BENGALURU: The State government has sought the opinion of testing experts on the efficacy of a newly approved paper strip-based test, Feluda.The Centre recently rolled out the test after the Drug and Controller General of India approved the kit developed by Debojyoti Chakraborty and Souvik Maiti of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research-Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology, and Tata Group. “We have asked for details from our testing experts. Once they get back to us, we will take a decision,” Commissioner for Health and Family Welfare Pankaj Kumar Pandey said.
State Health Department sources said Feluda tests may be ordered in the state. “Now, majority are Rapid Antigen Tests (RAT), which have been criticised for false negatives. The accuracy of Feluda is said to be close to that of RT-PCR. If that is the case, detecting the infection should be easier,” a health official said. Experts said the test, which will use a nasal swab to indicate the presence of the virus by changing colour, has several advantages. “It test is an exciting advance, and it has an accuracy level comparable to the RT-PCR test, but is much cheaper and easier to administer,” said Dr Anant Bhan, global health and policy researcher.
Results would be available in less than an hour, allowing the test to “amplify current testing numbers, and ideally, soon replace the use of RAT which have a high rate of false negatives,” Dr Bhan said. Union Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan, during his Sunday Samvad programme on October 11, said, “the kit has already been validated by the Department of Atomic Energy’s National Centre for Biological Sciences (Bengaluru). It should be available in the next few weeks.” He also said that it has 96% sensitivity and 98% specificity for detecting SARS-CoV-2.
A senior virologist said the idea of a test that could detect Covid-19 in minutes was initially floated by the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard which has named its version SHERLOCK after the famous detective created by writer Arthur Conan Doyle. Just as detective Feluda’s sharp mind solved cases quickly, so too, the Feluda test is expected to provide a test result in a short time. “The test looks promising. We need to see how it will be on the field,” the virologist said.