GLARING CONCERNS

1 ACCURACY OF TESTING KITS

Experts say the RTKs procured by India till now were first-generation testing devices that need to be refined over at least six months to rule out false positives and false negatives

WHAT IT MEANS: According to ICMR, the kits showed a wide variation in their ‘sensitivity’ (capacity to correctly diagnose a patient who was infected) and ‘specificity’ (capacity to correctly identify a person who was not infected), making them unreliable

2 STAGE AT WHICH TESTS ARE DONE

Different antibodies are created by the human body at various stages of an infection, which means the test can only be accurate if it is done at the right time

WHAT IT MEANS: For instance, the Immunoglobulin M (IgM) antibody can normally be detected eight days after symptoms appear while the Immunoglobulin G (IgG) antibody is only found after the illness has passed. A relieable RTK should be able to detect both

3 INADEQUATE KNOWLEDGE

Public health experts say the human body’s response to different pathogens varies and it is not entirely known how immune systems react to the Sars-Cov-2, which was discovered less than five months ago

WHAT IT MEANS: This means there are uncertainties about when the body creates antibodies, and how long an immunity would last. For instance, immunity to the virus that causes chicken pox lasts a lifetime, while exposure to the tetanus bacteria offers no immunity.