Practicability of serological assays for upscaling Covid-19 laboratory testing in Africa
Bibliographic Data
everal months after the emergence of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), the etiological agent of the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19), the world has experienced unprecedented economic and health uncertainties. As at November 8, 2020, Nucleic acid amplification tests (NAATs) such as the RT-PCR remain the gold standard adopted and recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO) for confirming COVID-19 diagnosis, treatment evaluation and the discharge of cured patients from isolation and/or hospitalization. As at November 10, 2020 there were 1357, 518 RT-PCR confirmed COVID-19 cases and 24 464 associated deaths out of about 12 million tested persons within a population of over 1.3 billion in 47 affected countries and territories in Africa Even though there are efforts by governments of all African nations to scale-up COVID-19 testing capacity and coverage (via house-to-house testing), the number of reported cases is still not an accurate representation of the actual cases in Africa probably. Consequently, many scientists have attributed the relatively low reported COVID-19 cases in Africa to misdiagnosis or underdiagnosis, probably due to low sampling high-risk persons, poor handling of samples, misdiagnosis or/and underdiagnosis, inadequate molecular testing capacity and insufficient manpower required for adequate SARS-CoV-2 molecular testing
2019-20 coronavirus outbreak · Antibody · Coronavirus Infections · Outbreak · Pathology · Serology · COVID-19 Clinical Research Studies · Medicine · SARS-CoV-2 and COVID-19 Research · SARS-CoV-2 detection and testing · Immunology · Virology
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