PU Scientists developed economical diagnostic kit for suspecting Coronavirus

A team of Punjab University Scientists under guidance of Professor of Centre of Excellence in Molecular Biology Dr. Muhammad Idrees has developed economical diagnostic kit for testing suspected Coronavirus patients.

PU Scientists developed economical diagnostic kit for suspecting CoronavirusRenowned virologist and Former Vice Chancellor of University of Hazara, Prof. Dr. Muhammad Idrees said while taking to media that the charge of one test would be around 5 US dollars or Rs 800 only.

He further said that development of the kit was not a big task for a Scientist however the government would be able to get diagnostic kits from its own country at this moment.

He added that the Laboratory where the test of Coronavirus suspect was being tested should match BSL 3 Standard so that lab staff and others could not be affected and spread of virus could be controlled.

He further added that the team could develop thousands of kits within a week for the government, depends on the availability of some basic ingredients required for developing economical diagnostic kit.

He told that they started working on the kit in January and were try to make it at much cheaper costs. The kit was firstly used to check for COVID-19 at the university. It used real time PCR-based method to detect infection and cost $5, much cheaper than the one announced by National University of Science and Technology at almost $20.

Prof. Dr Niaz Ahmad Akhtar informed that PU CEMB would conduct tests of Coronavirus suspects free-of-cost so that relief could be given to the people at Large.

He said that this was the role of universities to resolve the problems being faced by the society and country and PU would play its role to cope with this danger in this critical time as well.