By Lina Sagaral Reyes .
Last of two parts
AT the city hall’s Emergency Operations Center, the war room of the anti-Covid-19 task force, the ongoing seroprevalence survey in Barangay Carmen is not just a mere war game.
As in warfare, it is a real offensive: the latest campaign to control the spread of the coronavirus and prevent a surge of cases in the barangay. Later next month, the research will cover the rest of Cagayan de Oro City.
Like Presidents Rodrigo Duterte and Donald Trump, Mayor Oscar Moreno had borrowed military metaphors to rally his constituents to defend themselves and their communities against Covid-19.
But he switched the analogy to competitive sports as he tried to explain the term used in medical and epidemiological research during a recent press briefing.
‘’This is offense, ’’ the mayor, a basketball aficionado, said of seroprevalence.
He meant the teamwork in basketball that brings the ball towards the goal basket for the winning shots.
Dr. Ian Gonzales, head of the infectious disease cluster and the research unit at the regional office of the Department of Health (DOH), explained that from here and onwards the city’s strategy in facing the pandemic ceases to be just a waiting game.
He uses the term, level-up, to reach out perhaps to the millennials tuning in on the daily presser on Facebook Live and who are familiar with this phrase used in online computer-based jousts that were part of their growing-up years.
‘’This is a level-up: from passive surveillance to active surveillance to the seroprevalence survey,’’ he said.
Since the first Covid case here in mid-March --a 71-year-old resident who vacationed in Manila--the country’s Covid epicenter, there had only been 27 other cases, of which 11 are considered local transmissions and the rest are new arrivals, either overseas workers or residents stranded in other parts of the country.
‘’We used active surveillance to find Covid-19 cases based on those who sought medical support. We went further to find those who had symptoms who did not seek medical care or get through triage for the testing or through our active surveillance,’’ he said, recalling the public-health strategies the city employed in the previous months as the country was placed under community quarantine.
‘’It is like we will be taking a ‘snapshot’ of Covid-19 in our city by looking into the antibodies (in the blood serum) of people. We will test anyone, whether they have symptoms or no symptoms at all. Because we will use probability sampling, all city residents have equal chance of being chosen as participant.’’
He added that the data from the study will be compared with those data taken in other cities in the country and elsewhere in the world.
Variations of seroprevalence studies had been done earlier in Germany, Spain, Italy, Netherlands, United States, and in China.
In the Philippines, the cities of Cebu, Lapu-lapu, and Mandaue in Central Visayas had joined forces to conduct their seroprevalence surveys, which were also a mass testing, in May this year.
Dr. Gonzales noted that these studies form the Unity Studies of the World Health Organization (WHO), similar comprehensive surveys, either large-scale or community-level, conducted to understand the novel Sars-Cov2 better, the virus that causes the Covid-19.
Gonzales explains that a small amount of blood will be extracted from a vein in the arm of the respondent and the specimen will be subjected to a rapid antibody test. The study will use the diagnostic kit OnSite by California based CKT Biotech, one of the 77 such covid-19 kits approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
Those reactive samples will get tested on the Reverse Transcription- Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT PCR), the lab-based diagnostic workout that is considered the gold standard in covid-19 confirmatory screening.
The US Centers for Disease Prevention and Control describe ‘’antibodies as specific proteins made in response to infections.
‘’Antibodies are detected in the blood of people who are tested after infection; they show an immune response to the infection. Antibodies most commonly become detectable 1-3 weeks after symptom onset or infection. Antibody test results are especially important for detecting previous infections in people who had few or no symptoms,’’ CDC noted.
Gonzales explained, “By this, we will have some questions answered: how many have developed antibodies and therefore had been infected? How many are active infections and how many have recovered? How many of these are asymptomatic?”
The health officials’ move to investigate into antibodies, hatched in May, comes in the heels of the heightened testing capacity in Region 10.
As of June 20, two laboratories can now provide testing services, the Northern Mindanao Medical Center with its three GeneXpert Xpress and the DOH TB Reference Clinic whose two RT PCR machines, an extractor, and test kits were procured by the city using the Bayanihan Fund grant.
Piggybacking on the blood sampling is another study on the knowledge, attitudes, and practices (KAP) of the Kagay-anons in relation to the covid pandemic.
‘’Knowing the KAP.will provide scientific evidence to guide the DOH and the City Health Office in its risk communication and health promotion activities,’’ informed Gonzales.
Based on the results of the back-to-back research, Gonzales said that they could recommend specific measures LGUs can take to tailor its strategies based on the circumstances on the ground to eradicate Covid-19.
‘’What we endeavour in the DOH, especially in our Regional Research Unit is evidence-based, science-based decision-making,’’ said Gonzales.
The Unit provides political leaders, including local government executives, the best available evidence to solve public health problems.
Meanwhile, Mayor Moreno continued to encourage Barangay Carmen residents like Clarence Joy the student and Corazon the vegetable vendor to be on the offense.
‘’Because you cannot defeat your opponent if you always remain on the defensive. We have to win against the virus. To win, we have to score; to score we have to be on the offensive,’’ he said, adding that like sports and war, so it is with life, and, we suppose, by life, he meant during and beyond the Covid-19 pandemic.
