The Food and Drugs Authority (FDA), has confirmed that the COVID19 testing device at the Kotoka International Airport (KIA) is of high standard and asking Ghanaians to disregard persons who are questioning the integrity of the device.
Explaining how the device works at a meeting in Accra, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Food and Drugs Authority (FDA), Mrs Delese Mimi Darko says the device is an antigen testing system which is very sensitive because it detects the virus no matter how it is.
The assurance by the FDA follows a similar one by the Ghana Health Service (GHS), after some passengers at the KIA described the testing kits at the airport as poor and fraudulent.
Mrs Delese Mimi said,”if I come back to the testing device at the KIA, it is an antigen testing system and it is not a rapid diagnostic cartridge system. it’s not like the one you can buy in the box and you can test it by yourself and other people using at home.”
“Sometimes, people get this thing confusing and this was evaluated by the FDA in July 2020. Now the difference between this device and the other one people tend to be confused is that, with the other test kits you drop your swap on the lines and you read with your naked eyes.”
She continued that, “this particular device is an automated fluorescence amino acid device which means that it detects the virus by certain fluorescence and that is what we called a Nano Technology that makes it even more sensitive.”
“So when you pass through the airport you can see that they put swap in your nose and dip it into a certain solutions called antibodies so if you have the virus in your nose it will combine with that antibodies and then put in the machine. it is read by the fluorescence detecter which you cannot see with your naked eyes,currently only three machines have been approved by the authority,” Mrs Delese Mimi urged.
However, she cautioned those involved in hope testing to desist from it.
