Global Status of COVID-19 Diagnosis: An Overview
diagnosis, RT-PCR, specificity, Sensitivity, SARS-CoV-2, COVID-19
Since the beginning of the New Year 2020, countries around the world are stumbling due to thecoronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic. Better approaches of diagnostics and medical facilitieshave helped some countries recover early. Previous exposures to epidemics have imparted lessons tohandle such a pandemic with a high level of preparedness. The World Health Organization (WHO) andnational health authorities are taking great efforts via efficient and impactful interventions to containthe virus. Diagnostic tests such as reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction are increasinglybeing used to confirm the diagnosis because testing biological samples for the presence of the virusis the definitive method to identify the disease, analyze the risk for transmission, and determinewhether someone has been cured or not. It is also important to screen asymptomatic individualsto get the exact overview of the virus spread. Antibody detection plays a pivotal role in diagnosis;however, using it at the wrong time yields negative results and conveys dissenting opinion about thetests. Although the scaling up of testing has been significant, overall testing has been limited by theavailability of diagnostics. Rapid diagnoses and discontinuation of transmission are keys to endingthis pandemic. Diagnostics manufacturers are developing test kits and distributing them to differentcountries. Therefore, more than 500 commercial test kits for molecular- and immunoassays, most withEmergency Use Authorization, are now becoming available in the market. In this review, we discussthe importance of diagnostics, approaches of different countries toward the epidemic, global testingsituation, and lessons to countries at the start of the epidemic for better preparedness.
Kuldeep Dhama, Bhoj Raj Singh, Shiv Varan Singh, Karthikeyan Ravichandran, Subbaiyan Anbazhagan, Himani Agri, Ramkumar N. Rupner, Vinodh Kumar Obli Rajendran
Journal of Pure and Applied Microbiology