Same person, same day, 2 Covid-19 tests, different results
Same person, same day, two RT-PCR tests, two different results. One says that the person is positive for Covid-19, while the other says he is negative.
The situation is something experts had predicted earlier.
Tarek Ahmed (44) had tested positive for Covid-19 on July 1. "Then I waited for 14 days for the illness to subside, and tested again. First, I went to Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University hospital and got a test done. Then, on the same day, I went to a Brac booth which collects samples to be tested by the Institute of Epidemiology Disease Control and Research and gave my sample again," described Tarek.
The BSMMU test came out negative for Covid-19, while the IEDCR one said he was positive. Tarek had no symptoms when he got tested.
When asked why he got tested in two different places, Tarek said it was required by his workplace, a petroleum company.
Experts have long discussed the incidence of false positives or false negatives when it comes to RT-PCR tests.
"The limitation of RT-PCR is that the sensitivity depends on the sample collection, the kind of sample, the kind of media being used for testing," Dr M Shawkat Hassan, director of the department of laboratory medicine at Birdem hospital, had said at a webinar organised by Bangladesh Health Watch earlier this month.
Dr Bijon Kumar Sil, head of the microbiology department at Gono Bishwabidyalay, had previously told The Daily Star that people recovering from Covid-19 might test positive again because the PCR machine detects dead viral Ribonucleic acid in their sample.
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