Maitri Porecha Profile picture
Passionate about Ground Reporting/Health & Pharma/Railways/School Education. Works - @the_hindu | Ex @TheKenWeb @businessline @dna @fpjindia @CNBCTV18news

Jun 23, 2021, 11 tweets

On Monday, a full page ad in a leading daily publicised home testing for #Covid, over a year after the pandemic, rapid antigen test kits are available for people to order online. But really how reliable are they? @TheKenWeb we found a few disconcerting answers #Thread

While the process to test is simple, the questions I had were - Did I take enough sample while testing from the nose swab? I was also wondering is the test accurate? What is the guarantee this test kit is working? Graphic by @aishyinabubble #covid #hometest

India has approved three companies to sell home testing kits. Only one has pumped kits in the market yet. Mylab Discovery Solutions. Before this launch, they have sold 50 million test kits (85% for Covid) and made a windfall 100x revenue in FY21 - Rs 850 crore as compared to FY20

Mylab and Meril - two local companies have priced their home test kit at Rs 250 (~$4) without disclosing the sensitivity and specificity data of these tests in their instructions for use pamphlet. Mylab co-founder even said you could 'blindly,' trust these tests. #COVID19

The home test is to be used with an app. So I filled in my credentials, got a cassette ID, ran my test on a cassette and clicked a photo to upload for reporting purposes to the company and ICMR. What happens next? Kaboom. My cassette is invalid. Test bounced! No result recorded!

In today's (free) story, @TheKenWeb we unravel the intricacies and dark spots of testing for #COVID19 at home. A negative test means you need to go and confirm it with RT-PCR in lab. But are people doing that? or Is home testing leading to false assurance? the-ken.com/story/covid-ho…

It was interesting to run the #COVID19 test at home, but lack of accurate data in product insert sours a user experience. Laid out everything neatly, shook buffer solution, took nose swab (ouch it hurt!) inserted in solution, broke swab, inverted tube, put drop on cassette, Wait.

Would you order a #covid home testing kit to self administer a rapid antigen test to yourself (just like how we have pregnancy tests and diabetes self checking machines?)

See the neat control test band. This indicates the antigen test is negative. This also indicates one needs to get RT-PCR retest done for confirmation. But how many people do that anyway. No data on accuracy also means how much do I rely on this result? #COVID19 #hometest

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