On May 30, the renowned Youtuber TheGrefg informed his followers through Instagram Stories that he had been feeling unwell for several days. Therefore, following suggestions from his close circle, he decided to take an antigen self-test, in order to determine if the discomfort he had was due to having been infected with Covid-19.
In a live stream that he did through his Twitch channel, you can see how Grefg performs the nasopharyngeal autosample, mixes it with the reagent and pours it onto the special cassette for this test; in which you can see the result almost immediately: Positive.
The Grefg doing a live antigen self test
The self-test for the detection of covid-19 is a very recent reality in the European Union, where countries such as Germany and France already allow the distribution of these tests in pharmacies and large supermarket chains. Carrying out this, without the need to be a health professional, is being used as a commitment to collective responsibility to prevent the virus from spreading further.
But what is the antigen test and what is its reliability? We have already explained in previous posts, how does a rapid antigen test work?, that this rapid test “is used to diagnose Covid-19 through the detection of structural particles of the virus in the respiratory sample. The extraction process is the same as that of the PCR test, but the result time is drastically reduced, since it is obtained in 15 minutes.”
There may be false negatives, because for this test to be more effective, it must be performed within the first 3-5 days of presenting symptoms. However, it detects a high viral load, so in the event of a positive there is no doubt that the person has been infected.
The procedure when testing positive varies depending on the town where the test is carried out, in the case of Grefg, it will depend on the protocols established in the country where the person resides, which in this case would be Andorra.
In case you want to know more information about self tests, we have prepared an article “New platform by medmesafe for a European distributor of COVID-19 rapid self tests”, where we describe all the characteristics of this test, who can purchase it and how to use it.
At medmesafe we place at your disposal a network of certified laboratories to carry out your PCR Test (throughout Spain), PCR Test at home, Rapid Antibody Test and Rapid Antigen Test by contacting us through the following form.
Diveana Rodriguez
Content Marketing Specialist for websites and social networks +10 years experience in creative writing for different fields AIESEC Alumni Bachelor of Social Communication with specialization in Marketing and Corporate Communications (UCAB)