The government has issued an order, published on Saturday July 30 in the Official Journal, for screening tests to be covered by Health Insurance.
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Tests for the detection of the monkey pox virus are 100% reimbursed by Health Insurance, indicates this Saturday, July 30, an order in the Official Journal, after a recommendation to this effect from the High Health Authority.
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How can these tests help in making the diagnosis? “These PCR tests help to recognize clinical forms of the disease, the diagnosis of which is sometimes difficult.“, explains this Saturday on franceinfo the infectiologist Benjamin Davido. Important precision: the use of these tests can only be done in “last resort“, underlines Benjamin Davido, if the clinician needs it to establish his diagnosis.
A preventive use of tests is not useful: “This is very different from the Covid 19 epidemic. The scientific literature indicates that asymptomatic cases of monkeypox are extremely residual. We do not even know to what extent these few cases can be contagious. There is therefore no reason to multiply self-tests and PCRs“, says infectious disease specialist Benjamin Davido.
PCR testing for monkeypox should be performed in “specialized laboratories“.”It is impossible to carry out tests outside these laboratories. To my knowledge, there is no antigenic test to detect monkeypox.“, concludes the specialist.