The peak body for pathologists has called on health authorities to start collecting data on negative rapid antigen test results, to better monitor the COVID pandemic.
Australia’s health watchdog has received more than 100 complaints about rapid antigen tests, with consumers raising concerns about false positives and negatives, invalid results and missing parts.
Associate Professor David Anderson, deputy director of the Burnet Institute, said the tests were a useful screening tool that provided quick results, but they gave people a false sense of security.“That still means they are missing 20 per cent,” he said. “That leads to a false sense of security ... that’s the biggest negative.”
“One major risk of [self-testing] is the potential loss of epidemiological information about the number of COVID-19 tests performed and the results,” it said.shows the Therapeutic Goods Administration has received 114 complaints about rapid tests, with 94 relating to those used in laboratories or point-of-care environments such as workplaces, and aged and residential care facilities. Just 20 reports related to self-tests, which became available for home use in November.
Ashwin Swaminathan, an infectious disease specialist at ANU Medical School, said it was important that people understood their underlying risk of developing COVID-19 before using rapid antigen tests. Infectious disease expert Professor Paul Griffin said rapid antigen tests were useful but had limitations.
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