Lancet Kenya CEO and founder Ahmed Kalebi has come out guns blazing to defend COVID-19 results generated from his lab, saying those who get discordant results are in denial they are coronavirus positive.
“Some people dont’ understand the science of the testing.. When people test positive, I think there is an element of denial from people looking for negative results and they don’t want to accept the results,” he said.
“What happens as a result is a lot of confusion out there.”
Kalebi spoke during an interview with Citizen TV on Thursday.
Responding to Health CS Mutahi Kagwe’s comment that Lancet will be probed, Kalebi said it had already been audited by the Ministry of Health and that the minister might not have accessed the report yet.
Kalebi said Lancet was also audited by the Medical Council.
“Covid is not the first test we are doing… it’s not something new for us,” he said, adding that the lab had conducted more than 25,000 Covid-19 tests to date.
Earlier, Kagwe said Kenyans should go to labs that they feel will give them the right information.
“We have asked the medical board to relook at the labs we have licensed and if we believe that they are not adhering to the standards then we will definitely close them down,” he said.
“Why are you going there and you know it does not give clear information?. It is important to keep people informed in a true manner. ”
Kalebi alluded to his lab having superior testing capabilities, saying the kits it uses are top notch compared to others used across the country and that some samples are collected incorrectly, which could give a negative test result yet the person might be positive.
“The concerns should actually be about false negative results, rather than false positive results,” he said.
Kalebi also said the viral shedding period is five days and someone could test for the COVID-19 at their lab and then at another lab days later when the virus has already shed.
