New Delhi: Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has validated an indigenous antigen-based testing kit developed by All India Institute of Medical Science (AIIMS), which would enable faster diagnosis at lower rates without laboratory examinations, Dr Amarinder Singh, Assistant Professor of Cardio-Radiology Department, AIIMS said.
The test can detect presence of molecules of the pathogen that triggers immune response in COVID-19 infected persons. The maximum time for the test result is estimated to be 30 minutes. Dr Singh further explained that a Korea-based antigen has been used in it to simplify the testing.
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"Delhi along with the entire nation was struggling to increase coronavirus testing. There were incidences of less testing reported from across national capital. A lot of people alleged that they didn't have enough money to get COVID-19 testing done. However, AIIMS has succeeded in developing a low cost antigen-based testing kit which will give out the result in a very short span of time when compared to the PCR tests," Dr Singh added.
He also elaborated that AIIMS's Infectious Diseases and Medicine department have worked in collaboration to achieve the desired result. As of now nearly 1.5 lakhs RT-PCR tests are being conducted but the assessment can go up once the newly developed testing kit is put in use.
"The testing is very easy, this process of testing is somewhat similar to the way pregnancy test is done. It will purely be antigen based test whereas all tests that have been conducted so far were antibody-based. Reportedly, it will be put in use from Tuesday onward," Dr. Amarinder Singh explained.
According to the reports, each of the kit called Standard Q COVID-19 Ag rapid antigen detection test will cost less than 500 and can easily be used in field conditions.
