Rs 11 crore spent on swine flu sample testing

The Centre has spent a whopping Rs 10.99 crore in testing suspected swine flu cases across the country since May.

"For the samples that tested negative, the expenditure incurred is Rs 5,000 each and those that are detected positive the amount spent is Rs 10,000 for each sample," Director General of Indian Council of Medical Research Vishwa Mohan Katoch said.

According to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, a total of 18,584 samples have been tested across different government labs in the country till yesterday. Of these 3,396 have tested positive for swine flu and 15,188 tested negative for the virus.

 

A simple arithmetic calculation reveals that a total of Rs 10,99,00,000 has been spent till now on testing purposes only.

"The expenditure involves the cost of the collection kit, the cost of extraction of the virus and the cost of real-time PCR to test for presence of influenza virus," an NICD official said.

National Institute of Communicable Diseases in Delhi, National Institute of Cholera & Other Enteric Diseases in Kolkata, Department of Microbiology, AIIMS, National Institute of Virology, Pune, Vector Control and Research Centre in Punducherry, Centre for Research in Medical Entomology at Madurai and Defence Research Development Establishment in Gwalior are the government agencies involved in conducting sample testing.

The sample testing started from the month of May, the official said. Sample collection kits that have the proper swab vary from anywhere between Rs 500-1,000 per sample. It includes the masks, the protective apparel, dry swab stick, dry swab vial containing viral transport medium.

Once samples have reached the lab, the RNA has to be extracted from the virus.

"This cost varies from Rs 500 to 1,000 per sample. Then is the cost of real-time PCR to test for five different types of strains with five different chemicals or reagents at Rs 5,000 to Rs 6,000," he said.

Katoch said, "Each sample is tested for influenza A virus. Those that give results A positive are further tested for confirmation. Others are considered negative. The price of the equipments involved in conducting the test varies depending on the quantum of bulk purchase."