The Indian Council of Medical Research will start conducting rapid antibody-based blood test by Wednesday in areas reporting coronavirus c...
The Indian Council of Medical Research will start conducting rapid antibody-based blood test by Wednesday in areas reporting coronavirus clusters and hotspots showing high incidence of confirmed cases, The Hindu reported. The research organisation, which is overseeing the country’s testing regime, will receive about 7 lakh rapid antibody testing kits by then, according to ANI.
So far, India has used the RT-PCR or reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction test on nasal or throat swab samples of suspected patients to test for Covid-19. The RT-PCR tests look for the presence of the virus in the DNA. They can take anywhere between 12-24 hours to show results.
Raman R Gangakhedkar, head of Epidemiology and Communicable Diseases Division of the ICMR, said this testing is increasing and that India will be approaching full capacity soon.
In comparison, the rapid antibody tests identify disease-fighting antibodies in blood samples and can deliver results in 45 minutes to two hours. However, since antibodies are usually detectable only after around 7-10 days of being infected by the virus, such tests could throw up false negatives – an infected person may appear normal in the blood test.
“At the same time, we are expecting delivery of Rapid Test kits [blood based] for use in response to Covid-19 situation,” Gangakhedkar added. “By Wednesday...
