Covid-19 kits supplied by ICMR-NICED defective, says WB govt

Kolkata, Apr 20 () The West Bengal government hasalleged that the Covid-19 testing kits supplied by the NICED,ICMR's nodal agency in the state, a fortnight ago, are"apparently defective" as they show "inconclusive results"leading to repeated confirmatory tests and delaying diagnosisof the disease.

The ICMR-NICED authorities said it could be possiblybecause the kits "have not been standardized" and it isconsidering the matter "very seriously".

West Bengal has reported 12 deaths and 276 cases ofCOVID-19 affliction.

"The apparently defective test kits supplied byICMR-NICED, Kolkata, have started to throw up a large numberof inconclusive results, necessitating a repeat/confirmatorytest run, thereby causing a delay in the generation of thefinal test report," the West Bengal department of health andfamily welfare has tweeted.

The "high number of repeat/ confirmatory tests arecausing delays and other attendant problems at a time when weare battling a pandemic," it said, adding the Incian Councilof Medical Research needs to look into it immediately.

The department claimed that the problem of defectivekits has been faced not just by government labs in the statebut other testing labs in the country.

The state health department had faced no such problemwhen the testing kits were supplied directly by the NationalInstitute of Virology (NIV), Pune, it said.

Recently, the supplies to government laboratories inWest Bengal have been routed through ICMR-NICED, Kolkata,the department tweeted.

When contacted, NICED Director Shanta Dutta said,"Itis unfortunate that test kits have not been standardised toyield appropriate results. It is difficult for each medicalcollege to standardise them, because of which there weredifferent and inconclusive results."

She said the matter was "very seriously considered" bythe ICMR.

"Initial NIV kit was an assembled one where the NIVhad procured the primer and probes from the US, standardisedthe kit in their laboratory with other reagents and controls,and distributed it directly to other VRDLs (Virus Research andDiagnostic Laboratory).

"When demand for the kit icreased, it was difficultfor the NIV to cope up with it. Then ICMR started procuringreadymade kits and supplied to VRDLs through 16 depots acrossthe country," she said.

West Bengal on Sunday received 10,000 rapid antibodytesting kits from ICMR and is expected to start using themsoon in areas with a high number of COVID-19 patients.

The rapid tests will be conducted at the hotspots,clusters, containment zones or as a surveillance tool forepidemiological purposes in areas which have not reported anycase so far. SCH NNSK SK