AMMAN — To cope with the
rapid increase in the number of
COVID-19 infections, many countries resorted to
allowing citizens to purchase a home test for the virus from pharmacies.
اضافة اعلان
President of the
Jordan Pharmacists Association Zaid Kilani said he had asked the Ministry of
Health to allow pharmacies to sell the test to citizens, but the request has
not been approved yet.
Kilani told
Jordan
News that pharmacies in most countries provide at-home test kits for ease of
use and speedy results, and that they would be very useful as the symptoms of
COVID- are very similar to those of influenza.
“Unfortunately,
Jordan is probably the only country that does not allow this test to be sold
directly to citizens yet,” despite providing it to companies, factories,
schools, and institutions that employ large numbers of people, Kilani said. He added
that the test kit, which is licensed by the Jordan Food and Drug
Administration, is available in sufficient quantities in Jordan and is 98
percent accurate.
The decision to not
allow pharmacies to sell the test to citizens is “illogical and should not be
allowed to continue at the current stage”, Kilani said, adding that many
citizens are buying it through companies, “yet pharmacies are still not allowed
to sell it”.
Because of the
speed with which the result comes out and its high accuracy, the home test
option is most feasible and may protect citizens of all ages, said Kilani,
stressing that it is the right of the citizen to obtain the result of a
COVID-19 test the soonest possible and at the lowest cost as well.
At the same time,
Kilani said that the home test does not replace the PCR test entirely, and that
citizens should have a
PCR test done if the result of the home test is
positive, and thus get an official excuse to be absent from work or school.
“The home test is a
legal medical product, and as any medical product, it should be allowed to be
sold in pharmacies, so no party has the right to violate this law,” he said,
adding that while there is no ruling preventing the sale of these tests, there
is no decision allowing its sale either.
Secretary-General
of the
Ministry of Health for Epidemiological Affairs Adel Al-Balbisi told
Jordan News that the ministry needs to keep tabs on the number of positive
cases, and “if a citizen tests positive at home, he might choose not to isolate
himself or report his condition to the Ministry of Health, which keeps track of
the cases and deals with them.” This, Balbisi said, is bound to contribute to
increasing the spread the virus.
If pharmacies are
to sell the test kit, said, they should have a mechanism to monitor the
results of citizens who resort to home testing in order to be able to inform
the Ministry of Health of the results, for the proper procedures to be taken.
Kilani’s take on
this is that citizens who have some symptoms might believe it is a simple flu,
in the absence of a COVID-19 test, whereas if a home test were available, it
would be easier for them to do a quick test without worrying about having to
wait for long hours to do so.
At the same time,
Kilani believes that a minority of citizens may not isolate if they are
infected, while the great majority cares about the health of their families and
those around them, and would not endanger them.
The goal of
undergoing tests and treatment is to maintain the general health of the
population, not to keep statistics and record numbers, said Kilani, adding that
“for the first time, Jordan is behind in this matter, and we have to correct
that”.
Kilani was quoted
by Jo24 as having said that insurance companies started to cover the expenses
of coronavirus drugs, and that sufficient quantities of antiviral drugs, which
are sometimes used to treat COVID-19, have been imported. At the same time,
there are two companies that manufacture the medicine locally and supply it to
the public sector.
Kilani pointed out
that the price of treatment is still somewhat high, given the fact that modern
technology goes into their production and that usually any new treatment has a
higher price tag, stressing that pricing is the responsibility of the
Jordan Food and Drug Administration.
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