UPSC Articles
Rapid antibody-based tests for COVID-19 hotspots first
Part of: GS Prelims and GS-II – Health
In News:
- According to The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), the rapid antibody based blood test for COVID-19 will be deployed in clusters and hot spots showing high incidence of confirmed cases.
Key takeaways:
- Moreover, over all testing for COVID-19 using real-time reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) is also increasing.
- All States/UTs have been issued guidelines for implementing Rapid antibody – based tests.
- Reports shall be entered into the ICMR portal similar to results of real-time RT PCR tests for COVID-19.
Important value additions:
The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR)
- It is the apex body in India for the formulation, coordination and promotion of biomedical research.
- The ICMR is funded by the Government of India through the Department of Health Research, Ministry of Health.
Real-time reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR)
- It is a laboratory technique combining reverse transcription of RNA into DNA.
- It detects the virus.
Rapid antibody – based test
- It uses blood.
- It detects the body’s response to the virus.
- A positive result tells that the body was exposed to the virus.
Pooled sampling
- It means testing samples from multiple patients with a single PCR test.
- It has been used previously in the early stages of the HIV epidemic.
- Such tests reduce the time, cost, and resources required.
- It identifies infected people in a population and estimates the infection rate.
- This allows medical experts to identify community clusters for targeted public health interventions.
