IIT Guwahati develops low-cost diagnostic kits

New Delhi : The Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Guwahati, in association with RR Animal Healthcare Ltd and Guwahati Medical College and Hospital (GMCH), has developed low-cost diagnostic kits for COVID-19. These are Viral Transport Media kits, RT-PCR kits, and RNA isolation kits.

The large-scale production of all these kits has commenced to meet the requirement of Assam and will be made available across the country soon. The VTM kits are the first-stop source used to collect nasal and oral swab specimens from an individual source to a laboratory safely for culture and testing.

During this period, the virus, if present, in the sample specimens should remain intact until the testing procedure is completed. The kit consists of a comprehensive solution specially formulated for the collection and transport of SARS-CoV-2.

"To bring down the cost of kits, we have used material that is available in the local market and they are as per the World Health Organisation (WHO) recommendation.

We have handed over two batches of these kits to the National Health Mission, Assam, and GMCH. We are making them in bulk to make it available to a larger population," said Professor Parameswar Krishnan Iyer, lead researcher, IIT Guwahati.