The government is now better equipped to deal with the SARS scare as it has developed its own diagnostic kits to detect the virus causing the disease. Four more suspected SARS cases were reported today, while medical reports of the two passengers isolated yesterday are still awaited.The kits bring a great sense of relief. These have been made ready by the Indian Council of Medical Research by bringing over two primers (elementary genetic sequencing of the SARS virus) which had been earlier developed by Bernhard-Nocht Institute in Hamburg, Germany. The primers developed by the WHO Network Laboratories is being replicated by scientists in India and the kits have been prepared from them by using a reagent formulation. These have been made available to the NICD, Delhi, and the NIV, Pune. Primers have been imported for two virus known to produce the disease. ‘‘In more than 60 per cent of the cases reported abroad, coronavirus and another virus called the human metapneumovirus (hMPV) have been detected. As the genetic sequencing of the viruses is known, the primers can detect the virus in cell culture,’’ said Dr S.P. Agarwal. According to officials, the kits have been provided to these two centres only as the testing needs expertise.The Ministry of Health had earlier planned to order 25 kits from WHO. On the other hand, the Director-General Health Services is supposed to meet representatives from SRL Ranbaxy Limited, which on April 6 had claimed to have developed diagnostic kits for detecting the virus. ‘‘We received no formal proposal and based on media reports asked the representatives of the company to meet us. The meeting will take place on April 11 and our scientists are likely to investigate their claim,’’ said Dr Agarwal.However, ministry sources say the company doesn’t have the primers and as a result it cannot help in the detection of the virus.
