News Analysis India

Tag: Virologist

  • Bengaluru virologist’s test kit ‘Omisure’ for Omicron variant cuts delays

    By Express News Service

    BENGALURU: In a major and global breakthrough towards cutting down procedural delays in genome sequencing to ascertain the Omicron variant of SARS-CoV2, Dr V Ravi, former head of the Department of Neurovirology at National Institute of Mental Health & Neuro Sciences and Head, Research & Development, Tata Medical & Diagnostic Centre, Sriperumbudur, Tamil Nadu, and his team have developed the world’s first test kit, Omisure, that can detect the Omicron variant by combining S-gene target failure (SGTF) and S-gene mutation amplification (SGMA).

    “Omisure was approved by the Indian Council of Medical Research on December 30 and, on Wednesday, Tata MD received the licence from the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation for commercial production,” announced Dr Ravi. 

    ‘Omisure test will take about two-and-half hours’

    “Globally, all other test kits for Omicron are either made for gene dropout or mutationspecific detection. Omisure is the first test kit combining both. On evaluation by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), it picked up all sequence samples with 100 per cent accuracy.

    We have now received the licence from Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO) and will start production of Omisure for commercial use within a week’s time,” Dr V Ravi said. The Tata MD management on Wednesday decided to fix the maximum retail price (MRP) of a single kit at Rs 250 for the laboratory.

    Speaking exclusively to TNIE, the top virologist, said, “Omisure is a regular PCR test and is compatible with all standard realtime PCR machines. It will cut down the waiting time for genome sequencing of Omicron patients, which is currently the practice and is delaying the results. The Omisure test will take about two-and-half hours; from sample collection and RNA extraction to result.”

    On the production capacity, he said the Tata MD plant at Sriperumbudur has the daily manufacturing capacity of two lakh kits, but the production will be ramped up to five lakh kits by the end of this month to meet the demand. “We are also planning to export Omisure and we will be filing for CE marking application for FDA emergency use authorisation,” he added.

    A total of 2,135 cases of Omicron variant have been detected across 24 states and UTs, according to the Union Health Ministry data as of Wednesday.

  • Deaths a ‘lagging indicator’ of Covid-19 , will stabilise soon: Leading virologist Dr Gagandeep Kang

    By PTI
    VELLORE: India’s leading virologist Dr Gagandeep Kang has said that since the number of Covid-19 cases in the country has stabilized now, the number of deaths due to the virus will also stabilize soon and if it fails to do so then it can only point to an issue with reporting systems.

    Kang, a member of the Supreme Court-appointed committee on medical oxygen in an interview to ANI said, “Death is a lagging indicator, it comes two to three weeks after case numbers climb. Now that the numbers have stabilized, we should expect deaths to also stabilize and start to taper off. If they do not, there is an issue with some aspect of our reporting systems.”

    The virologist explained that looking at the fatality rate is not a preferred way to measure the current spread of the pandemic as people dying are usually infected at least two to three weeks earlier, which means deaths don’t reflect current spread of the disease.

    I don’t think it(Black Fungus)is related to variant. It’s related to fact that we’ve many cases,we seem to be using steroids freely&have lot of diabetics which is also risk factor for these cases: Dr Gagandeep Kang,top virologist&member of SC-appointed committee on medical oxygen pic.twitter.com/KsNlBe5IaU
    — ANI (@ANI) May 25, 2021

    According to official data issued on Tuesday, India recorded 1,96,427 fresh infections and 3,741 deaths in the last 24 hours.

    Regarding the shortage of vaccines across the country, Dr Gagandeep Kang, who is advisor to the Punjab Chief Minister on Covid issues pointed out that vaccinations has slowed down due to slow or limited supply of vaccines, which will go up once companies ramp up their production.

    Due to the shortfall of Covid-19 vaccines, several states like Maharashtra, Delhi and Karnataka have suspended their innocualtion drive agains the novel coronavirus for beneficiaries of the age group 18-44 years.

    “Another option would be to import vaccines if we could. But globally there is a shortage of vaccines. The only options available are the Russians and the Chinese vaccines. We have to decide, which one we are willing to buy and get those in,” Kang said.

    Currently, two Covid-19 vaccines are being manufactured in India – Covishield by Serum Institute of India (SII) and Covaxin by Bharat Biotech.

    India started its Covid vaccination drive on January 16 for the healthcare and frontline workers. Phase 3 of the vaccination drive was started on May 1 for the beneficiaries of the age group 18-44 years.