Corona virus testing has been hugely important since the pandemic began. Throughout Germany, however, laboratories examine fewer smears than would be possible. Does this also apply to the region?
Photo: Felix Kästle, dpa
Corona virus tests are an important tool in the fight against the corona virus. The capacities for this were very small at the beginning of the pandemic in Germany. But that has changed in the meantime. According to the Robert Koch Institute (RKI), almost 965,000 tests per week are possible nationwide. However, the capacities are not even used to 40 percent. You like it in the laboratories in Lower Franconia?
Laboratories in the region are partially overloaded
“We are not only busy, we are partially overloaded,” says Ralf Krajewski from the Medical Care Center (MVZ) for laboratory medicine and microbiology in Würzburg. “We often get more samples than we can process in an adequate amount of time,” says the senior medical technical assistant for microbiology and molecular biology. The laboratory was almost overwhelmed by the enormous number of smears that are delivered daily for evaluation due to the pandemic. According to Krajewski, the MVZ primarily evaluates samples from resident doctors and hospitals.
The currently used variant to test directly for corona is the polymerase chain reaction (PCR). In order to examine a smear using this method, the genetic material must first be isolated. According to Krajewski, this process, the so-called purification, is currently causing the greatest difficulties. Normally, an automat could do this step. For this, however, special extraction kits are necessary, which the manufacturers can currently hardly deliver. “In the meantime, we have switched to manual reconditioning,” says Krajewski. But that takes a lot of time. The Würzburg laboratory cannot test more than 100 smears a day under the current circumstances.
Delivery bottlenecks create difficulties
The MVZ in Würzburg is not alone in this. “As far as I can see, we are all working on the attack,” confirms Dr. Bernard Wiegel from the professional association of German laboratory doctors. If the tests are jammed, it will also take longer for the results to be available and a possible infection with the corona virus to be detected.
According to Wiegel, the main reason for the high capacity utilization of the laboratories is that patients as well as the staff in health facilities are now increasingly being tested as a precaution. As a result, the number of samples has risen sharply, although the virus is now spreading much more slowly in Germany than at the beginning of the pandemic and there are fewer new infections. According to Wiegel, there are always problems with the delivery of various materials that are necessary for the evaluation.
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Material shortages have also already occurred at the Institute of Virology and Immunobiology at the University of Würzburg. “Especially at the end of March and in April, the supply situation with test reagents was sometimes very difficult,” says virologist Dr. Benedikt Weißbrich. Thanks to different test platforms, however, this was not as important as elsewhere. At the moment, his laboratory is 80 to 90 percent full, says Weißbrich and attributes this, among other things, to large-scale tests for hospital staff and patients.
Uneven distribution of samples
The government of Lower Franconia assumes a maximum total capacity of more than 2500 tests per day for the region. “Due to the low number of infections, this capacity is certainly far from being used at present,” spokesman Johannes Hardenacke said. But where are the free capacities? According to Hardenacke, the authority cannot provide any information about this. No regional data can be obtained from the State Office for Health and Food Safety (LGL).
A laboratory that does not work at the limit is the private laboratory Rosler in Wildflecken (district Bad Kissingen). In March, the Lower Franconian government followed a call to start evaluating corona tests and to relieve other laboratories. “We are currently examining 100 to 110 smears a day, but up to 500 would be no problem in a day,” says owner Dr. Eduard Rosler. There seems to be a lack of coordination and communication. According to Rosler, many doctors simply send their samples to the laboratory they work with. Most would not even know which other laboratories also evaluate coronavirus tests, said the laboratory doctor. This could lead to overloads.
The Medical Supply Center (MVZ) for laboratory medicine and microbiology in Würzburg would like to pass on part of the smears so that they can be processed quickly elsewhere. However, says Ralf Krajewski, there is no point of contact that can provide information about which laboratories currently have free capacity. Fortunately, his laboratory has the opportunity to send smears there for free in university virology for testing.
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Wurzburg
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Bad Kissingen
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Anna-Lena Behnke
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Medical practices
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Corona virus
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Infectious diseases
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Infection numbers
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Johannes Hardenacke
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Julius Maximilians University of Würzburg
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Hospital staff
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Hospitals and clinics
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Laboratory medicine
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Laboratories
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Laboratory doctors
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microbiology
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Government of Lower Franconia
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Robert Koch Institute
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doctors
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