Owing to the advent of the widespread disease COVID-19, people have been confined to their homes for a long series of lockdowns. Although mankind has experienced numerous pandemics, COVID-19 having a profusion of variants has set itself apart. The only way to keep yourself alive is to follow all the precautionary measures that have been advised.
As it is known that the symptoms of COVID-19 have various similarities with other diseases as well, it is hard to say if a person is infected or not. And to ward off this ambiguity, the world is in dire need of COVID-19 antigen diagnostic kit manufacturers to introduce more innovative and reliable kits on which we can rely for precise diagnosis of the patients with COVID-19.
Having said this, many questions would have struck your mind, but do not fret as we are here to answer them all.
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What is the Role of Antigen Diagnostic Kits?
Antigen diagnostics kits are imperative to judge if a person has been affected by COVID-19 or not by detecting an active infection of SARS-CoV-2 ( that causes COVID-19) in the body of the patient. These kits are responsible to detect antigens, which are the protein makers of the aforementioned infection.
Antigen Diagnostic Kits do possess a certain set of rules as well and are not specified to any age group. These kits are used for antigen tests by professionals, laboratories and most importantly by common people because many people do not feel comfortable opting for clinical tests and therefore antigen diagnostics kits are used by them at home.
However, there are two different methods or purposes of antigen diagnostic kits, that are:
For Diagnostic Testing
Antigens diagnostic kits can be used for diagnostic tests which simply means conducting a test on a person who has shown some symptoms of COVID-19 and this test can be done when the facility of PCR (reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction); a highly recommended test is not available.
But the pitfall of this test is that it can show false results for people having COVID-19. That is why antigen detection kit factories must make better and accurate kits.
For Screening Purpose
As antigen detection kits are used to conduct diagnostic tests on people having or showing symptoms of COVID-19, they can also be used to examine people having no symptoms of the lethal virus. But there is a risk of having false results by these kits as previously stated.
Antigen Detecting Kits Or PCR?
Now that is an interesting debate!
Although antigen detecting kits and PCR both perform the same functions, there are some differences that you need to consider. And for your ease have winnowed down some points that you can check while opting for any one of them
- A PCR test is considered to be more accurate as it detects the virus by taking its DNA and not the outer layer of protein as antigen detecting kits would.
- Antigen tests are more pocket-friendly than PCR tests.
- There is less probability of having a false result through PCR.
Succinctly it can be said that PCR tests are better than antigen tests, but if the manufacturers make some improvements, tables can be turned.