now, it’ll be possible to test more samples through antigen tests and the results will be available soon.”

“Testing is important to prevent the spread of COVID-19. The antigen test is being carried out as per the World Health Organisation guidelines,” he added.

The antigen test of COVID-19 has started at Patuakhali 250-bed hospital in the morning.

The results will be known within 15-20 minutes after the test, said Patuakhali civil surgeon Jahangir Alam Shipon.

Three physicians have been given training to start the test and about 500 test kits arrived on Thursday, he said.

Patuakhali 250-bed hospital physician Abdul Motin said a medical team was formed to conduct the test.

Till noon, three people gave their samples and all of them tested negative, he said.

Govt approves antigen test

On 21 September, the government allowed rapid antigen testing for detection of COVID-19 infection at hospitals and health institutes across Bangladesh.

The health ministry made the announcement after issuing a circular on 17 September in this regard.

Antigen testing has been permitted at all government hospitals, district hospitals, government PCR labs and all health institutes as per the proposal of the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) and the interim guideline of WHO, the circular said.

On 5 July, the DGHS wrote to the health ministry to allow antigen testing for COVID-19. The National Technical Advisory Committee on COVID-19 also recommended it several times.

According to the DGHS proposal, antigen tests would be carried out on patients with symptoms. If anyone is found positive, the patient would be isolated.

But if anyone is found negative in the antigen tests, they would be tested again by RT-PCR or GeneXpert machine for confirmation.

Antigen tests

Rapid antigen tests are commonly used in the diagnosis of respiratory pathogens, including influenza viruses and respiratory syncytial virus, according to US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Antigen tests are immunoassays that detect the presence of a specific viral antigen, which implies current viral infection. They are relatively inexpensive and can be used at the point-of-care. Devices used in the tests can return results in about 15 minutes.

Antigen tests for SARS-CoV-2 are generally less sensitive than viral tests that detect nucleic acid using reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR).

Rapid antigen tests perform best when the person is tested in the early stages of infection with SARS-CoV-2 when viral load is generally highest, CDC says.

There are limited data to guide the use of rapid antigen tests as screening tests on asymptomatic persons to detect or exclude COVID-19, or to determine whether a previously confirmed case is still infectious, CDC notes.

COVID-19 situation in Bangladesh

Bangladesh saw the deaths of 23 more men and 12 women from COVID-19 in the last 24 hours until early Saturday.

Also, 1,888 new cases were confirmed during the period, raising the caseload to 475,879.

The fatality number reached 6,807 and the death rate stood at 1.43 per cent, said the DGHS.

Bangladesh is the 26th worst-affected country in the world considering the number of Coronavirus cases, according to Johns Hopkins University (JHU) data.