Do you think you have contracted the coronavirus? Since this weekend, you can go get tested in pharmacies. Pharmacies are now authorized to perform rapid serological tests, which allow to know in a few minutes if we have made antibodies against the new coronavirus, according to a decree published in the Official Journal.
“Exceptionally (…) community pharmacists (…) can perform rapid diagnostic orientation tests on capillary blood to detect antibodies directed against SARS-CoV-2 “, indicates the text of the decree, which is “applicable until October 30”. “The reliability of these tests is 99%”, assured this Sunday on franceinfo Gilles Bonnefond, president of the Union of trade unions of dispensing pharmacists.
How it works ?
TROD serological tests consist of take a drop of blood by pricking the skin, usually at your fingertip, and then put it in contact with a reagent. The result appears in a few minutes. Until now, they could only be performed by a medical analysis laboratory, in town or in hospital. A positive TROD test means you have been exposed to the virus and have developed (or are developing) an immune response. “This test is done in pharmacies. We do not sell a test. We do it with the patient and the pharmacist in a confidential space”, specifies Gilles Bonnefond.
This test is done in pharmacies. We don’t sell a test. We do it with the patient and the pharmacist in a confidential space
This serological test is not reimbursed for the moment. The price range to achieve it varies between 15 and 20 euros. If the result is positive, it must be confirmed in the biology laboratory by a blood test and a laboratory examination and, possibly, by a virological test to check whether the virus is still present in the body and therefore, whether or not there is a risk of infecting other people.
For who ? And when ?
“There’s no point in having a test if you haven’t been sick”, says Gilles Bonnefond. And obviously, Above all, do not come for the test when you have symptoms. ‘You have to wait about twenty days after symptoms to see if you have developed antibodies “, he specifies.
Immune or not?
“Just because it’s positive doesn’t mean you can walk around without a mask, warns the president of the Union of trade unions of dispensing pharmacists. You must, even being positive, keep barrier gestures. Public health surveys will have to be done to find out what proportion of the population has been immunized or not immunized. “
Pharmacists have been asking for many weeks to be able to market these TROD tests, while unions of medical biologists were strongly opposed to this possibility. In a statement dated July 3, several organizations of biologists thus put “warns the authorities and the general public about the difficulties of use and the complexity of interpreting the results of these serological tests”.
–
