MGMMC Indore To Begin NAT Testing To Detect Hepatitis, HIV
INDORE, 9 JAN 2021:
Blood and transfusion medicine department of MGMMC is all set to begin first Nucleic Acid Amplification Testing (NAT) in division for detecting presence of viral diseases like hepatitis C in collected blood samples.
The installation of machine worth rupees around 1.5 crore is completed and department began testing of several samples before running it at full capacity.
The machine is installed by the blood cell of National Health Mission (NHM) to improve the surveillance of these viral diseases in blood samples.
Nucleic Acid Amplification Testing (NAT) is a highly-sensitive method of testing blood that is used to detect Hepatitis C virus (HCV), Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV-1) and West Nile Virus (WNV) in blood.
The machine could test around 320 samples at one go within one go in four to five hours. Thus doubling the capacity from the existing facility.
Dr Ashok Yadav, HoD blood and transfusion medicine department said, “The work for installation of NAT machine is completed. It will be formally inaugurated in next couple of days.” We have been testing several samples to get acquainted with the machine, said Dr Yadav.
Detailing about NAT Dr Yadav said, “At present, we are testing the blood samples for knowing about prevalence of those viral diseases with Elisa based testing. This testing has around 95% chances of detecting the viruses like HCV, HIV-1 and others.”
But, this NAT machine has 99.99% efficiency ruling out the chances of any anomalies. We have decided to test all the samples testing negative for these infections from elisa based testing with NAT before transfusing it to any needy, said Dr Yadav.
This machine will be very useful in preventing transmission of any of those viral diseases in the people requiring frequent blood transfusion like those suffering from Thalesemia, said Dr Yadav.
The testing of samples received from government facility will be performed without any cost and private ones will be charges just Rs1,000 for it. This is very nominal fees for the test keeping in mind the marker price in private blood banks across country, said Dr Yadav.The Times Of India