(Image credit: International Journal of Mycobacteriology)
With thousands and thousands of migrants, returning every day to their home districts in Bihar from all over the country, Chief Minister Shri Nitish Kumar asked the Health Department officials to start random testing by procuring TrueNat machines.
- TrueNat are Diagnostic machines used to test drug-resistant tuberculosis (TB). Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has approved this machine for conducting Covid-19 tests.
- Truenat -a smaller, battery operated machine, requires minimal training and is usable even in smaller settings such as the Primary Health Centre.
- It uses a chip-based technology and takes just up to 60 minutes for a test, screening or confirmatory.
- According to the WHO, the TrueNat test has been developed by the Indian firm MolBio Diagnostics Pvt Ltd Goa. It’s development has been funded by Bigtec Labs, India.
- The test works by the rapid detection of TB bacteria using the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) technique.
Source: The Hindu, HinduBusinessline, TB facts.org
