Low-cost indigenous swab for coronavirus testing developed

Pune, Apr 4 () A team of researchers has developeda low-cost indigenous prototype of polymer swab which can beused for collection of samples for coronavirus testing.

If it is approved for production, the country will notneed to depend on imported swabs, said Dr Milind Kulkarni, asenior polymer scientist with Pune-based Centre for Materialsfor Electronics Technology (C-MET) on Saturday.

"We import testing kits and polymer swabs primarilyfrom Italy, Germany and the United States. But due to importrestrictions and international lockdown, we could soon face ashortage of these kits," said Kulkarni, who led the project.

It was a joint project of C-MET (which comes under theMinistry of Electronics and Information Technology), SRIResearch FOR Tissue Engineering Private, Rangadore Hospital,Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bengaluru and AdditiveManufacturing Society of India, he said.

As per the guidelines of the Centre for DiseaseControl and Prevention, polymer swab is used for collection ofa sample from the upper respiratory tract of a patient.

To develop prototype of the swab, the researchers useda speciality polymer from polyester family and a rod made upof Polypropylene, Kulkarni said.

"Prototype samples are ready to go for furthersterilization and clinical trial and testing," he added.

Dr K N Shridhar, urologist from Rangadore Hospital inBangaluru, had given the responsibility to develop the polymerswab to CMET, Kulkarni said.

"Dr Shridhar will conduct testing of the swabs bytying up with a lab which is approved by the Indian Councilfor Medical Research in Bengaluru," he added.

CMET has developed two types of swabs which arerequired to collect samples, he said.

One is nasopharyngeal swab (NP swab) which is usedfor collecting nasal secretions and other is Oropharyngealswab which is used for collecting throat samples, he said.

Once samples are taken, the swab is inserted into atube of Universal Transport Media (UTM). Kulkarni said that asit is a one-time use kit, India will need millions of suchswabs to collect samples in the days to come.

The swabs developed by his team could cost a third ofthe price of imported swabs, he said.

"Using a special automated machine, 1000 to 2000 swabscan be made in one minute," he claimed.

The number of coronavirus infection cases in thecountry had crossed 3,250 as of Saturday late afternoon. SPKKRK KRK