Cargando…
The role of testing in the fight against COVID-19: Current happenings in Africa and the way forward
The dramatic increase in suspected COVID-19 cases in Africa has placed an enormous burden on public and private clinical facilities. To date, the most commonly used method for identifying and confirming the virus is the laboratory-based reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) test....
Autores principales: | , , , , |
---|---|
Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd on behalf of International Society for Infectious Diseases.
2020
|
Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7326437/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32619756 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijid.2020.06.089 |
_version_ | 1783552342527836160 |
---|---|
author | Seidu, Abdul-Aziz Hagan, John Elvis Ameyaw, Edward Kwabena Ahinkorah, Bright Opoku Schack, Thomas |
author_facet | Seidu, Abdul-Aziz Hagan, John Elvis Ameyaw, Edward Kwabena Ahinkorah, Bright Opoku Schack, Thomas |
author_sort | Seidu, Abdul-Aziz |
collection | PubMed |
description | The dramatic increase in suspected COVID-19 cases in Africa has placed an enormous burden on public and private clinical facilities. To date, the most commonly used method for identifying and confirming the virus is the laboratory-based reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) test. Unfortunately, testing capacities have been limited in many parts of Africa because of inadequate test kits, which have restricted scaling up beyond the few public health laboratories at designated locations. In this mini-review, we present Africa's preparedness and readiness for testing, why testing is crucial, the need to immediately strengthen existing facilities, and what it involves as part of combined approaches for managing the COVID-19 crisis. The review highlights the urgent need for speedy expansion and distribution of several laboratory testing platforms, including real-time PCR and serological assays to both public health facilities and fully accredited private clinical laboratories. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-7326437 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2020 |
publisher | The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd on behalf of International Society for Infectious Diseases. |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-73264372020-07-01 The role of testing in the fight against COVID-19: Current happenings in Africa and the way forward Seidu, Abdul-Aziz Hagan, John Elvis Ameyaw, Edward Kwabena Ahinkorah, Bright Opoku Schack, Thomas Int J Infect Dis Perspective The dramatic increase in suspected COVID-19 cases in Africa has placed an enormous burden on public and private clinical facilities. To date, the most commonly used method for identifying and confirming the virus is the laboratory-based reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) test. Unfortunately, testing capacities have been limited in many parts of Africa because of inadequate test kits, which have restricted scaling up beyond the few public health laboratories at designated locations. In this mini-review, we present Africa's preparedness and readiness for testing, why testing is crucial, the need to immediately strengthen existing facilities, and what it involves as part of combined approaches for managing the COVID-19 crisis. The review highlights the urgent need for speedy expansion and distribution of several laboratory testing platforms, including real-time PCR and serological assays to both public health facilities and fully accredited private clinical laboratories. The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd on behalf of International Society for Infectious Diseases. 2020-09 2020-06-30 /pmc/articles/PMC7326437/ /pubmed/32619756 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijid.2020.06.089 Text en © 2020 The Author(s) Since January 2020 Elsevier has created a COVID-19 resource centre with free information in English and Mandarin on the novel coronavirus COVID-19. The COVID-19 resource centre is hosted on Elsevier Connect, the company's public news and information website. Elsevier hereby grants permission to make all its COVID-19-related research that is available on the COVID-19 resource centre - including this research content - immediately available in PubMed Central and other publicly funded repositories, such as the WHO COVID database with rights for unrestricted research re-use and analyses in any form or by any means with acknowledgement of the original source. These permissions are granted for free by Elsevier for as long as the COVID-19 resource centre remains active. |
spellingShingle | Perspective Seidu, Abdul-Aziz Hagan, John Elvis Ameyaw, Edward Kwabena Ahinkorah, Bright Opoku Schack, Thomas The role of testing in the fight against COVID-19: Current happenings in Africa and the way forward |
title | The role of testing in the fight against COVID-19: Current happenings in Africa and the way forward |
title_full | The role of testing in the fight against COVID-19: Current happenings in Africa and the way forward |
title_fullStr | The role of testing in the fight against COVID-19: Current happenings in Africa and the way forward |
title_full_unstemmed | The role of testing in the fight against COVID-19: Current happenings in Africa and the way forward |
title_short | The role of testing in the fight against COVID-19: Current happenings in Africa and the way forward |
title_sort | role of testing in the fight against covid-19: current happenings in africa and the way forward |
topic | Perspective |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7326437/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32619756 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijid.2020.06.089 |
work_keys_str_mv | AT seiduabdulaziz theroleoftestinginthefightagainstcovid19currenthappeningsinafricaandthewayforward AT haganjohnelvis theroleoftestinginthefightagainstcovid19currenthappeningsinafricaandthewayforward AT ameyawedwardkwabena theroleoftestinginthefightagainstcovid19currenthappeningsinafricaandthewayforward AT ahinkorahbrightopoku theroleoftestinginthefightagainstcovid19currenthappeningsinafricaandthewayforward AT schackthomas theroleoftestinginthefightagainstcovid19currenthappeningsinafricaandthewayforward AT seiduabdulaziz roleoftestinginthefightagainstcovid19currenthappeningsinafricaandthewayforward AT haganjohnelvis roleoftestinginthefightagainstcovid19currenthappeningsinafricaandthewayforward AT ameyawedwardkwabena roleoftestinginthefightagainstcovid19currenthappeningsinafricaandthewayforward AT ahinkorahbrightopoku roleoftestinginthefightagainstcovid19currenthappeningsinafricaandthewayforward AT schackthomas roleoftestinginthefightagainstcovid19currenthappeningsinafricaandthewayforward |