As Poslovni Dnevnik writes on the 6th of April, 2020, the director of the Croatian Institute of Public Health, Krunoslav Capak, was interviewed by RTL Today (Danas) and explained in detail who is being tested for coronavirus and by what criteria, because that is one of the most common questions being asked by people up and down the country.
“From the very beginning, we’ve followed the guidelines of the European Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, as well as the World Health Organisation. It was first said that we needed to test persons who were in contact with a coronavirus positive person or who resided in focal areas and who developed symptoms. Later on, the ECDC changed its instructions and said to test for any serious respiratory disease and then it did so again ten days ago, in saying that we need to test for any acute respiratory disease for which no other cause could be identified,” Capak told RTL.
An error in assessment may occur, especially when someone is diagnosed over the phone as is being done now, but that is why the coronavirus suspect can always call another doctor or another epidemiologist for a second opinion in each case of suspicion.
Krunoslav Capak also announced that a population-wide study will be done in the Republic of Croatia to see if anyone may have recovered from COVID-19.
“It will definitely work. A few days ago, we launched a literature review to see what that looks like and how it’s done in other countries. We know for sure about the Yokoham cruiser, where there were a lot of positive test results, and the percentage of those who didn’t even have any symptoms were quite high, but these are special conditions.
No population studies have been launched yet, but we will certainly do it. There are two ways to do this: either take one whole area and inspect people or conduct a so-called sentinel study, where all patients under the care of one general practitioner are studied and a profile is made,” Krunoslav Capak explained.
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