Why is it hard to find a box of antigens in China (blindly snapping up antigen detection reagents during the epidemic leads to a shortage of supplies)

Since the outbreak of COVID-19 in 2020, large-scale virus detection has been carried out all over the world. Among them, antigen detection kit has become the first choice for virus detection in many countries because of its rapid, simple and accurate characteristics. However, during the epidemic period, the supply of antigen testing kits was far from meeting the market demand, which led to a situation that one box was hard to find in China.

What is an antigen test kit?

The antigen detection kit is a kit for detecting virus antigens. It judges whether the human body is infected with the virus by detecting the antigen content of the virus in the human body. Compared with traditional nucleic acid detection methods, antigen detection kit has the advantages of rapidity, accuracy and simplicity. Therefore, it has become the first choice for virus detection in many countries during the epidemic.

Operating steps of antigen detection kit

The operation steps of antigen detection kit are relatively simple, generally including the following steps:

Sample collection: Generally, nasopharyngeal swab or throat swab is used to collect samples.

Sample addition: add the collected samples to the kit.

Stirring: fully and evenly stir the samples and reagents in the kit.

Dropping: drop the stirred mixed solution into the detection hole of the kit.

Waiting: Wait for a certain period of time to observe whether there is any color change in the detection hole.

Interpretation: according to the interpretation criteria in the kit instructions, judge whether the sample is positive or negative.

Why is it hard to find a box of antigens in China?

The shortage of antigen detection kits is mainly due to the following reasons:

With the outbreak of global epidemic, countries are carrying out large-scale virus detection, which leads to a significant increase in the demand for antigen detection kits.

The production of antigen detection kit needs a lot of time and cost, and its production capacity is limited, so it is difficult to meet the market demand.

The governments of some countries and regions have adopted the policy of restricting exports, resulting in a decrease in the import of antigen testing kits.

Some merchants and individuals hoard and snap up antigen detection kits for profiteering, which leads to a shortage of market supply.

How to avoid the waste of antigen detection kit?

When using antigen detection kit, we should pay attention to the following points to avoid waste:

Follow the operation steps in the manual to avoid operation errors.

Quality control should be carried out before testing to ensure that the quality of the kit meets the requirements.

Avoid repeated detection of the same sample, so as not to waste the kit.

Nucleic acid testing should be carried out before testing to eliminate the possibility of false negative.