Government Asked To Stop Using GeNose Until External Validation Comes Out

PHOTO ILLUSTRATION/BETWEEN (GENOSE)

JAKARTA - The use of the GeNose C19 test kit is being questioned. There is an assumption that the COVID-19 test kit made by UGM is inaccurate because there are false positive and false negative cases from the test.

Molecular biologist from Yarsi University, Ahmad Rusdjan Utomo, said he heard the news. Ahmad asked the Ministry of Health to stop the GeNose distribution permit as one of the requirements for transportation travellers, from airports to stations.

"Try the government to moratorium on the use of GeNose first, review it first, use standard screening tools such as antigen and PCR. This is for public safety too," said Ahmad to VOI, Tuesday, June 22.

Ahmad does not doubt UGM's claim about the accuracy of GeNose reaching 90 percent in examining the corona virus. However, there are currently no validation results from external parties to test it.

In fact, since last February, there are three campuses that will carry out external validation of GeNose. The campuses are the University of Indonesia, Andalas University, and Unair.

"I really hope that there will be external validation results from the campus so that the objective of claiming accuracy is 90 percent," he said.

Especially when there is a surge in COVID-19 cases accompanied by the emergence of a new variant of the corona virus that is more quickly transmitted. If the negative test result for COVID-19 as a condition for travellers is inaccurate, Ahmad is worried that there will be a bigger spike in cases.

"Viruses follow humans. Then we talk about long trips between cities, between provinces, between islands. That means, people who want to go far must really be screened with reliable tests," said Ahmad.

With external validation, the government can make the basis for using GeNose as a condition for travellers to do it or not. "If the results of the external validation test are the same as UGM claims, it means that the problem is not in GeNose," he added.

For information, GeNose is a rapid screening tool made by the nation's children whose tests are different from antigen or swab tests. The tests performed with the GeNose are exhalation based.

GeNose is connected to a cloud computing system through an artificial intelligence-based application to get diagnosis results in real time.

GeNose has the advantage that it can detect it faster and the price is relatively cheaper, starting from Rp. 20 thousand. It is said that the accuracy for detecting COVID-19 using GeNose is above 90 percent.

Later, the patient's exhalation sample taken using GeNose, if the result is positive, must still be validated using the standard PCR test swab test.