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The Meals and Drug Administration is alerting People to the potential risks of at-home COVID-19 assessments after receiving reviews of individuals egregiously misusing them, leading to accidents.
In a security communication launched Friday, the FDA mentioned it had obtained reviews of accidents after folks used the kits’ liquid check resolution as eye drops or caught the answer up their noses. “The liquid check resolution shouldn’t be supposed to the touch your physique,” the FDA wrote sternly. The company additionally reported that some kids had been injured after placing check parts of their mouths and swallowing the answer.
“The liquid options might embrace chemical substances, corresponding to sodium azide, that assist the check work correctly or act as preservatives,” the FDA wrote. “The check chemical substances might be irritating or poisonous in the event that they get in your pores and skin, nostril, or eyes or if they’re swallowed.”
At-home assessments all have barely completely different protocols, however they usually contain combining a check resolution and nasal swab samplings on a check card. In Abbott’s standard BinaxNow check, for instance, persons are instructed to place six drops of a check resolution onto a testing card. Then test-takers swab their noses, insert the swab into the primed check card, seal the cardboard, and wait quarter-hour for outcomes. Within the iHealth COVID-19 check, test-takers swab their noses, swirl the swab in a check resolution, then squeeze three drops of the answer onto a check card and await outcomes.
In line with the FDA, some folks have put the check resolution onto the swab earlier than swabbing their nostril, ensuing within the check resolution being swirled round their nostrils.
It is unclear how many individuals have been injured by these testing snafus or how severe their accidents have been. Nonetheless, the FDA would love you to cease it. The company recommends that everybody preserve their check kits out of attain of pets and babies. When you’re prepared to make use of your equipment, learn the instructions and comply with them. The company additionally helpfully recommends that you simply “preserve the liquid resolution away from the pores and skin, nostril, mouth, and eyes. Don’t swallow the liquid resolution,” and “use solely the swab within the check equipment to gather a nasal pattern.”
“FDA approved at-home COVID-19 assessments have change into an necessary and handy software that individuals can use to examine in the event that they or a member of the family are at the moment contaminated with SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19,” the regulator notes. They’re additionally completely secure to make use of—whenever you comply with the instructions.
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