World

WHO-People exposed to virus but without symptoms should be tested, if feasible

(FILES) In this file photo taken on March 11, 2020 World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus attends a daily press briefing on COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, at the WHO heardquaters in Geneva. - Congressional Republicans on April 16, 2020 urged President Donald Trump to condition US funding for the World Health Organization on the resignation of its chief over his handling of the coronavirus pandemic. Seventeen Republicans on the House Foreign Affairs Committee said they had "lost faith" in Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus's WHO leadership, even as they stressed the organization is vital to tackling the world's health problems. (Photo by Fabrice COFFRINI / AFP)

The World Health Organization (WHO) reiterated its advice on Thursday that resources permitting, people exposed to the novel coronavirus should be tested even if they do not show immediate symptoms of infection, Reuters reported.

Maria Van Kerkhove, a WHO epidemiologist, said the UN agency recommended suspected cases and their contacts be tested, if possible, but the focus should be on people displaying signs of infection.

“Our recommendations are to test suspect cases, and we have definitions for those. We have definitions of contacts, and who contacts are of confirmed cases, and make recommendations that contacts, if feasible, should be tested regardless of the development of symptoms,” Van Kerkhove told a news briefing.

“The focus, though, is on those that do develop symptoms.”

Mike Ryan, head of WHO’s emergencies programme, said there was a rationale for testing asymptomatic or pre-symptomatic people, in particular where clusters of infections were emerging, but that broad population testing was costly and unrealistic.