The President of the World Association of Societies of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine explains why Inter and Lazio players test positive for COVID-19 for UEFA, but negative in Serie A.
There have been several controversial situations already over the past couple of weeks, as Achraf Hakimi of Inter tested positive in the UEFA swab only to be negative a day later, while Lazio have had several players including Ciro Immobile who are positive in the Champions League, but negative in Serie A.
The President of the World Association of Societies of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine explains why Inter and Lazio players test positive for COVID-19 for UEFA, but negative in Serie A.
There have been several controversial situations already over the past couple of weeks, as Achraf Hakimi of Inter tested positive in the UEFA swab only to be negative a day later, while Lazio have had several players including Ciro Immobile who are positive in the Champions League, but negative in Serie A.
Questions have therefore been raised about what differences there are between the UEFA and Serie A tests for Coronavirus.
“UEFA and the FIGC ought to reach some sort of consensus,” said Professor Roberto Verna, President of the World Association of Societies of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine on TMW Radio.
“The experts ought to be consulted to agree on what viral load constitutes a positive result. The PCR test seeks out the viral nucleic acid, which is then amplified in the laboratory to make it quantifiably visible.
“It can be positive with a different viral load, and also differently infective. The antigen (antibody) test, however, is a system to find the antigens on the capsule of the virus.
“As that is a less sensitive test, which only identifies a viral load if it is fairly high, this is more important on a clinical level, as it shows us who is more infective.
“When you amplify this way, all it takes is a tiny error to amplify another aspect and the person can test positive because what was replicated is not a virus.
“In the case of COVID-19, there are three genes that originate three different proteins in the capsule. Of these, it would seem one does not show if someone is infective, but it does lead to a positive result in the UEFA test.”
So did Lazio break the rules by allowing players to take part in Serie A games when they were positive in the UEFA test?
“Lazio have not made a mistake, it depends on who decides what is positive and what isn’t,” continued Professor Verna.
“UEFA have a very specific interpretation, whereas in Italy we say the same person is not positive due to different parameters.”