Pharmacists’ association warns against Covid-19 test kits
Greece’s Association of Pharmacists (PFS) echoed government coronavirus expert and spokesman Sotiris Tsiodras, urging its members not to supply consumers with kits purporting to test for Covid-19.
In an announcement on Monday, PFS said that many of the testing kits flooding markets across the world rely on testing antibodies and are “not recommended for use by the general population” at this phase of the epidemic in Greece.
PFS warned that such kits for serological testing can produce false positives if a patient has been exposed to other common coronaviruses, indicating that they may have also been exposed to the highly contagious SARS-CoV-2, which causes Covid-19. A false negative meanwhile, it added, could encourage people who are infected to let down their guard and spread the virus to others.
The association added that internationally approved molecular tests of the type being carried out by certified agencies in Greece are the only reliable way to monitor infections.
“We need real data and the truth in this battle with the virus,” PFS said, adding that researchers in Greece are busy assessing the quick-test kits that are becoming increasingly available on the international market.
