India to get Feluda paper strip test for COVID-19 by November-end

The Feluda paper strip test for COVID-19 diagnosis has been developed by CSIR-IGIB and was earlier approved by the Drug Controller General of India (DCGI) for a commercial launch.

Moneycontrol News

November 18, 2020 / 14:01 IST

Debojyoti Chakraborty, Senior Scientist, at the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology, shows the COVID-19 tests results done by 'Feluda' paper strips. (Image: Reuters/Adnan Abidi)

Feluda paper strip test for COVID-19 diagnosis are set to hit the Indian market by November-end, News18 has reported. The first batch of test strips would be made available in New Delhi.

Union Health Minister Dr. Harsh Vardhan had earlier noted that the Feluda test had shown 96 percent sensitivity and 98 percent specificity in tests conducted on over 2,000 patients during the trials at the Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology (IGIB) and testing in private labs.

The test for SARS-CoV-2 diagnosis has been developed by CSIR-IGIB and was earlier approved by the Drug Controller General of India (DCGI) for a commercial launch.

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‘Feluda’ is an acronym for FNCAS9 Editor-Limited Uniform Detection Assay. The test uses an indigenously-developed CRISPR (Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats) technology for detection of SARS-CoV-2’s genomic sequence. The technology developed by CSIR-IGIB, is a genome editing technology used to diagnose diseases.

COVID-19 Vaccine

Frequently Asked Questions

How does a vaccine work?

A vaccine works by mimicking a natural infection. A vaccine not only induces immune response to protect people from any future COVID-19 infection, but also helps quickly build herd immunity to put an end to the pandemic. Herd immunity occurs when a sufficient percentage of a population becomes immune to a disease, making the spread of disease from person to person unlikely. The good news is that SARS-CoV-2 virus has been fairly stable, which increases the viability of a vaccine.

How many types of vaccines are there?

There are broadly four types of vaccine — one, a vaccine based on the whole virus (this could be either inactivated, or an attenuated [weakened] virus vaccine); two, a non-replicating viral vector vaccine that uses a benign virus as vector that carries the antigen of SARS-CoV; three, nucleic-acid vaccines that have genetic material like DNA and RNA of antigens like spike protein given to a person, helping human cells decode genetic material and produce the vaccine; and four, protein subunit vaccine wherein the recombinant proteins of SARS-COV-2 along with an adjuvant (booster) is given as a vaccine.

What does it take to develop a vaccine of this kind?

Vaccine development is a long, complex process. Unlike drugs that are given to people with a diseased, vaccines are given to healthy people and also vulnerable sections such as children, pregnant women and the elderly. So rigorous tests are compulsory. History says that the fastest time it took to develop a vaccine is five years, but it usually takes double or sometimes triple that time.

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