During the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, people across the world have had to access tests for the illness at some point. These tests are currently widely available, but quite expensive and only via medical practitioners of some sort. A new study may make COVID-19 tests more affordable and accessible – especially in countries like South Africa.
The US currently offers rapid antigen COVID-19 tests in drugstores across the country. South Africans still need to gain access to a medical institution by booking an appointment to test for the virus at any point. At the beginning of the pandemic, locals had to produce a doctor’s note to have a test conducted, which is, of course, another fee that they had to cover. It’s expensive to be sick, guys.
There’s an app for that
Now, a group of scientists from the University of California, Santa Barbara published a paper detailing a new at-home testing method that can be conducted using a ‘relatively new’ smartphone. They developed the test using the Samsung Galaxy S9, which launched back in 2018.
The whole setup, which includes some basic lab equipment and an app on your smartphone, will apparently only cost around $7. That’s around R110, or the equivalent of many streaming services’ monthly cost. Imagine being able to conduct a COVID-19 test safely, at home, for only R110? Obviously, you can factor in the cost of the smartphone needed for the test – but most people have modern smartphones.
Read more: SA launches COVIDConnect, for contact tracing and test results – here’s how to access it
That’s exactly what this group of researchers had in mind with the ‘smaRT-LAMP, which offers accuracy close to that of a PCR test. Research is ongoing, and the research pool is relatively small, but its early results look promising.
How it works
At its base, the solution is an app that uses a smartphone camera to detect pathogens in a person’s saliva. This is done using a kit that comprises a test kit, a hot plate, a specific reactive solution. The process that follows is called ‘Loop-mediated Isothermal Amplification’. That last thing is called LAMP – which is where the name comes from, clearly.
A person will drop a bit of spit in a test kit, and have it sitting on a hot plate. They’ll drop in the reactive solution, which will amplify the viral RNA in the saliva. The solution is then covered in a cardboard box and the smartphone placed along the top of the box. This allows it to peek into the box and read the reaction of the saliva. If it turns fluorescent red, pathogens would be present. If not – none are present.
The app reads this info and is able to build a report and accurately diagnose the user – which is quite amazing. It’s important, however, to recognise that this is still in the experimental phase, but could offer a useful solution for many people that don’t have the money/facilities to get tested.
Source: Gizmodo