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What is a Rapid Test?
The rapid test that is widely circulating today is a method for detecting antibodies, namely IgM and IgG, which are produced by the body to fight the Corona virus. These antibodies will be formed by the body when there is exposure to the Corona virus.
In other words, when these antibodies are detected in a person's body,
this means that the person's body has been exposed to or entered into by the Corona virus. However, you need to know, the formation of these antibodies takes time, even up to several weeks.
This is why the accuracy of this rapid antibody test is very low. Even in an observation,
concluded that the accuracy of the rapid test in detecting antibodies to SARS-CoV-2 was only 18%.
This means that if 100 people get negative results from the rapid test, only 18 people will actually not be infected with this virus. Meanwhile, 92 other people have actually been infected, but were not detected by this tool.
WHO expressly does not recommend rapid antibody tests as a means of diagnosing COVID-19. Even so, WHO still allows the use of this test for research or epidemiological examinations.
In addition to the rapid test for antibodies, recently
Recently, a rapid test was also made to detect the antigen or protein that forms the body of the virus that causes COVID-19 or SARS-CoV-2.
This rapid test method is indeed more accurate than the antibody rapid test. However, this test is only accurate for patients with a high viral load. Meanwhile, for people whose status is not yet known,
the accuracy is quite low, which is only 30%. So, the use of this test for initial diagnosis is strongly discouraged.
The only test that can confirm whether a person is positively infected with the Corona virus so far is the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) examination. This examination can directly detect the presence of the Corona virus,
not through the presence or absence of antibodies to this virus.
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