ni Thea Janica Teh | January 4, 2021
Nakapagtala ng 99% detection rate ang saliva test sa halos 1 milyong nagpa-test sa COVID-19 sa United States, ayon sa Philippine Red Cross (PRC) nitong Linggo.
Ayon kay PRC Biomolecular Laboratories Chief Paulyn Ubial, nagpasa na rin umano ang PRC ng sarili nitong saliva test at naghihintay na lamang ng approval mula sa health technology panel ng Department of Health (DOH).
Aniya, “Saliva tests are cheaper and can be done much easier. In the University of Illinois, they have done one million saliva tests and 99 percent detection or concordance rate was recorded.”
Dagdag pa nito, patuloy pa ring magsasagawa ng COVID-19 testing service ang PRC kahit na magsimula na ang national immunization program sa bansa. “When vaccines come, not all would be vaccinated immediately. In fact, they’re saying that only 20 percent of the world’s population can be vaccinated within 2021.
So, they’re looking at up to three years of vaccination for us to achieve herd immunity. That means tests would continue,” ani Ubial.
Una nang ibinahagi ng PRC na naging matagumpay ang saliva test trial nito at naipasa na nila sa DOH kaya naman nag-aabang na lamang sila ng approval mula rito.