Page 6 - NIH Bulletin Vol. 16 December 2020

Bulletin National Institutes of Health, Malaysia Vol 16 • 2020

LABORATORY ASSAYS

AVAILABLE FOR THE

DIAGNOSIS OF SARS-COV-2

Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 is the cause of
outbreak of Coronavirus disease in 2019 which is also known as
COVID-19. Early reports from China indicate that the viral infection
which is zoonotic in origin started late 2019 in Wuhan province. The virus
is closely related to the previous strain called Severe Acute Respiratory
Syndrome Coronavirus (SARS-CoV) which also occurred in China in
2002-2003. However, there is no evidence of circulation of SARS-CoV.
Both SARS-CoV and SARS-CoV-2 share almost 80% similarity in their
genetic makeup.

Currently at least 215 countries have reported the occurrence of
COVID-19 among their population. Till 16 August 2020, there are more
than 21 million people who had been infected, resulting in close to
769,000 deaths. There is still no respite to the daily cases of COVID-19
and there are great efforts to develop an effective and safe vaccine.

LABORATORY TESTS

Laboratory diagnosis of COVID-19 is an important step in isolating a positive
case or a probable case to ensure the virus is being contained before being
cleared from the person. Factors such as accuracy of tests, duration of
the assay, costs of the assay are important in deciding the best tests for
COVID-19. Table 1 highlights some of the tests available currently.

Table 1: Current diagnostic tests available for COVID-19

No Test Method Duration of Estimated Cost per test Accuracy of the test
test (in Ringgit Malaysia) on
16 July 2020

1 Real Time RT-PCR 4-6 hours RM150- RM200 100%
2. Viral Isolation 2 weeks RM250- RM300 100%

3. Next Generation Sequencing 7-10 days RM900- RM1000 100%
4. Electron Microscopy 2 days RM200- RM300 100%

5. Serological assay - RTK Antigen 30 mins RM45-RM60 Varies between kits,
possibilities of false positive or
false negative

6. Serological assay - RTK antibody 30 mins RM25-RM30 Varies between kits,
possibilities of false positive or
false negative
7. Serological assay - ELISA for IgM and 3 hours RM15-RM60 More than 95%
IgG

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