Developing and deploying tests for SARS-CoV-2 is crucial
Mar 19th 2020
“WE HAVE A simple message to all countries.” So said Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the head of the World Health Organisation (WHO)
at a news conference held in Geneva on March 16th. “Test, test, test.
All countries should be able to test all suspected cases, they cannot
fight this pandemic blindfolded.” Without adequate testing for SARS–CoV–2,
the novel coronavirus that is now sweeping rapidly around the world, he
said, there can be no isolation of cases and the chain of infection
will not be broken. As if to prove the point, a vigorous policy of
testing seems to have slowed the virus’s spread in South Korea quite
dramatically. And in Vo, a town in Italy, thorough and repeated testing
of all 3,300 inhabitants has stopped new infections entirely.
Two main types of test are used to identify viral infections: genetic and serological. The first genetic test for SARS–CoV-2
was created just a few days after the virus’s genomic sequence was
published, on January 12th, by a group of Chinese researchers. Others,
developed subsequently by public health bodies around the world (and
also a few companies) have their own tweaks, but their broad principle
is the same.
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