Gonoshasthaya kits to be tested today

 The Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University (BSMMU) will begin the performance trial of home-grown Covid-19 testing kit developed by Gonoshasthaya Kendra today.

Gonoshasthaya Kendra Founder and Trustee Dr Zafrullah Chowdhury yesterday told The Daily Star, "The BSMMU authorities have informed us over phone that they will start the trial of our kit tomorrow [today].

"They have sought 200 kits from us. We are now waiting for a letter from the BSMMU. We will supply the kits as soon as we receive the letter."

The BSMMU will conduct trial of the Rapid Dot Blot, developed by Gonoshasthaya Kendra scientist, on 400 samples.

"Initially, they [BSMMU] said they will conduct trial on 1,200 samples, but later they revised the sample size and made it to 400," Zafrullah said.

The tests done by the Rapid Dot Blot will also be compared to that of the RT-PCR kits.

RT-PCR, which is considered to be the gold standard for COVID-19 test, is expensive and time-consuming. On the other hand, Rapid Dot Blot is low-cost and can give result in 15 minutes.

Gonoshasthaya had approached the Directorate General of Drug Administration (DGDA) for validation of their kit on April 26, but was suggested to go through contract research organizations (CROs).

Gonoshasthaya, however, refused to go through the CROs, arguing that it was a vehicle of corruption as well as it raises the price of the kit.

Later, on April 30, the DGDA permitted Gonoshasthaya Kendra to have their kits independently validated by the BSMMU.

On May 2, BSMMU formed a committee headed by its virology department professor Dr Shahina Tabassum. The committee first sought all the scientific documents on the development of Rapid Dot Blot and then began preparing a protocol for validation.

"We expect the BSMMU to complete the validation by next Friday," Dr Zafrullah said.

He said the rapid test kit so far has tested only antibody, but Rapid Dot Blot also can test antigen in blood. That means this test is more accurate than that of antibody test. It is close to that of RT-PCR test that swabs throat and nose for diagnosing COVID-19.

Zafrullah said as it was taking time for the BSMMU to start the validation process of their kit. Gonoshasthay had decided to conduct trial of the kit on the patients who were facing problems in getting treatment in the hospitals because hospitals were suspecting them COVID-19 positive and sought test result before admission.

"We can see coronavirus infection is going up and on the other hand patients with heart and kidney diseases are not getting treatment. A high government official died without getting treatment last week. This is only because there is no adequate testing facility," the veteran physician said.

If rapid test was allowed, many more tests could have been conducted and people would not have died without treatment, he said.