19/06/2020 - S & T

KEY POINTS

·         The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) approved the use of TrueNat machines, manufactured by a Goa-based company, for carrying out confirmatory tests for Covid-19 disease.

·         TrueNat is a chip-based, battery-operated RT-PCR kit. Initially, it could only identify the E-gene in the SARS-CoV-2 virus. This is the gene that helps the virus build a spherical envelope around it. At this point, TrueNat machines were used as a screening test. Samples that were detected with the E-gene could be sent for confirmatory RT-PCR tests in laboratories.

·         The big difference is that the machine is portable, and tests with it cost much less than the traditional RT-PCR tests. That make it extremely useful for deploying in interior districts and faraway places from where collecting and sending swabs for testing in big cities is a difficult task.

·         In fact, these machines have already been deployed in villages of northern coastal belt of Andhra Pradesh, and inside the forested regions of Gadchiroli district.

·         The machine, designed by Goa-based Molbio Diagnostics Private Limited, was originally developed for the diagnosis of tuberculosis, which affects at least one million children every year.

·         The heart of the machine is designed to detect different kinds of infections. It is the chip that is specific to every infection. The company took 15 days to design the chip which had all the viral load diagnosis for detecting Coronavirus.

·         TrueNat is designed primarily to work at remote locations, and considered as ‘last mile diagnostics’.

·         The machine is portable and can be carried in a briefcase, is battery operated with one charge lasting ten hours. An eight-hour shift gives 45 tests and most of the states are currently running three shifts a day.

Please review sir 

please review

Diagnostic machines- "True Nat", used to test drug-resistant tuberculosis (TB) have now been approved by Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) for conducting Covid-19 tests.

             "TrueNat system is a comprehensive assay for screening and confirmation of COVID-19 cases". It is smaller, battery operated, requires minimal training and is usable even in smaller settings such as the Primary Health Centre. 

>>> Significance of True Nat system :

- Boost Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan : We are mostly dependent on imports from the US or other countries for acquiring Covid-19 test kits. TrueNat's approval will "reduce our dependency on imports" of test kits. It has been developed by the "Indian firm MolBio Diagnostics Pvt Ltd, Goa".

- Portability : The machine is portable and can be carried in a briefcase, is battery operated. This would "enable door-to-door surveys" in many parts of the various states in our country.

- Last mile diagnostics : It is designed primarily to work at remote locations, and considered as ‘last mile diagnostics’.

          Unlike traditional Reverse Transcription -Polymerase Chain Reaction or RT-PCR tests (the frontline test for COVID-19), it can be deployed in interior districts and faraway places from where collecting and sending swabs for testing in big cities is a difficult task.

- Technological aspect : It uses a chip-based technology- that have all the viral load diagnosis for detecting Coronavirus.

- Reduce testing time : It takes just up to 60 minutes for a test, screening or confirmatory of coronavirus. Thus, it will reduce the dependence on RT-PCR tests and will help ease the load of testing centres.

- Cost effective : The Truenat machine test would cost around Rs.1,000 - Rs.1,500 and can run up to 32-48 samples of multiple diseases such as COVID-19, HIV, and TB.

>>> Besides the significance of True Nat, it is left to be seen;

- whether the machine performs with satisfaction in all weather conditions

- whether the machine can work even in the absence of power, and lab technicians with minimum training because it is more of a "point of care machine", which is not fully automated.

>>> Conclusion :

COVID-19 has been a cause of several concerns. But at the same time, it has seen much greater acceptance of indigenous technologies and solutions as never before. 

Sir pls review and  suggest some points to make a strong  answer writing