BSMMU forms committee to examine Gonoshasthaya’s Covid-19 test kit

Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University has formed a committee that will supervise validation of the home-grown rapid test kit developed by Gonoshasthaya Kendra.

"We had a meeting with the scientists of the Gonoshasthaya Kendra. We have formed a six-member committee. They will prepare a protocol based on the discussions with Gonoshasthaya," said BSMMU Vice Chancellor Prof Kanak Kanti Barua.

Once the committee finalises a protocol, it will have to be approved by the BSMMU Institutional Review Board before the validation of the kit -- Rapid Dot Blot -- begins, he told The Daily Star today.

The committee will decide on the sample size of those who will be tested, the VC added.

Gonoshasthaya Kendra Founder and Trustee Dr Zafrullah Chowdhury said it's good that the BSMMU has promptly taken action to conduct the validation of the test kit.

"Our scientists will meet again with the BSMMU committee tomorrow [May 3] and finalise the protocol," he said.

Dr Zafrullah said validation will require a sample size of 250 patients. And, at least 110 of them should be Covid-19 positive and the others unknown cases. BSMMU already has their patients and it can conduct the tests quickly.

"We said as this is an emergency period and the number of Covid-19 patients is rising every day, it would be better if the BSMMU could conduct the validation in seven days," the veteran physician said.

The Directorate General of Drug Administration permitted Gonoshasthaya Kendra to go for validation at the BSMMU on April 30.

Rapid Dot Blot is a combination of antibody and antigen test conducted with blood samples. Dr Zafrullah said its accuracy level as found in its own tests is more than 90 percent. But that needs to be independently validated by the BSMMU.

Presently, RT-PCR, which tests Covid-19 by using nose and mouth swabs, is considered gold standard. However, many countries are also using rapid test kit, which is low cost and can be conducted on large population.