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FILE -
In this
Friday,
Feb. 1,
2019
file
photo,
Matshidiso
Moeti,
World
Health
Organization
(WHO)
Regional
Director
for
Africa,
speaks
to the
media at
the
European
headquarters
of the
United
Nations
in
Geneva,
Switzerland.
Health
officials
in
Africa
say the
rollout
of new
rapid
diagnostic
tests
for
COVID-19
could be
a
“game-changer”
for its
fight
against
the
coronavirus,
while
warning
that
increased
testing
could
also
drive up
numbers
for a
continent
that has
seen a
decline
or a
plateauing
in
confirmed
cases —
at a
time
when the
West has
seen
case
counts
soar.
“African
countries
are
gearing
up to
introduce
antigen-based
rapid
diagnostic
tests on
a large
scale,
and this
will be
a game
changer,
we
think,
in the
fight
against
COVID-19,”
said Dr.
Matshidiso
Moeti.
(Salvatore
Di
Nolfi/Keystone
via AP,
file) |
|
WHO
Africa:
New
rapid
tests a
'game
changer'
against
COVID
By
JAMEY
KEATEN
apnews.com
GENEVA -
Health
officials
in
Africa
say the
rollout
of rapid
diagnostic
tests
for
COVID-19
could be
a “game
changer”
for
their
fight
against
the
coronavirus
but also
warned
Thursday
that
increased
testing
could
drive up
confirmed
cases on
a
continent
that has
seen
them
decline
or
plateauing
as case
numbers
soar in
the
United
States.
Some
experts
worry
that
Africa
so far
has
lacked
the
ability
to test
widely
enough,
especially
in
hard-to-reach
rural
areas,
and that
its case
counts
therefore
don’t
reflect
reality
and
impede
tracking
the
virus.
“African
countries
are
gearing
up to
introduce
antigen-based
rapid
diagnostic
tests on
a large
scale,
and this
will be
a game
changer,
we
think,
in the
fight
against
COVID-19,”
Dr.
Matshidiso
Moeti,
the
World
Health
Organization’s
regional
director
for
Africa,
said.
“These
high-quality
rapid
tests
will
help
meet the
huge
unmet
need for
testing
in
Africa.”
Speaking
from
Brazzaville,
Congo,
at an
online
news
conference,
Moeti
noted
that WHO
Africa
region
comprising
sub-Saharan
Africa
plus
Algeria
- has
seen a
downward
trend
from a
daily
average
of more
than
15,000
cases in
July to
less
than
4,000 in
the past
month -–
prompting
some
governments
to pull
back
from
their
toughest
containment
measures.
“As
countries
ease
restrictions
on
movement,
some
increase
in cases
is
expected,
but
preventing
an
exponential
rise is
absolutely
critical,”
she
said.
From
early on
in the
pandemic,
officials
at WHO
headquarters
in
Geneva,
including
the U.N.
health
agency’s
Ethiopian
director-general,
Tedros
Adhanom
Ghebreyesus,
have
expressed
concerns
that
COVID-19
could
have a
big
impact
on
weaker
health
systems
like
those in
Africa.
However,
developed
countries
with
world-class
health
systems
so far
have
been
among
the ones
hardest
hit by
virus
outbreaks.
WHO’s
54-nation
European
region
tallied
927,000
cases in
its
latest
weekly
count, a
new
record
high.
Dr.
Susan
Ndidde
Nabadda,
head of
the
Ugandan
National
Health
Laboratory
Services
and
Central
Public
Health
Laboratory,
suggested
that it
could
take
some
time to
ensure
proper
authorizations
and a
high-quality
process
before
rapid
diagnostic
tests on
a
broader
scale
because
“there
is no
longer
really a
lot of
emergency”
in
Africa.
Nabadda
cited
reports
indicating
that the
identification
of
COVID-19
cases
increased
in
Guinea
once the
west
African
country
started
rolling
out the
RDTs,
noting
that “we
might
see more
numbers
coming
on
board”
as the
tests
are
deployed
more
widely.
She
said the
relative
lack of
testing
in
Africa
could be
one of
the
reasons
why
African
case
counts
were
lower
than in
developed
countries.
WHO
announced
last
month
that it
and
leading
partners
have
agreed
on a
plan to
roll out
120
million
rapid
diagnostic
tests
for
COVID-19
to help
lower-
and
middle-income
countries
make up
ground
in a
testing
gap with
richer
countries.
The
antigen-based
rapid
diagnostic
tests
for
which
WHO
issued
an
emergency
use
listing
are
intended
to
provide
better
testing
access
to areas
where it
is
harder
to
distribute
the PCR
tests
often in
many
wealthier
nations.
The
rapid
tests
look for
antigens,
or
proteins
found on
the
surface
of the
virus.
They are
generally
considered
less
accurate
— though
much
faster —
than
PCRs,
which
are
higher-grade
genetic
tests.
PCR
tests
require
processing
with
specialty
lab
equipment
and
chemicals.
Typically,
delivering
results
to
patients
takes
several
days.
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