TNPSC Thervupettagam

Covid 19 Test kits in India

April 9 , 2020 1566 days 905 0
  • Recently the government had allowed two private companies - Indian company MyLab and German firm Altona Diagnostics - to supply COVID-19 test kits to both government as well as private testing laboratories in India.
  • Two South Korean firms, Seegene and SD Biosensor have received government approval to supply RT-PCR based Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) diagnostic kits in India.

Mechanism

  • RT-PCR is known as Reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction.
  • It is a laboratory technique combining reverse transcription of RNA into DNA by using a polymerase chain reaction (PCR).
  • It is primarily used to measure the amount of specific RNA in a cell. 
  • Its ability to quantify viral RNA makes the technique one of the most common ways of identifying viral strains.

Other firms

  • The government also approved 12 rapid antibody test kits for COVID-19 diagnosis.
  • The advantage of antibody rapid tests is that the result can be made available within 30 minutes. 
  • The test comes positive after 7 to 10 days of infection. 
  • While positive test indicates exposure to COVID-19, negative does not rule out the infection.

Biotech

  • The Bhopal of Madhya Pradesh based Biotech is second Indian firm to produce COVID-19 testing kit.
  • It is to produce real-time polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) COVID-19 testing kits.
  • The firm in the past had launched India’s first homemade test for another pandemic — H1N1 — commonly known as swine flu.
  • Mylab Discovery Solutions became the first Indian company to get commercial approval for its diagnostic test for covid-19 from the Central Drugs Standard Control Organization (CDSCO) after an evaluation by the Indian Council of Medical Research.
  • The test kit, named the Mylab Patho Detect COVID-19 Qualitative PCR kit, was developed in a record six weeks.
  • This project was headed by the head of research and development of Mylab “Minal Dakhave Bhosale”.

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