http://news.webindia123.com/news/showdetails.asp?id=245920&n_date=20060210&cat=Health
New Delhi | February 10, 2006 6:36:33 PM IST
In a significant development, an indigenous detection kit for Kala-Azar has been developed which would detect the disease without any surgical procedure within ten minutes with 100 per cent accuracy and specificity.
Science and Technology Minister Kapil Sibal today launched the kit named 'Signal-Ka' which would play a crucial role in eradicating the disease from the country by 2012 as envisaged by the World Health Organisation.
It would help replace the present system of diagnosis which requires painful puncturing of bone marrow or spleen that sometimes proved fatal. Also, the conventional method cannot be carried out in remote areas as it requires operation theatre facilities but the new kit could be used in the remotest parts of the country and has longer shelf life. The test results can be red with naked eyes, he said.
He said the kit has been developed by the All India Institute of Medical Science in collaboration with the Department of Biotechnology and commercially produced by M/s Span Diagnostics Ltd., Surat. It will detect visceral leishmaniasis commonly known as Kala Azar in the blood of patients with 100 per cent sensitivity and specificity.
The kit costing just Rs 60 to Rs 70, which is one fifth of the conventional detection method, has undergone clinical trial at AIIMS, NICD and in kala azar endemic areas of Bihar with highest possible accuracy and reproducibility.
It is based on novel recombinant kinesin antigen developed by the Department of Laboratory Medicine, AIIMS using plasmid having genes for antigen for protozoa causing Kala Azar and introduced in Escherichia Coli bacteria.
It had been patented internationally in 2003 and transferred to Span Diagnostics in June 2005 which developed an immuno filteration rapid test using the patented product and proces reducing the test result to ten minutues.
Approximately 50 lakh people contract kala azar and more than 60,000 of them die every year. About 90 per cent of these Kala Azar cases have been found in India, Bangladesh, Nepal and Sudan and most of them from poor families. In India it is endemic in Bihar, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Eastern UP and Assam.
Dr Sarnam Singh of AIIMS, whose team developed the Kit, said that the visceral kala azar found in India is the most dangerous as it could prove fatal if not detected in time. The disease is more dangerous to HIV infected patients, he informed and said that the 100 percent accuracy of the kit would help in proper and timely treatment of the disease which was either under detected or over detected under the conventional method.
The Company has approached the National Vector Borne Disease Control Authority for purchase of the kit. However, the latter is awaiting Director General of Health Service, before the health ministry could use the kits on a large scale.
