Two of Europe’s top-quality saliva-based COVID rapid tests with independent testing are now available in Hungary, the
AmonMed
and
UltiMed
from
A-Lab Pharma
and
rapidtestlabor.hu
in the marketing of. The e.Diagnosis nasal cavity test has also rapidly gained popularity, as it only needs to be rotated 1.5 cm deep in the anterior nasal cavity, unlike PCR tests and many antigen tests which require uncomfortably deep nasopharyngeal sampling.
While in spring 2020 antigen tests with a sensitivity of around 60-70 percent were first on the market, today they can reach 100 percent sensitivity at high viral loads, and in some cases sensitivity can be around 90 percent at moderate viral loads. In other words, these rapid diagnostic tools have come a long way, they are used in the hundreds of millions, billions of dollars worldwide. Even today, there can be huge differences between test and test. The majority of nasal tests are generally more sensitive than saliva tests, but there are saliva tests that are already ahead of the well-known nasal tests in terms of sensitivity, not only according to manufacturer’s data but also according to independent tests. Care should be taken with tests, because in Hungary it is very difficult to find high actual, i.e. validated by independent research institutes, sensitivity and accuracy in the price range below HUF 2000, and it is not certain that an expensive product is of good quality (www.gyorstesztlabor.hu provides a brief analysis of the test market situation from time to time). Saliva tests are usually even more accurate in detecting negative cases, with a specificity of around 97-100 percent.
Nasal cavity or saliva test?
Until recently, when rapid diagnostic tools were tested – rapid tests – nasal cavity tests proved to be more accurate,
outperformed saliva-based devices by 6-7% in terms of parameters
. However, as a result of developments in Western Europe, saliva-based tests have emerged that can now compete with nasal cavity tests, and some of them even surpass the accuracy of the renowned nasal tests. In independent laboratory studies by the Paul Ehrlich Institute, a leading European authority, it was included in about 122 nasal and saliva tests. Few saliva tests made the top list, only four, but they scored better than the well-known antigen test brands. One such rapid diagnostic device is AmonMed, which is available for retail sale in Hungarian pharmacies, and Ultimed, which is available for professional, i.e. institutional, users in Hungary (unfortunately, even in the case of the latter, there have been products illegally marketed and repackaged as a 20-product product for professional use in packaging that suggests a self-sampling device for the general public, and sold as such. It is therefore advisable to contact the factory distributor, especially in view of previous cases of a different nature).
Painless sampling can be done at home, either through a nasal tube or by taking a saliva sample. The Paul Ehrlich Institute in Germany has performed an independent comparison of sensitivity data from 122 Covid-19 antigen test brands based on its own testing system. Ultimed and AmonMed came out on top in the saliva tests (see table below).
In the test, both AmonMed and Ultimed were 100 percent sensitive at high virus concentrations in the sample, 85-95.7 percent sensitive at medium concentrations, but even at low concentrations, the coronavirus was detected at 30 and 20 percent, respectively. Out of 122 brands tested, only a few reach the top quality, and these saliva tests are on a par with or even more sensitive than the best nasal cavity tests. True, there are not many saliva tests of this quality, only four.
Why is the antigen test important?
2021. By mid-November, the number of new cases of coronavirus infection in Hungary was already over 10,000 per day, the number of new deaths was over 100 per day, and COVID stocks in hospitals were slowly filling up again. All symptoms should be taken seriously and it is worth getting tested as soon as possible, because early detection can save lives and hospital treatment can be started immediately. The role of antigen tests is also important because they can indicate the current infectivity with almost 100 percent accuracy, not just whether we have caught the virus. In other words, if a high-quality and well-conducted antigen test does not show a positive result in a screening, the subject may still be infected, but there is a high chance that he or she is no longer infected. This is of great importance for both companies and the general public, because some companies still send people home unnecessarily because of a possible positive PCR result that could take months, even though the person is no longer infected, and at home we isolate ourselves unnecessarily from others, while it is safe to have contact with loved ones after the infection has passed (after about 7-8 days).
“For a long time, our company did not want to market saliva-based COVID rapid tests because there was no reassuring data on their quality. The latest research and test results already point to a new generation of tests, says Attila Karvalics, CEO of A-Lab Pharma, the Hungarian distributor of the two new products. According to him, there are only three or four saliva-based products in Europe today that have been independently studied to reach the recommended analytical standard. Of these, there is only one that is licensed for public use, and that is AmonMed. AmonMed is particularly child-friendly, and similar tests are already more commonly used in Europe among the sick and elderly because of their easy and painless sampling.
A-Lab Pharma also continues to import high quality, painless nasal COVID rapid tests. Its latest product, e.Diagnosis, also achieved excellent results in laboratory tests (slightly more sensitive than Boson at medium virus concentration), requiring only 1.5 cm sampling in the nasal cavity, with a sampling rod of optimal size for nasal cavity sampling. Apart from a slight itching sensation, there is no other discomfort, and the safety is worth it.
AmonMed and eDiagnosis are now available in almost all pharmacies in the country. More information on the
www.amonteszt.com
and
www.easydiagnosis.info
and on the
www.gyorstesztlabor.hu
where you can buy the products by just clicking:
AmonMed
;
e-Diagnosis
.