New Delhi: The technology- GeneXpert, a molecular test for Tuberculosis which has been saving lives for 20 years in India, will now be used in rapid testing for Covid-19. The United States, Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on March 20 approved the use of the popular GeneXpert for testing coronavirus samples.
GeneXpert machines do not require a lab facility or special training and generate results in about 45 minutes. Upto four samples can be tested at one go. Diagnostics company-Cepheid has received emergency authorisation from the US FDA to use its rapid molecular test for the virus that causes Covid-19.
India has placed orders for one lakh such machines with Cepheid of which nine thousand machines have arrived on Sunday night, said a highly placed source in the Union Health Ministry.
The procurement of these machines can be a catalyst for expanding the availability of large scale testing. While the cartridges in these machines extract the DNA for tuberculosis testing, they will extract the RNA for Covid-19 samples.
The test, called SAR-CoV-2 Xpert Xpress, was developed by Cepheid, California and is designed to detect SARS-CoV-2. Meanwhile, Truenat was developed by the Indian firm MolBio Diagnostics Pvt Ltd based in Goa for the detection of TB bacteria and Indian Council of Medical Research has recommended the use of this test on Truelab workstation as a screening test for coronavirus.
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