WHO recently announced that seven African countries will start administering coronavirus antibody tests from next week, as part of efforts to understand the extent of the outbreak on the continent.
Dr John Nkengasong, head of African Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, has reportedly announced a continental testing project in countries that have low test rates. Zimbabwe, Sierra Leone, Cameroon, Zambia, Nigeria, Morocco, and Liberia have been selected as pilot groups to undertake the project. The selected countries have agreed and shown a commitment to the announcement, OkayAfrica Reports.
Africa’s relative isolation has so far spared it the worst of the pandemic, but low levels of testing in many countries mean Africa’s infection rates are likely to be higher than reported, experts say. As of Thursday, Africa had recorded more than 1 million cases of COVID-19 and 24,113 deaths, according to a Reuters tally.
According to Medical Brief, these tests are different in that they test blood for antibodies that have formed as an immune response in individuals infected with the coronavirus. Medically termed “Serology tests”, they are useful in picking up evidence that a person had the virus even if they did not show symptoms.
Antibody serology tests, in general, are useful in establishing whether a person has acquired immunity to a virus and is also useful in testing whether or not a vaccine against infectious disease is working.
explained South African Health Products Regulatory Authority (SAHPRA).
The tests are mobile and easy to conduct; a drop of blood is collected through a finger prick, unlike the complicated rigorous test for coronavirus infection which requires a deep, uncomfortable, painful nasal cavity and throat swab. These coronavirus antibody tests are also drastically less costly than typical coronavirus tests.
Over one million coronavirus infections have been recorded in Africa, which is almost 10 percent of Africa’s total population. South Africa leads to infection rate numbers, but that is because of the high number of tests.
