Achieving a new milestone in the field of Covid-related research, the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research has developed a non-invasive RT-PCR method in which the results can be obtained in three hours.
The test does not require swab to be collected. It involves a tube containing saline. One needs to put the saline in mouth, gargle for 15 seconds and spit the liquid in the tube and send it for testing.
Union health minister Dr harsh Vardhan termed the process a “remarkable innovation”. “This swab-free, non-invasive testing mechanism could prove to be a game-changer,” he said.
“This particular method of collecting and processing the sample enables us to save on the otherwise costly infrastructural required for RNA extraction. People can also test themselves since this method allows for self-sampling. It requires no queuing up or crowding at testing centres, thus saving a lot of time and reducing the risk of infections. Even waste generation stands minimised in this method,” said,” Dr Krishna Kaimar, senior scientist, environmental virology cell, was quoted as saying by Times of India.
Gargle is an easy-to-perform procedure, can be performed by the patients themselves without much training and may have better patient acceptability. The adoption of gargle for sample collection will translate to substantial cost savings as it would cut down not only the need for swabs and personal protective equipment (PPE) but also the need to develop and maintain special infrastructure for swab collection, the ICMR had earlier said in a study published in IJMR.
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