Explained: How India tests for Covid-19
The Indian Express 15 June 2020 Written by Tabassum Barnagarwala While RT-PCR remains the standard, ICMR has widened the range of options for testing for Covid-19, including the familiar ELISA and a technology so far used for TB tests. When is which option to be used? The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) recently approved ELISA test kits for Covid-19 developed by two companies. These were the first ELISA test kits approved other than those that use the ICMR’s own technology, and add to the basket of choices for testing for Covid-19. A look at these choices: ELISA Developed in 1974, ELISA stands for enzyme-linked immuno-sorbent assay. It detects whether a person’s immune system has produced antibodies against a particular infection — such as HIV. The test is called “enzyme-linked” because it uses enzymes to detect presence of antibodies in a blood sample. An ELISA test is of two types depending on the antibodies tested for — immunoglobulin G (IgG) ...