NBMCH finally begins Covid tests

SNS, 30 March 2020, Siliguri: Following a political tug-of-war to claim credit, the Virus Research and Diagnostic Laboratory (VRDL) at the North Bengal Medical College and Hospital (NBMCH) finally started COVID- 19 tests today.

"We tested throat swab samples of seven persons, five admitted in the isolation ward of the NBMCH, and two from outside, so far, and all were negative," an NBMCH source said in the evening, adding that three more persons were today admitted in the isolation ward.

Earlier, such samples were sent to the National Institute of Cholera and Enteric Diseases (NICED) in Kolkata for tests.

Sources said samples from different districts across north Bengal will also be henceforth tested here.

The ICMR-NICED at Beliaghata, the Institute of Post graduate Medical Education and Research (IPGME&R) and SSKM hospital are other government run facilities which conduct the COVlD-19 tests. The same is also now conducted at the Calcutta School of Tropical Medicine and the Midnapore Medical College.

Work in setting up the state-of-the-art laboratory with an estimated cost of around Rs 2 crore began on 8 November, 2018 at the microbiology department at the NBMCH.The much-needed laboratory finally saw the light of the day last year.

Experts said the VRDL will enable continuous monitoring of existing as well as new virus strains. Through such labs, surveillance of commonly occurring viral diseases will also be done, which helps the government in planning strategies to prevent and control viral outbreaks.

"The laboratory will deal with a variety of viruses of public health importance. Also, it will conduct outbreak investigations of different diseases.

The labratory will be an important infrastructure for timely intervention and identification of viruses and other agents causing morbidity significant at public health level and specifically agents causing epidemics, study the sub type sequence. It is one of the advanced diagnostic labs under the government network and its services are available for fighting epidemics," said sources at the microbiology department.

Five technicians of the microbiology department have been trained at NICED recently to conduct the corona virus tests here.Apart from samples of throat swab of suspected COVID-19 cases, the HINI (swine flu) samples are also sent to the NICED. Once the VRDL is fully operational, tests for the H1N1, Nipah virus, encephalitis, respiratory infections. gastroenteritis, and hemorrhagic fever can be conducted here. 

The lab is equipped with the BSL-3 ( Bio safety Level) facility to carry out serology. Reverse Transcription—Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR), isolation, fluorescence microscopy, tissue culture and sequencing for all listed viruses. For strengthening viral diagnosis, the Centre had sanctioned funds to procure instruments and manpower while the state government would ready the infrastructure.

VRDL is a part of a network of such labs established across the country by the Department of Health Research, Government of India.