Can antigen tests also detect an existing omicron viral load? According to the PEI, the virus variant is less important than the test sensitivity.
According to the Paul-Ehrlich-Institut (PEI), rapid antigen tests recognize omicron just as well as earlier variants of the corona virus.
The federal institute based in Langen, Hesse, examined 20 randomly selected tests to see how well they worked with Delta and with the currently prevailing variant. This was tested on patient swabs and cell cultures. There were almost no differences in the two test series, reported project manager Micha Nüblig.
How well the tests recognized Sars-CoV-2 depended on their respective sensitivity: more sensitive tests recognized both variants better, less sensitive tests recognized both variants worse.
According to the PEI, the result should be transferrable to most professional tests and also to self-tests. According to the PEI, the Federal Institute for Drugs and Medical Devices (BfARM) has asked the manufacturers of all reimbursable rapid antigen tests on the BfArM list for additional data. The question was which areas of the virus protein the antibodies bind to. If it is a region that is not mutated in the omicron variant, one can assume that the sensitivity is not impaired. Of 428 returns so far, 385 have met this condition, with the remaining ten percent it is still unclear.
A new column has now been introduced in the BfArM list: “Omicron detection according to the bridging test of the PEI”. If there is a “yes” there, the test recognizes Omikron just as well. According to the PEI, the manufacturers still have a few weeks to deliver the data. If they do not do this or cannot prove sensitivity at Omikron, their products should be removed from the BfArM list of reimbursable tests.
According to the PEI, the self-tests for at home do not differ much from the professional tests: test cassettes and analytical properties are the same, said Nüblig. The PEI therefore assumes that sensitivity to omicrons also exists here. In general, antigen tests detect Sars-CoV-2 less well than PCR tests. They only strike when the viral load is high and therefore in a smaller time window. dpa
#Antigenic #tests #detect #Omicron #previous #variants