Unicamp's Hospital de Clínicas (HC), from this Wednesday, April 1st, is enabled to carry out Covid-19 diagnosis. You tests for the detection of the new coronavirus were developed by Task force Unicamp against Covid-19, led by professor Marcelo Mori, from the Institute of Biology (IB). The team highlights that the tests have not yet started to be carried out. The diagnostics will be carried out by the HC Clinical Pathology Laboratory and by Professor Alessandro Farias, coordinator of the task force's diagnostics front.
When started, according to the task force's communication coordinator, professor Henrique Marques-Souza, testing will be carried out on hospitalized patients and healthcare professionals. “The priority is people who are in hospital, as they need to follow a specific care protocol for Covid-19”. Therefore, the initial focus will be within the HC. “It is necessary to check whether or not people have the virus to distribute beds,” he explains.
The professor explains that, unlike most diseases, Covid-19 does not always cause symptoms. However, even asymptomatic people can infect others. “There may be no symptoms or all the symptoms. If I can't look through visual diagnosis, with the person in bed, how do I identify that the person has the virus and that it is necessary to isolate? By test. Therefore, there is also a general effort to make health professionals a priority for testing, for their own safety and that of uninfected patients."
The expectation is to expand testing
The expectation, after focusing on internal demand, is that the capacity to carry out diagnoses will be expanded. “As we achieve greater testing capacity, there is the possibility of expansion.” For this to happen, factors such as the import of reagents and fundraising will need to be overcome.
As few companies manufacture these reagents in Brazil, imports are necessary. “The reagents are imported. What happens is that the whole world is at war against the coronavirus buying the same ammunition [the reagents]. And in addition, by depending on imports, we depend on transport and mobility, which is affected by the pandemic”, assesses Henrique.
For the professor, this shows that governments and organizations in the productive sector should encourage the creation of molecular biology input and service companies in the country. “It is strategic for Brazil to have its own front that feeds national science”, he points out.
The prospects, however, are positive, as there is a combination of efforts from different sectors to meet the demands necessary to combat the pandemic caused by the new coronavirus, Sars-Cov-2.
In relation to fundraising, for example, Henrique cites the notices to promote research against Covid-19, with the release of resources for this purpose, in addition to the understanding of companies that it is necessary to invest in the fight against the disease. “The more companies help scientists reduce the impacts of the pandemic, the less they will suffer from the economic damage. So everyone is moving in the same direction."
Isolation is still necessary
In an ideal scenario, the professor points out, controlling the pandemic would involve testing everyone. If this is not possible, the main measure to control the disease continues to be isolation, even to avoid overcrowding in hospitals. “If we had a test for everyone in the country, there would be no need for social isolation. The problem is that we don't have the means to test everyone. So, when in doubt, it is better to isolate everyone than take the risk, especially because each infected person passes it on to 2,5 other people, on average.”
Adolfo Lutz's release
The HC accreditation was published in the Official Gazette of the State of São Paulo this Wednesday, April 1st. The statement also authorized the Fundação Hemocentro de Ribeirão Preto to diagnose Covid-19. As a result, it is estimated that there will be a slowdown in the testing queue at the Adolfo Lutz Institute (IAL), the reference laboratory in the state for detecting the disease caused by the new coronavirus. The IAL, until Tuesday, March 31, had a queue of 14 thousand tests awaiting results.
