Tamil Nadu to start serosurveillance study in regions soon, Health Secretary says

Tamil Nadu will initiate a state-wide serosurveillance study on COVID-19 introduction in seven days, TN health secretary Dr J Radhakrishnan revealed to The New Indian Express on Tuesday.

The ICMR is leading its own serosurveillance the nation over in which samples from TN are additionally tested. Thought about the highest quality level to gauge later or past presentation to infectious diseases, sero observation study is directed to determine the antibody levels produced against the infection by testing blood (serum or plasma) samples.

Of the 60,000 blood samples to be gathered from all the areas, almost 30,000 would be tested for the antibodies in the first stage, starting this month, said Radhakrishnan.

Sources in the Directorate of Public Health and Preventive Medicine said the examples would be tested through chemiluminescence immunoassay (CLIA), a method using light emission brought about by a chemical response. An aggregate of 26,640 samples recognized in 888 bunches – containing 30 grown-ups in each – over the State are to be an aspect of the investigation, they included.

Managing director of Tamil Nadu Medical Services Corporation (TNMSC) Dr P Umanath said that the TNMSC, which doesn’t legitimately get the CLIA equipment, has issued orders to five sellers for the establishment of the imported equipment, costing around Rs 20-25 lakh each. The State would just bear the expense of the test, he included.

The samples would be shipped off one of the six recognized urban communities – Madurai, Tirunelveli, Coimbatore, Chennai, Tiruchy and Salem – where the equipment would be installed, said Umanath.

Deputy Director of Health Services (Madurai) Dr K V Arjun Kumar said that 1,140 samples from 38 recognized groups would be gathered in the Madurai district during the first stage. The samples from Theni, Dindigul, Virudhunagar, Pudukkottai and Madurai districts would be tested at Samayanallur Primary Health Center, where the CLIA equipment is introduced, he included.

Well-trained lab technicians, health inspectors and staff nurses would be occupied with doorstep sample collection in distinguished towns and wards for the three-week-long survey, for which health department staff would get training this week.

Outstandingly, a sero-survey, first led by the Greater Chennai Corporation in July, uncovered that one-fifth of the city populace was tainted. A second serosurvey in Chennai will start soon.

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