Improper use of self-test kits may yield inaccurate results

MANILA – Self-administered or home test kits for Covid-19 will yield inaccurate results if not used properly.

To avoid false negative or false positive readings, Health Secretary Francisco Duque III said they are consolidating the guidelines for the use of antigen kits.

“’Yung mga self-administered test kits, may mga kanya-kanyang pamamaraan, ‘yung product label na nakalagay dun kung paano gagamitin so kinakailangan maging angkop ‘yung guidelines doon sa mga instructions ng mga antigen test kits (Each self-administered test kit has its own method. How to use it can be seen on the product label so we need to make sure that the guidelines match with the instructions of the antigen test kits),” Duque said in an interview on Friday.

The set guidelines, he added, will also include the proper disposal of the test kits.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) earlier approved the use of two home self-testing antigen kits for Covid-19, manufactured by Abbott and Labnovation Technologies Inc. and to be sold in FDA-licensed drug outlets.

Antigen test kits use nasal, nasopharyngeal and/or oropharyngeal samples.

The DOH recommends that individuals with positive rapid antigen test results be isolated and managed as Covid-19 cases until a confirmatory test is done.

Those with a high index of suspicion and who tested negative using rapid antigen tests should also be isolated until they can be confirmed negative by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-CR) test or repeat antigen results.

The confirmatory tested should be done within 48 to 72 hours from the initial antigen test.

Positive result of the antigen test can be used for early isolation of patients with suspected infection, but it cannot be used as diagnosis basis of SARS-CoV-2 severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 infection.

Negative results do not rule out SARS-CoV-2 infection and should not be used as the sole basis for treatment.

“Further nucleic acid detection should be carried out for suspected population whose antigen test result is positive or negative,” Labnovation Technologies posted on its website.