Gonoshasthaya: It’s ready to submit kit Saturday for validation
Gonoshasthaya Kendra will start providing 1,200 home-grown rapid testing kits to Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University (BSMMU) on Saturday for validation.
"We are ready with our kits. We could give those any time, but they wanted the kits from Saturday – not all together, but step by step," Gonoshasthaya Kendra Founder and Trustee Dr Zafrullah told The Daily Star yesterday.
BSMMU will conduct tests for Covid-19 on both positive and unknown persons to understand the accuracy level of the rapid test kit -- Rapid Dot Blot -- developed by Gonoshasthaya Kendra scientists. The tests will also be compared with those of RT-PCR kits, he said.
RT-PCR, which is considered gold standard for testing Covid-19, is costly, but rapid test kit is low-cost and can give result in 5-10 minutes and are being used by many of the countries for large-scale testing.
Large-scale testing is being recommended by the epidemiologists because the positive cases can be isolated and spread of the virus can be prevented.
Rapid Dot Blot can test both antibody and antigen in blood. Dr Zafrullah said this kit's accuracy level is more than 90 percent which is close to RT-PCR that swabs nose and throat where new coronavirus can gather for the test.
Earlier on April 30, the Directorate General of Drug Administration (DGDA) had permitted Gonoshasthaya Kendra to have their kits independently validated by the BSMMU, after Gonoshasthaya rejected the DGDA proposal on April 26 that the validation must be done through the contract research organisations (CROs).
Zafrullah said CROs are a vehicle of corruption and that it would have required much longer a time for the validation, increase the cost of test, which is not expected at least during such a global pandemic.
On May 2, BSMMU formed a committee headed by its virology department professor Dr Shaheena Tabassum. The committee first sought all the scientific documents on the development of Rapid Dot Blot and then began preparing a protocol for validation. The protocol is expected to be finalised on Thursday (today), said Zafrullha Chowdhury.
"This is a time of an emergency. A lot of people are being infected every day. Validation of our kit in a fast-track manner is something that we would want. Being able to use this kit means a lot in terms of checking the spread of Covid-19," he said.
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