Australia’s failure to stockpile a commonly used chemical reagent needed for COVID-19 testing is contributing to shortages amid the pandemic, doctors have said.
The Australian Medical Association has said that a common reagent that is critical in the testing of coronavirus is facing supply issues because of the huge demand on Australian laboratories due to COVID-19.
Chemical reagents are used to extract nucleic acids from swabs taken from potential coronavirus patients, a critical step in confirming the presence of the virus.
The reagent is not specific to coronavirus and is used in testing for a range of illnesses, including other types of influenza, the association said.
Australia has “very variable stocking” of the reagent across different states and territories, said Chris Moy, the association’s president in South Australia.
That has left some jurisdictions facing supply issues, but others well-prepared, he said.
South Australia was singled out for praise. It has spent the past decade “carefully” stockpiling a supply of the reagent, something Moy said was a complex and difficult task.
“You need this reagent to do the test,” Moy told reporters, speaking from a clinic where he is testing potential coronavirus patients.
“There’s probably two issues at the moment. Firstly, there has been very variable stocking by the state pathology services of this,” he said.
“The other reason why there is a bit of a burn-through ... there is still a proportion of the ‘worried well’ getting tested. The problem with that is the criteria for testing keeps changing,” he added.
Moy said the problem again showed the need for the establishment of a nationally coordinated disease control authority, similar to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
“It just shows again that dealing with a pandemic, which is a state thing, can’t rely on jurisdictional inconsistencies, and also that dealing with a pandemic is a practical, not a theoretical, issue. That’s why the [association] has been calling for a center for disease control to coordinate responses,” Moy said.
Australia is hardly alone in facing strain on its supply of reagent.
Last week, US Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Stephen Hahn said that he was “aware of pressure in the supply system on the reagents” needed in coronavirus testing.
The agency was working 24/7 to address the problem and was seeking to supply laboratories with reagent alternatives, he said.
Grattan Institute health program director Stephen Duckett, a former Australian secretary of health, said that Australian officials had known for weeks that testing supply issues would arise.
“Were there estimates of demand?” he asked. “At the moment they are still basically saying we can’t meet demand. We can only test those who have very clear symptoms.”
Australian Department of Health Chief Medical Officer Paul Kelly yesterday told a news conference that there was no issue with supply of the kits themselves.
He said the supply issues with “consumables” were rapidly emerging, but not surprising.
“There are some issues in relation to some of the consumables around the tests. That’s a global issue,” he said. “As you can imagine, there’s a lot of testing going on. All of those 160,000 people that we have definite diagnoses on have had at least one test.”
Moy said the Australian government’s decision to bring private laboratories into the testing regime would help alleviate the pressure, as would stricter and more consistent criteria for who can be tested.
DITCH TACTICS: Kenyan officers were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch suspected to have been deliberately dug by Haitian gang members A Kenyan policeman deployed in Haiti has gone missing after violent gangs attacked a group of officers on a rescue mission, a UN-backed multinational security mission said in a statement yesterday. The Kenyan officers on Tuesday were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch “suspected to have been deliberately dug by gangs,” the statement said, adding that “specialized teams have been deployed” to search for the missing officer. Local media outlets in Haiti reported that the officer had been killed and videos of a lifeless man clothed in Kenyan uniform were shared on social media. Gang violence has left
US Vice President J.D. Vance on Friday accused Denmark of not having done enough to protect Greenland, when he visited the strategically placed and resource-rich Danish territory coveted by US President Donald Trump. Vance made his comment during a trip to the Pituffik Space Base in northwestern Greenland, a visit viewed by Copenhagen and Nuuk as a provocation. “Our message to Denmark is very simple: You have not done a good job by the people of Greenland,” Vance told a news conference. “You have under-invested in the people of Greenland, and you have under-invested in the security architecture of this
A fire caused by a burst gas pipe yesterday spread to several homes and sent a fireball soaring into the sky outside Malaysia’s largest city, injuring more than 100 people. The towering inferno near a gas station in Putra Heights outside Kuala Lumpur was visible for kilometers and lasted for several hours. It happened during a public holiday as Muslims, who are the majority in Malaysia, celebrate the second day of Eid al-Fitr. National oil company Petronas said the fire started at one of its gas pipelines at 8:10am and the affected pipeline was later isolated. Disaster management officials said shutting the
Japan unveiled a plan on Thursday to evacuate around 120,000 residents and tourists from its southern islets near Taiwan within six days in the event of an “emergency”. The plan was put together as “the security situation surrounding our nation grows severe” and with an “emergency” in mind, the government’s crisis management office said. Exactly what that emergency might be was left unspecified in the plan but it envisages the evacuation of around 120,000 people in five Japanese islets close to Taiwan. China claims Taiwan as part of its territory and has stepped up military pressure in recent years, including
RSS