Not enough test reagents? See how China solves it

Not enough test reagents? See how China solves it

According to the US Cable News Network, on March 5, local time, US Vice President Pence acknowledged to media reporters: "The United States has insufficient testing reagents to meet the expected increase in testing demand." According to Bloomberg, as of local time 7 At 4 pm on the day, the actual detection amount of suspected case samples in the United States was less than 6,000. Judging from the incomplete statistics of 400 confirmed cases across the United States and the spread of the epidemic to 29 states, this is far from enough.

In China on the other side of the globe, the cumulative supply of New Coronavirus nucleic acid detection kits has reached 15.755 million copies.

On March 6, at the press conference of the State Council Office in Wuhan, Hubei, Wang Jiangping, deputy minister of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, introduced that 12 manufacturing companies in China have obtained product registration certificates and are fully producing nucleic acid detection kits. At present, the daily output is 341,600, and the company's inventory is 2 million, which can fully meet the testing needs of Hubei Province and other regions.

The sufficient supply of ammunition for the war epidemic stems from the race between scientific researchers and time.

On December 30 last year, the Wuhan Institute of Virology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences received the specimens of cases submitted by Wuhan Jinyintan Hospital for 72 consecutive hours, and determined the whole genome sequence of the new crown virus on January 2 this year.

The relay began in this way. After receiving samples from related cases at noon on January 2 at the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention of Diseases, a highly specific PCR detection reagent was developed in only two days, and the virus was successfully isolated from clinical samples on January 7.

With genomic information, it is possible to block targeted viruses. On January 10, the Hubei Provincial Center for Disease Control and Prevention conducted a comprehensive evaluation of the new crown virus nucleic acid detection reagents developed by the Chinese Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Institute of Pathogens of the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, and the Wuhan Institute of Virology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. The reagent with the highest sensitivity is designated for use in the national disease control system and is officially used for the laboratory diagnosis of New Coronavirus pneumonia.

On January 12, the World Health Organization received the New Coronavirus gene sequence information shared by China. WHO Director-General Tan Desai highly affirmed this: "China screens pathogens in a record short time!" Alex Azza, the Secretary of the United States Department of Health and Human Services, also said that the release of genetic sequencing results in China is remarkable This enabled the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to quickly develop a virus diagnostic tool and also laid the foundation for vaccine development.

Since the outbreak, China has concentrated national medical scientific research experts, gathered multidisciplinary forces, and devoted itself to prevention and control of the epidemic. Scientific research institutions are responsible for the design of testing reagents and clinical experiments, and biomedical companies are responsible for the development and assembly of kits, product approval and mass production. Related staff have been busy since the beginning of the year.

Shenzhen Huada Gene Technology Co., Ltd. is a third-party testing agency designated by the National Health and Health Commission. The two nucleic acid detection kits and one detection software developed by it have officially passed the emergency approval of the State Food and Drug Administration on January 26, becoming the first batch of anti-epidemic detection products officially approved for marketing. The fire eye laboratory, a new type of coronavirus emergency detection laboratory operated by BGI, is also operating efficiently in many places. Among them, Wuhan "Fire Eye" laboratory has a daily detection throughput of 20,000.

On February 14, under the guidance of Academician Zhong Nanshan, the State Key Laboratory of Respiratory Diseases of Guangzhou Medical University developed a rapid detection kit for the new crown virus IgM antibody. Only one drop of blood can be used to visually obtain the test results within 15 minutes. Complete preliminary evaluation in the laboratory and clinical.

Unlike nucleic acid testing, which requires obtaining virus-containing throat swabs, nasal swabs and other specimens from patients, and requires specialized equipment and testing laboratories, antibody testing is based on venous blood, which is fast and low-risk. Reduce misdiagnosis and missed diagnosis, welcomed by frontline medical staff.

With the efforts of a number of scientific research institutions and enterprises, the supply of test kits in China is increasingly sufficient and donated to Japan, Iran and other countries. On March 6th, the State Drug Administration once again approved and approved one antibody detection kit. Currently, 10 new crown virus nucleic acid detection reagents and 5 antibody detection reagents have been approved for marketing.