I think labs in Nepal should not routinely report the CT value. Instead, they should provide it to treating doctor IF required. There is no standardisation across the tests, and even practitioners are unclear how it should be applied on clinical setting. (1/n)

From what I'm seeing CT value included in COVID-positive patients RT-PCT report is creating a "mass panic" among individuals & their closed ones which is the last thing they want. With rapid rise in infection and death rates which is constantly broadcasted by every media, (2/n)

false news, myth about the disease and on top of that a low CT value helps to do nothing but to decrease the morale of a patient. Everyone is not 'strong' and there are vulnerable people too. We need to protect everyone. (3/n)

The number of cycles needed by the machine to detect the virus is called the cycle threshold or CT. Yes, its true that if the viral load is high, the CT value would be lower. If the viral load is lower, the CT value would be higher but it has a lot of limitations. (4/n)

CT values are confusing and misleading and not reliable. It differs from test kits to test kits, sample collection site & procedures, temperature during collection and transportation & time taken for the transportation of the sample to the lab impacting CT values. (5/n)

Also, such cases where a patient is at symptomatic stage, it might show high CT values will give a false sense of security.z (6/n)

How cycle thresholds can potentially be used to improve diagnosis,management & control is still a topic under research. It needs a lot of time, data & manipulation to standardise it's value. (7/n)

I'm not implying that the value is useless but little information about the value can create either a false sense of panic or false sense of security which is both dangerous and could contribute to outcomes which we won't like. (8/8)