A testing facility for H1N1,after scare had come & gone

Even as the swine flu scare fades,the civic-run Kasturba Hospital on Wednesday inaugurated a testing facility for H1N1 at its laboratory.

Even as the swine flu scare fades,the civic-run Kasturba Hospital on Wednesday inaugurated a testing facility for H1N1 at its laboratory. However,civic authorities say that the facility would be useful for testing any kind of influenza virus or bacteria,not just H1N1.

In anticipation of a second wave,the BMC had in August (after the first H1N1 death in Mumbai) planned to upgrade its existing laboratory for testing H1N1 samples. The testing facility was to start by October to ease the load on National Institute for Virology in Pune and Haffkine Institute in Mumbai.

Equipped with a Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) machine to test samples from BMC hospitals for leptospirosis and other monsoon-related diseases,the lab has a real-time PCR machine for testing H1N1 samples. The entire set-up of the lab is as per CDC guidelines. It is a Bio Safety Lab (BSL) level II lab. Technicians have been trained at the NIV and Haffkine institutes, said Dr Neelima Vaidya,scientific officer,PCR lab. It can process 21 samples in one run and can work in 2 shifts. It has the capacity of processing 42 samples in one day, added Dr Vaidya.

Meanwhile,while inaugurating the lab,Shiv Sena executive president Uddhav Thackeray urged doctors to start a trauma and dialysis facility at the hospital.

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