New COVID-19 Screening Kit Launches to Identify a Prevalent and Early Symptom of COVID-19
Optimist Screening Anosmia (Loss of Smell) Retail Test Kit
COVID-19 appears to be with us for the long-haul with daily cases hitting record highs in the United States.
Unfortunately, organizations that screen for carriers of COVID-19 have limited screening options such as temperature testing, verbal screening or advanced PRC and/or Algen testing which can be difficult to administer on a large scale. A recent study suggests three-quarters of people with COVID-19 infection may be asymptomatic “silent spreaders”.
Fortunately, a new screening tool has recently obtained FDA registration for a Class 2 Medical device. This kit provides an easy, affordable, fast and effective means of detecting anosmia or loss of smell, a common and early symptom of COVID-19 infection.
Optimist Screening was designed and clinically validated to detect anosmia via an easy to administer blind “smell test” that identifies asymptomatic carriers experiencing loss of smell.
• The CDC and WHO designate loss of smell as a symptom of COVID-19
• Optimist Screening is useful for rapid testing large numbers of people and high-volume environments
• Because asymptomatic carriers do not experience fever, temperature scans are ineffective
• Acute loss of sense of smell needs to be considered globally as a criterion for self isolation, testing and contact tracing
“The CDC has everyone temperature scanning to only identify symptomatic carriers that are already sick with a fever… but the real problem is the silent asymptomatic carriers” stressed Russell Smith, CEO of Optimist Screening, “we are screening to detect a single and very common symptom of COVID-19, loss of smell, identifying the otherwise asymptomatic spreaders is critical to slowing the spread.”
The Optimist Screening kit does not require a trained technician to administer. Each kit comes with 3 unique odorants, a single odorant is presented to the screening subject on a disposable test sheet. The subject is simply asked to identify the fragrance and if they cannot confirm or show difficulty in closely identifying the smell, as a next step they are advised to take an antigen or PCR lab test to verify COVID-19 infection. Each Optimist kit contains 560 tests and it takes about 5 seconds for each screening. The kit is proving to be a useful tool in the “Return to Work” efforts for many businesses and manufacturing companies. Optimist Screening has also been deployed into schools, universities, physician offices and senior living facilities. Optimist Screening provides re-opening reassurance to employees, parents, family visitors, and all that enter any building, that their safety is a top priority and being proactive is a significant step in slowing the spread.
Russell Smith
Optimist Screening
+1 404-777-6190
support@optimistscreening.com
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