{"id":578,"date":"2020-04-13T08:49:24","date_gmt":"2020-04-13T08:49:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/countysplash.co.ke\/?p=578"},"modified":"2020-04-13T08:49:24","modified_gmt":"2020-04-13T08:49:24","slug":"where-are-we-in-terms-of-covid-19-mass-testing-in-kenya","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/horizonnews.co.ke\/?p=578","title":{"rendered":"Where are we in-terms of Covid 19 Mass Testing in Kenya?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Kakamega<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Prof John Muoma<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the number of Covid 19 cases continue rise worldwide, with\nover 1.8 million detected cases and over 110, 000 deaths, the essence of\ntesting has become inevitable. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the US, according to CDC information on Covid 19 by the\nevening of April 9, the total number of public health laboratories (PHL)\ncertified to offer testing were 95 up from 12 a month earlier. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This indicates that the US government has taken the need for\ntesting seriously and in one month, they have martialled a good amount of\nresources to make this important exercise possible. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Prof John Muoma<\/strong><\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In India, according to the India Ministry of Health and Family\nWelfare website by 18th March 2020 the government had declared that the first\nand second confirmatory tests for Covid 19 will be free for all the citizens in\nthe 52 testing centres set up.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This was encouraging at a time when India had 147 positive cases\nand 3 deaths as it showed commitment towards mass testing. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Spain, testing is currently mandatory for all citizens. This\nhas been advised despite Reuters 27th<\/sup> March 2020 article where\nSpanish scientist discovered that some of the tests kits cannot differentiate\nthe virus that cause the current Covid-19 to other types of coronavirus which cause\ncommon colds. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

This led to withdrawal of the kits by the Spanish government and\nreplacement of the kits by Shenzhen Bioassay, China the manufacturer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The status of the disease in these countries enable us in Kenya\nreview our capabilities in testing Covid 19 one month since the first case was\nreported. How have we as a people and a government supported the capacity to\ntest new cases of Covid 19 and where do we need to improve? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The government previously was able to test about 400-suspected\ncases of Covid 19 in a day. This was probably because they had only one\nfunctional Roche cobas 6800 to test all Covid 19 cases in the country. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to Roche cobas 6800\/8000 manufacture https:\/\/www.Roche.com<\/a> which had contrary information to https:\/\/www.nation.co.ke\/news\/New-tech-at-Kemri-to-enable-Kenya-to-mass-test-for-virus\/1056-5517402-l95bh5\/index.html?fbclid=IwAR3AYx9cYjElOIJ9eYVhGSrNXXRUds5Rm7pQLstc5slfr1BwODZxdsqpZVs<\/a> , the highest throughput of cobas 6800 system provides 96\nresults in about three hours and a total of 384 results in 8 hours. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

While the Roche cobas 8000 can provide 960 results in 8\nhours. The good intention to recruit all the Roche cobas 6800\/8800\ntraditionally used for HIV and use them for Covid 19 will be a big plus for\nKenya. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Prof John Muoma<\/strong><\/em> <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Assuming there are five Roche Cobas 6800\/8000 working, we as a\ncountry would test 7500 cases once the machine will be fully functional and the\nreagents availed. Considering the time frame and the date the purported\nrecruitment was to be done\/probable condition of the equipment, its unlikely\nthat the government will be able to assemble the equipment and start mass\ntesting immediately despite the rising Covid 19 cases. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In developing countries like Kenya, the rapid detection tests\nRTDs are of particular interest for low resource settings where lab tests are\nless obvious. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The experience from US and Spain with faulty kits should alert\nus on donation and equipment, which haven’t been certified by concerned\nauthorities. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to the Institute of Tropical medicine Antwerp, Belgium\none of the institutes in the frontline on antigen-antibody kit development\n\u201cCOVID-19 ANTIGEN DETECTION RDTS AND COVID-19 ANTIBODY DETECTION RDTS ARE\nDIFFERENT\u201d.  Covid-19 antigen detection RDTs diagnose the presence of a\nprotein of the virus in body fluids mostly in secretions of the upper\nrespiratory tract. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Covid-19 antibody detection RDTs diagnose antibodies produced by\nwhite blood cells of the infected person during the infection. They are mostly\ndetected in the blood. But it takes a few and up to 10 days before the\nconcentration of antibodies in the blood is high enough to be captured by the\nRDT. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Further, antibodies persist long after the infection has been\ncleared. Unlike other (laboratory-based) immunoassays, they do not provide\nquantitative information (Information about the number of antibodies, expressed\nas dilution “titre”).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rapid diagnostic tests (RDTs) are small stand-alone tests that\nare simple to use. They can be used at the triage and outside the hospital, by\nminimally trained staff, round the clock and on single samples. They provide\ntest results within 15 minutes, conducive to a swift patient flow. In summary,\nthey are attractive for decentralized testing particularly in low resource\nsettings. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

As of 3rd April 2020, there were no validation reports of\nCovid-19 antigen- detection and Covid-19 antibody-detection RDTs published in\nscientific literature (e.g. PubMed)contrary to https:\/\/www.standardmedia.co.ke\/article\/2001367222\/kemri-starts-manufacturing-covid-19-rapid-<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This leaves us with the classical laboratory based PCR as the\nonly approach which can quickly be up scaled in our local laboratories as the\nmost appropriate home grown easily available and reliable method of testing\nCovid 19. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is a routinely used equipment in any standard laboratory.\nThe equipment is available in the laboratories of most Higher Learning Institutions.\nThe ministry and the county governments should partner with universities to\ndevelop home grown solutions to help in Covid-19 mass testing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Prof. Muoma is a Professor of Plant\nBiotechnology and the current Director of Science Park, Innovation and\nIncubation Centre (SPIIC) at Masinde Muliro University of Science and\nTechnology (Mmust).<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Kakamega By Prof John Muoma As the number of Covid 19 cases continue rise worldwide, with over 1.8 million detected cases and over 110, 000 deaths, the essence of testing has become inevitable. In the US, according to CDC information on Covid 19 by the evening of April 9, the total number of public health […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":579,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-578","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-kenya-news"],"yoast_head":"\nWhere are we in-terms of Covid 19 Mass Testing in Kenya? - Horizon News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/horizonnews.co.ke\/?p=578\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Where are we in-terms of Covid 19 Mass Testing in Kenya? - Horizon News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Kakamega By Prof John Muoma As the number of Covid 19 cases continue rise worldwide, with over 1.8 million detected cases and over 110, 000 deaths, the essence of testing has become inevitable. 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