National Institute of Virology, NIV, Pune has validated the first batch of ELISA kits produced by the company Zydus Cadila. ICMR-NIV have developed and validated the completely indigenous IgG ELISA test for antibody detection of Corona virus. Meanwhile, Indian Council for Medical Research is in the process of carrying out a national surveillance study with 24 thousand individuals.
ICMR said that the ELISA kit has been found to have sensitivity of 98.7 per cent and specificity of 100 per cent on external validation. Now, ICMR has also been approached by Cipla Private Limited and NextGen Life Sciences for providing non-exclusive license for Covid Kavach Elisa, which is under process.
ELISA test kits can process 90 samples together in two-and-a-half hours. Moreover, ELISA-based testing is easily possible even at the district level as the ELISA kit has inactivated virus. There are also minimal biosafety and biosecurity requirements as compared to the real-time RT-PCR test. This test has the advantage of having much higher sensitivity and specificity as compared to the several rapid test kits. While real-time RT-PCR is the frontline test for clinical diagnosis of COVID-19, robust antibody tests are critical for surveillance to understand the proportion of population exposed to infection.
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