Rapid antigen testing has become a thing when it comes to Coronavirus evaluation. It is cheaper, faster, convenient to use, and most accurate. You can perform the test yourself and have the results in your hands in less than ten minutes which is great.
Covid-19 has proposed a serious problem for the financial sector but the havoc of this pandemic is also making its way to the everyday life of normal people. Jobs are halted, social life is all torn up and moreover, the lingering threat that it spreads from one person to another is debilitating and at times paralyzing. If you or anyone around you is experiencing symptoms of the Covid-19 then the best thing to do is to get a rapid Covid test to know if you have developed the disease or if you are safe? With the help of the Healgen Covid testing, the whole thing has become rather easier.
What is the Healgen Covid test?
It is a rapid Covid Antigen based testing kit that helps you to perform the testing on your own without any kind of help or going to a proper diagnostics lab. Antigen testing for Covid helps in the understanding of if the virus in itself is present in the body and if so then has it yet caused the disease or not? This is what you can find with the help of the Healgen Covid testing kit. The process is pretty elaborative and simple and it will be discussed in detail shortly but first, it is important to understand the working principle of the Healgen Covid testing kit.
This kit is Antigen based which means that it is going to detect the Antigen activity of the Coronavirus by breaking or dissolving its outer nuclear capsid and identifying the antigen present in it. If the antigen is found the test will be marked positive otherwise it will be a negative result. The test is going to detect the presence of any surface proteins present within the SARS-CoV-2 virus. You would only get a diagnosis if there is an active or acute infection of the coronavirus present in your body.
There is something else which you must know about this specific test. This is not authorized properly per se by the FDA as the PCR test is still considered the most effective and accurate test for the sake of determining the prevalence of the Coronavirus but in desperate times this test can be used by a properly authorized laboratory. The kit is only going to work to identify the presence of certain antibodies that are only present in the coronavirus which means that it is not going to be efficient for any other virus or pathogen in question.
Advantages and Disadvantages of Antigen testing
The most eccentric benefit of antigen testing is that these are able to produce faster results as compared to molecular tests such as PCR. In fact, you will get the diagnosis back in about 15-30 minutes but there are a few kits that work even faster than this giving you an analysis time of about 10 minutes only.
There is also no need for a specialized laboratory technique and these Antigen tests tend to be a lot cheaper than the PCR tests. The center for disease control CDC has given emergency authorization to many antigen testing kits out there including Healgen Covid testing kit and therefore these can be used under the guidance of a laboratory professional for faster, cheaper, and convenient results.
A distressing disadvantage of antigen testing is that it is not readily available in some of the areas of the world and where it is available people don’t really know how to use it. That is a real problem, but these testing kits come with effective communication from the vendors, and all the details are listed for the use of the testing kit and understanding the various procedures that accompany the process.
The false positives are also a concerning and alarming situation for these antigen testing kits, there are a lot of false positives reported which hinder the authenticity and efficiency of the process. An average of 56.2% was revealed while conducting thorough research into this particular situation. On the other hand, the possibility of false negatives is also a thing as this can occur if there is not much viral protein available within the specimen to run proper testing. This is the reason for negating the authenticity of these types of tests and making these less accurate and less sensitive than other testing models out there such as PCR testing.
Reader error is also pretty common in the case of the antigen tests because these are qualitative, this also interferes with the overall authenticity of this whole operation. If the antigen test comes out negative then in most of the cases especially if the kit is dragged through consistent usage then a PCR test is recommended by the health officials which primarily blows the prospect of going for a rapid Covid-19 testing kit in the first place.
Can you use the kit on your own?
If you have some preliminary knowledge of how to deal with laboratory testing and standards then you can definitely make use of this kit on your own. This is what the original purpose of the kit was from the get-go to become a convenient source of testing for the Covid-19 so that people don’t have to go and visit the expensive laboratory culture and wait for days on end to get their reports back.
What kind of specimen is required?
For the sake of testing the presence of the Covid-19 in a dedicated patient, you require the specimen. It can be either whole blood, serum, or plasma. You have to place it into the sample well of the testing kit for it to grab the sample and then you have to wait for at least 10 minutes to get the results. It will tell you right then and there if your test is positive or negative regarding Covid-19.
