Express News Service

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The state is bracing for a projected peak in COVID-19 cases. To prevent a situation where the caseload becomes unmanageable, demands are growing to adopt an aggressive testing strategy.

Using throat-wash sample and saliva to detect the novel coronavirus are among the innovative solutions scientists are working on globally to speed up testing.

However, the health department’s stance is that it is better to focus on avoiding human errors during the announcement of test results rather than channel its energy towards novel concepts.

“Some evolving concepts to detect the novel coronavirus have come up. These include using throat-wash or saliva. There is also a COVID-19 laser detector unveiled by Abu Dhabi and the P-Besta pooled testing method developed by Israel. These procedures are accurate, sensitive, non-invasive and affordable. It will be worthwhile for the state to give them a shot,” a member of the state COVID-19 expert committee told TNIE. 

On its part, the health department is awaiting recommendations from the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) before adopting such concepts in COVID testing.

“In the case of using gargled water samples for COVID detection, a study has now been published in ICMR’s Indian Journal of Medical Research. But the authors themselves say that the study was carried out on a limited number of patients. Let ICMR decide whether the concept can be employed as a testing strategy,” said a health department official.

Nonetheless, the official added, ICMR may well green-light a new method of processing saliva samples for COVID testing as it has been recognised by agencies like the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Called SalivaDirect, the method does not require any special type of swab or collection device. Also, the test does not involve a separate nucleic acid extraction step.

Erroneous test results a concern

At the same time, some senior officials of the health department said recent complaints of erroneous test results deserves a thorough fact-checking. The department’s initial assessment is that, in a majority of cases, errors have crept into the specimen referral form (SRF) — which mentions patient details, specimen information, exposure history and clinical symptoms.

Such errors have led to wrong or delayed announcement of results. In one of its earlier advisories on testing, the department had mentioned that ensuring the veracity of SRF is mandatory. It further added that the forms have to be complete in all respects and care must be taken to avoid errors of any sort.