Hyderabad: Some persons in the state have been getting their own Covid-19 tests done, in private and in violation of ICMR rules and guidelines, using illegally procured antibodies test kits.
Private individuals are prohibited from procuring or using antibodies testing kits for Covid-19. Any such act is illegal, a senior Indian Council for Medical Research official told Deccan Chronicle.
However, this aspect appears to have not mattered for a good number of individuals, typically ‘well-connected’ and with the ability to exert influence on the powers-that-be, here and in some other parts of the state, from ‘stocking up’ antibodies test kits procured through illegal means and checking themselves.
While the gold standard for Covid-19 testing, the Rt-PCR (real time polymerase chain reaction) tests can be performed only in a lab equipped with biohazard safety systems, using an antibody kit is a relatively simple and safe affair and involves using a drop of blood on a specially prepared strip, It can, within about half an hour, indicate the presence of antibodies to Coronavirus in the person’s system showing if a person has been infected or not.
Though not a very reliable method, it is learnt that influential individuals have managed to lay their hands on such kits. “There are many who are doing this, poking themselves with a needle and testing themselves,” a source in the know of the things told Deccan Chronicle.
When contacted, a senior ICMR official said any Coronavirus testing kit, irrespective of the type, can be procured only by state governments and not by private individuals.
Antibody test kits are either imported and are supposed to be under strict scrutiny, or available through ICMR which earlier this month approved a test kit developed at the National Institute of Virology in Pune for manufacture and sale in the country.Incidentally, even collection of samples from people with influence for the Rt-PCR test occurs clandestinely.
This correspondent was witness a few weeks ago to a technician from the Gandhi Hospital, despatched post-haste to collect samples from a senior IAS officer, who was making the rounds of the health department offices, figuring a way out to carry out instructions given to him.
