Govt begins use of rapid antibody tests in coronavirus hotspots across JK

Srinagar: To check community spread of COVID-19 and take remedial measures on fast track basis in the identified red zones across Jammu and Kashmir, the government would use Rapid Antibody Tests, kits received from Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR).
Professor and Head, Department of Microbiology at Government Medical College Jammu, Dr. Shashi, informed this here Monday while elaborating on measures being implemented by GMC to contain the spread of this pandemic.
“This rapid antibody based blood test will conduct community and cluster screening to detect possible carriers of Novel Corona virus besides helping to know the impact of Virus in the identified red zones”, she further added.
She further informed that this test does not prove whether a person is positive or negative for COVID-19 at a given point of time but will only detect presence or absence of anti-bodies against COVID-19 in a person to tell that the person has been exposed already to the Virus and assess the seroprevalence . “The aim of the rapid test is not diagnosis but with these tests we will come to know whether the Corona Virus has got established in a community in the identified red zones,” she said.
In this regard, the necessary training for health professionals will start tomorrow.
Pertinently, the ICMR has advised antibody tests in COVID-19 hotspots which will ensure faster detection of cases and clusters and guide the authorities to further focus the hotspots to contain community spread. Only the persons testing IgM antibody positive (indicating fresh infection) in rapid test, the PCR test has to be done to confirm the result. While antibody test is based on blood samples, the PCR test is based on Oro/Naso-Pharyngeal swabs.
Dr Shashi said they had good experience in Molecular Epidemiological tracking by Real Time PCR which is the gold standard worldover and is optimistic towards containing this deadly infection.
In order to increase the testing capacity, Cartridge Based Nucleic Acid Amplification Test (CB-NAAT) has been started at the Intermediate Reference Lab. at the Chest Diseases Hospital,Jammu which gives faster results and also helps the clinicians of all specialities in assessing the status of the suspects before surgeries and procedures.
Dr Shashi said the department had limited resources in the initial stage but with complete support and guidance from the Union government we have been able to enhance the overall capacity both in terms of infrastructure and human resource and without the administrative support this would not have been possible.
“We have expanded our diagnostic services and are receiving well researched guidelines from the ICMR for conducting rapid COVID-19 test in the GeneXpert platform. We have received customized cartridge for rapid COVID-19 test in the GeneXpert platform and have performed 95 tests already and benefitted many surgeons already,” she said adding that the test result is available almost in an hour.
She said this will prove to be of great help in emergeny cases and policies would be institutionalized to clear the apprehensions of the doctors on this account. GeneXpert, a doorway to wider testing capacity was widely developed to rapidly detect Tuberculosis.
She said the aim of introducing newer technologies is to test more people and to decrease the Turn around Time(TAT) in order to fast identify the COVID positive patients and isolate them at the earliest.
“We have started aggressive testing at our diagnostic lab. and currently we have 200 tests per day and Real Time Polymerase Chain Reaction (RTPCR) technology is being used for diagnosis as a front line test,” she said.
She added that central reference agencies are issuing guidelines from time to time in order to improve things and we are trying our level best to implement those guidelines with utmost care.
She said all the departments are working in a coordinated manner in the battle against the Novel agent. She said we have extended the diagnostic services at IIIM CSIR Jammu and have received lot of support from them.