DRDO develops H1N1 testing kit
Shimona Kanwar, TNN 22 November 2009, 02:35am ISTText Size:|Topics
RDO
H1N1 cases
testing kit
CHANDIGARH: With the advent of winter H1N1 cases are on the rise across the country. Keeping this and the high cost of the WHO testing kit in mind an indigenous rapid testing kit has been developed by the DRDO, which shall not only cut down the cost by one tenth of the existing WHO-approved kit, but also reduce the testing time from a day to 15-20 minutes. Moreover, it is not bulky and can be carried to the field or home for diagnosis.
Informing the The Times of India about the latest development, Dr W Selvamurthy, chief controller, research and development, ministry of defence, DRDO, said, ?The kit has been sent to the National Institute of Communicable Diseases, Delhi, by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) for validation. It shall be available
in the market after the transfer of technology by the ICMR. It took us just six months for the kit?s production.?
Three months ago 10 indigenous companies had presented their rapid-testing kits to the ICMR. Firms Auroprobe, Genomic Diagnostics and Ocimmum were found to be testing an effective kit with real samples. ?Only two of them have been sent for validation. With the DRDO also in the queue, we have more options for the approval,? VM Katoch, director general, ICMR, stated.
Unlike the WHO kit, the DRDO one is based on real-time LAMP (Loop-mediated isothermal amplification) technique which reduces the testing time. Terming this development on a par with international kits as far as economy is concerned, Selvamurthy added, ?The polymerase-based WHO kit makes the testing less specific which requires more sophisticated tools also. Moreover, the cost of the DRDO kit is Rs 1,000 ($20) while that of the WHO kit is Rs 10,000. ($200)
According to a ministry of health and family welfare update, till date 15,926 have been tested positive with the flu with 534 deaths reported across the country.
Shimona Kanwar, TNN 22 November 2009, 02:35am ISTText Size:|Topics

H1N1 cases
testing kit
CHANDIGARH: With the advent of winter H1N1 cases are on the rise across the country. Keeping this and the high cost of the WHO testing kit in mind an indigenous rapid testing kit has been developed by the DRDO, which shall not only cut down the cost by one tenth of the existing WHO-approved kit, but also reduce the testing time from a day to 15-20 minutes. Moreover, it is not bulky and can be carried to the field or home for diagnosis.
Informing the The Times of India about the latest development, Dr W Selvamurthy, chief controller, research and development, ministry of defence, DRDO, said, ?The kit has been sent to the National Institute of Communicable Diseases, Delhi, by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) for validation. It shall be available
in the market after the transfer of technology by the ICMR. It took us just six months for the kit?s production.?
Three months ago 10 indigenous companies had presented their rapid-testing kits to the ICMR. Firms Auroprobe, Genomic Diagnostics and Ocimmum were found to be testing an effective kit with real samples. ?Only two of them have been sent for validation. With the DRDO also in the queue, we have more options for the approval,? VM Katoch, director general, ICMR, stated.
Unlike the WHO kit, the DRDO one is based on real-time LAMP (Loop-mediated isothermal amplification) technique which reduces the testing time. Terming this development on a par with international kits as far as economy is concerned, Selvamurthy added, ?The polymerase-based WHO kit makes the testing less specific which requires more sophisticated tools also. Moreover, the cost of the DRDO kit is Rs 1,000 ($20) while that of the WHO kit is Rs 10,000. ($200)
According to a ministry of health and family welfare update, till date 15,926 have been tested positive with the flu with 534 deaths reported across the country.
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