• The Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the US health agency, has issued emergency authorization for a breath test for Covid-19.

  • The device uses the same technology as that used by the breathalyzer, which measures the alcohol level in the exhaled air.

  • Will this device be able to find a place in France?

“Blow, blow, blow”.

And the result will fall.

No, it is not a control of your alcohol level via a breathalyzer, but the "InspectIR Covid-10 Breathanalyzer", the very latest breath screening device for Covid-19.

It was approved on Thursday by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the American health agency, which issued emergency authorization to the company that produces it.

"This clearance is another example of the rapid innovation that is occurring with diagnostic testing for Covid-19," said Dr. Jeff Shuren, director of the FDA's Center for Devices and Radiation Health.

The promise of this device: a screening that leaves our nostrils quiet and offers an ultra-fast result.

But is it a miracle device?

And could it find its place in France?

Quick and easy screening

This device has several advantages.

The first, and not the least – cozy natures will agree –: there is no question here of a swab that comes to scrape the bottom of your nasal cavities and makes you cry after having rubbed too close to your lacrimal glands.

And just for that, we would be tempted to say that we already love this device!

In practice, it suffices to blow into a single-use cardboard straw connected to the device.

"It's a chemistry lab in a box," John Redmond, co-founder of InspectIR Systems, told The

New York Times

.

The machine then proceeds to the analysis of five volatile organic compounds in the breath sample, using the technique of gas chromatography.

Either that of the breathalyzer, which measures the alcohol level in the exhaled air.

Compounds that constitute a “respiratory imprint” of the Covid, he added.

And results are delivered in less than three minutes all-inclusive, the company says.

In the event of a positive test, the result must then be confirmed by a PCR, the FDA has decided.

Either the same protocol as in France in the event of a positive antigen test.

"It's really fast and quite impressive," commented to the American media Nathaniel Hafer, molecular biologist and testing expert at UMass Chan Medical School.

Especially since "not everyone can provide a nasal sample very easily", he continues, seeing in this new type of sample a "really valuable" tool.

“If the product is reliable, this can make sampling easier for some people, especially the very young or the oldest and vulnerable”, we abound on the side of the Union of Unions of Community Pharmacists (USPO ).

Interesting reliability

To test the effectiveness of its invention, InspectIR Systems conducted a study on 2,409 people.

And the results reported by are more than promising, with an observed reliability of 91.2% for positive samples and a specificity of 99.3% for negative samples.

That is a reliability comparable to that of PCR and antigen tests, and superior to that of self-tests.

As the High Authority for Health (HAS) points out, self-tests detect the presence of Covid-19 in 80% of cases in infected and symptomatic people, when used correctly.

On the other hand, Swiss researchers report that the reliability of these self-tests drops to 44% for asymptomatic people.

Without forgetting that "in the event of recourse to the self-test, we know that very often, people do not fit the swab much into the nostril, which can distort the result and with a false negative", we add to the USPO.

A few reservations to raise

It remains to be seen whether this device, the size of a cabin suitcase, will find its audience, while many pharmacies and screening centers have had well-established logistics between antigen tests and PCR tests for months.

“We have to wait for the results of additional work, considers the USPO, in particular on the different variants: some are less present in the oral sphere, therefore less present in the exhaled air”.

In addition, the device must be operated by a qualified and trained operator, and use must be supervised by a healthcare professional, similar to antigen testing.

In France, the time is currently for cautious optimism.

“In screening strategies, we are on technologies that are evolving very quickly, recalls the USPO, tests capable of detecting seasonal flu and Covid-19 are thus in development.

But if it is confirmed that this new device gives very good results, we will be interested.

For now, be careful!

»

To date, around 125,000 people are infected with Covid-19 daily in France.

Health

Covid-19: Contaminations down in France, hospitalizations on a plateau

Health

Covid-19: The United States announces a world summit on the pandemic on May 12

  • Health

  • Coronavirus

  • epidemic

  • Covid-19

  • Screening