A few weeks back, the Indian Council of Medical Research had called back all the Chinese
rapid testing kits which had been supplied to the states for surveillance reasons with strict guidelines. However, due to complaints from state authorities regarding the malfunctioning of these kits, the ICMR had to withdraw these testing kits.
“ELISA test Kits”
In the absence of proper SARS-CoV-2 Antibody Test, the National Institute of Virology in Pune has successfully developed the first indigenous antibody detection kit for Covid-19 that will play a critical role in surveillance for coronavirus infection, Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan said on Sunday.
“Medical Capabilities and improvements”
The testing kit named ELISA has the capability of testing 90 samples at one time in a single run of 2.5 hours which would allow health care workers to take the necessary steps quickly, as per the statement given by Harsh Vardhan.
“National Institute of Virology, Pune, has successfully developed the 1st indigenous
anti-SARS-CoV-2 human IgG ELISA test kit for antibody detection of Covid-19,” the minister said in one of a series of tweets.
“This robust test will play a critical role in surveillance of proportion of the population exposed to SARSCoV2 infection,” he said.
The kit is to be validated and tested at two sites in Mumbai and has high sensitivity and
accuracy, the Union Health Minister added.
“Cost-effective”
The kit which has been developed within the span of a month is said to help the study of the presence of the anti-SARS0CoV-2 IgG antibodies in the public. As it was made by domestic manufacturers, it has proved to be more cost-effective, sensitive, rapid, and allows for a large number of sample testing at any level of healthcare.
The Indian Council of Medical Research-National Institute of Virology, Pune, technology has been transferred to Zydus Cadila for mass-scale production.
The Drug Controller General has granted commercial production and marketing permission to Zydus, Vardhan said.
This test hopes to provide a better indication of the spread of the diseases in the mainstream Indian population and present the real numbers sooner than the previous tests.
