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With the rapid increase in the number of confirmed patients worldwide, interest in both the domestic and international markets for rapid diagnosis kits that show test results in 10 minutes is increasing. Our quarantine authority has not used this method yet.

A medical journalist Cho Dong-chan reports on the reason and the possibility of introduction.

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Corona19 A sample is collected by placing a cotton swab deep into the nose of a suspected patient.

If there are any fragments of coronavirus in the sample container, it is judged positive through the gene amplification process.

This diagnostic test method is highly accurate, but it is expensive and takes 6 hours.

If there are more patients like the flu, the test will be overdue.

Therefore, a kit that can be quickly diagnosed is needed, but products from four domestic companies that can be diagnosed within 30 minutes have not yet been approved.

The Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention explains that the accuracy is 75%, so 1 out of 4 people may have a misdiagnosis, so it is too early to introduce it.

[Eung-Kyung Jung / Director, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: We need to review the approval process of the KFDA (for the rapid diagnosis kit) or other accuracy, and review the approval process of the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety and our emergency use.]

In the long run, the Korea Hospital Association is in a position to consider how to use the rapid diagnosis kit as an auxiliary in the medical field.

[Kim Sang-il / Vice Chairman, Insurance Association of the Korean Hospital Association: RT-PCR (current method) is used for accurate diagnosis, but as a fast and economical diagnosis method for large-scale asymptomatic patients, it is essential to consider the rapid test kit as an auxiliary.]

In the United States, rapid diagnostic kits, already developed by MIT and Harvard University, have already begun to be used in the field.

This is because the accuracy has been increased by RT-PCR using genetic scissors.

Domestic experts emphasize that in preparation for long-term corona19, Korea needs to review and support diagnostic technology using genetic scissors.

(Video coverage: Dong Hyuk Lee, Nam Sung Kim, video editing: Cho Moo Hwan)