Covid variant causing second Wave, highly stealthy beats RT-PCR tests: Doctors

The new form of covid-19 virus has caused a furore across India, cases of this new double mutant virus are increasing rapidly and are not taking the name of stoppage. 

Many times during the investigation of covid-19, it is not clear whether the patient is infected or not. 

The RT-PCR (reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction) test has been considered a high-level test for corona screening, but the accuracy of the RT-PCR probe we rely on is just 70 percent, it is not necessary that the result always comes right.

Dr. Ashish Chaudhary, managing director of Aakash Healthcare told 'The Times of India', 'We have found many such patients in the last few days. He is suffering from fever, phlegm, difficulty in breathing and mild patches in his lungs were seen in CT scan. It is called patchy ground glass opacity in medical language. This is a special symptom of the corona virus. Despite this, his test report came negative.

He said that some of these patients underwent bronchoalveolar lavage test. In this test, the fluid of the lungs is examined by inserting a thin tube through the mouth or nose. In this test, all the patients who were corona positive had symptoms and the report of their Covid-19 RT-PCR test was negative. 

Dr. Pratibha Kale, Associate Professor of Clinical Microbiology at the Institute of Liver and Biliary Sciences, said, 'It is possible that the virus may not have entered the body through the nose or throat in these patients. This is the reason why his test report did not come positive in samples taken from nose and throat.

Kale said that in such cases the virus attaches itself to ACE receptors. ACE receptors are a type of protein found in many lung cells. Therefore, all these patients were found to be infected with the corona by examining the lung fluids performed in the bronchoalveolar lavage test.

Dr. Vivek Nagia, head of the Department of Pulmonology at Max Healthcare, says that about 15-20 percent of Corona patients are going through this problem. Despite all the symptoms of Corona appearing, his test report is coming negative. 

Doctor Nagia said that this is a serious problem because in such a situation he is admitted to the non-covid area where he can spread the infection further. Apart from this, due to the report being negative, the treatment of such patients is also delayed.

"The symptoms of patients are also very different in this wave of corona as compared to the first wave. In such a situation, mutation of virus cannot be ruled out" he said.

Senior consultant Dr Arup Basu, in the Department of Chest Medicine of Sir Gangaram Hospital, said that this time, patients with coronas are also seeing symptoms like runny nose and conjunctivitis, which were not in the first wave.

"Many patients are not having cough or difficulty in breathing, due to which their lungs are being found normal in CT scan. However, they have high fever for 8-9 days, due to which they need to be admitted to the hospital" Basu said.