*Test will help detect community spread if any, says FC
Govind Sharma
JAMMU, Apr 8: JAMMU, April 8: To contain the Novel Coronavirus from further spreading its tentacles in the Union Territory, Government of J&K is soon going to start conducting rapid antibody-based blood test for COVID-19 on people living in clusters (containment zone), in large migration gatherings and evacuee’s centres, where a large number of positive cases are arising.
Official sources told Excelsior that rapid anti-body blood test will be first done on people residing in Red Zone areas, evacuees of foreign countries or outside the UT and on health professionals engaged in testing of COVID-19, sample collection and those deployed in Isolation Wards of the Hospital, where COVID-19 patients and people with symptoms of the dreaded virus have been admitted.
“The rapid anti-body test is most suitable to detect whether the disease is spreading in the area or not as it gives quick results. This test does not prove whether a person is positive or negative for COVID-19. It will only detect presence or absence of anti-bodies against COVID-19 in a person,” they said.
Elaborating further, sources said that antibodies start developing in a person after 7 days of exposure to the Novel Coronavirus. They said if antibodies are detected in a person, he/she may be a carrier of this dreaded virus and may infect others, even if he/she is found negative for COVID-19.
“This rapid blood test will be very helpful to contain the spread of this pandemic as it gives result within 15-20 minutes and with its help, all the carriers of Coronavirus infection may be identified swiftly and quarantined or provided treatment after proper clinical assessment,” they added.
Sources revealed that the J&K is likely to get 7 lakh Rapid Anti-body Test kits from the ICMR and as soon as the kits are received, health professionals will start conducting these Anti-body tests for cluster screening.
They further informed that few days back, the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) issued an advisory to all State and Union Territories to start conducting rapid antibody based blood test for community and cluster screening to detect possible carriers of Novel Coronavirus.
In its advisory, sources said, ICMR stated that cases of Influenza-like Illness (ILI) are to be monitored in health facilities and any surge in cases is to be observed and brought to the notice of Surveillance Officer or Chief Medical Officer for additional investigation.
“The advisory also mentioned that as a matter of abundant precautions, all symptomatic ILI persons should be advised home quarantine for 14 days. At facility level, symptomatic ILI individuals are to be tested using rapid antibody test,” they added.
Quoting ICMR guidelines, sources said, “In case Anti-body test comes negative, it should be confirmed by real time RT PCR using throat or nasal swab if warranted. If RT PCR comes negative, then it is likely non-COVID19 ILI but if RT PCR comes positive, it is a confirmed COVID 19 case and action as per protocol should be initiated for isolation, treatment and contact tracing.”
“But, if real-time RT PCR is not done after antibody test comes negative, then the person should be home quarantined and Anti-body should be repeated after 10 days. However, if Anti-body test is positive, then after clinical assessment, person should be treated in hospital or kept in isolation as per protocol and thereafter action should be taken for contact tracing,” they added.
Financial Commissioner (FC), Health and Medical Education, Atal Dulloo told Excelsior that Government of India has placed order for purchasing about 50 lakh Rapid Anti-body blood kits and J&K is expected to get about 5 lakh kits from ICMR in first installment.
“Within 2-3 days, we are expecting to get these kits after one-day training of health professionals, we will start conducting these tests, starting from Red Zone areas. This test is very simple and its kit is like a strip used mostly in instant pregnancy tests. We get result in 10-15 minutes,” he said, adding, this test will be very helpful in checking community spread, if any, and take remedial measures on fast track basis.
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