It was a growing demand for several weeks. The pharmacies are allowed from Saturday to carry out rapid tests for diagnostic orientation (TROD), which allow to know, in a few minutes, if one has made antibodies against the novel coronavirus, according to a decree published in the official Journal.
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" exceptionally ( ... ), the pharmacists (...) can achieve the rapid testing of diagnostic orientation on capillary blood detection of antibodies directed against the Sars-CoV-2 ", indicates the text of the decree, which is applicable until 30 October ". Serological tests TROD consists of taking a drop of blood by pricking the skin, usually at the end of the finger, then putting it in contact with a reagent. The result appears in a few minutes.
51 tests allowed
They could not so far be realized only by a medical analysis laboratory, in the city or at the hospital. A test TROD, positive means that it has been exposed to the virus and that one has developed (or is developing) an immune response. A list of 51 such tests allowed has been published by the ministry of Health. Some detect only the IgG antibody (to the immunoglobulin G), which form at least 14 days after you have been in contact with the virus, while others also show the presence of IgM (immunoglobulin M) produced earlier, which can be detected about a week after infection.
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A positive result should be confirmed in the laboratory by a blood test and a laboratory examination in order to clarify the reality of the immune response and, possibly, by a virologic test (RT-PCR) to check if the virus is still present in the body and therefore if there is risk or not to contaminate other people.
The pharmacists were demanding since long weeks of being able to market these tests TROD, while the unions of biologists and physicians were strongly opposed to this possibility. In a communiqué dated 3 July, several organizations, biologists were thus " warned the authorities and the general public on the difficulties of use and on the complexity of the interpretation of the results of these serological tests ".
