{"id":117957,"date":"2021-09-09T14:41:46","date_gmt":"2021-09-09T21:41:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=117957"},"modified":"2021-09-09T14:41:46","modified_gmt":"2021-09-09T21:41:46","slug":"new-low-cost-covid-test-kit-developed-in-sri-lanka","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2021\/09\/09\/new-low-cost-covid-test-kit-developed-in-sri-lanka\/","title":{"rendered":"New low-cost COVID test kit developed in Sri Lanka"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><em>Courtesy Adaderana<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n<p>The University of Peradeniya has developed a new low-cost test kit to diagnose SARS-CoV-2 infected patients in a relatively shorter time with a higher accuracy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed-youtube wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"\u0d9a\u0ddc\u0dc0\u0dd2\u0da9\u0dca \u0d86\u0dc3\u0dcf\u0daf\u0dd2\u0dad\u0dba\u0dd2\u0db1\u0dca \u0dc4\u0db3\u0dd4\u0db1\u0dcf\u0d9c\u0dd0\u0db1\u0dd3\u0db8\u0da7 \u0db1\u0dc0 \u0db4\u0dbb\u0dd3\u0d9a\u0dca\u0dc2\u0dab \u0d9a\u0da7\u0dca\u0da7\u0dbd\u0dba\u0d9a\u0dca...\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/earihE6stWU?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Developed by a team led by Dr. Ruchika Fernando of the Department of Veterinary Public Health and Pharmacology, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine and Animal Science, this COVID-19 test kit has been priced at only Rs. 1,500.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The test kit has already received the approval of the technical committee of National Medicines Regulatory Authority (NMRA).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As the test kit is based on the Reverse Transcription-Loop Mediated Isothermal Amplification (RT-LAMP) principle, patients are detected based on amplification of SARS-CoV-2 virus specific RNA in the sample and compatible with patient samples collected for regular qRT-PCR.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>According to its developers, the positive agreement of this test kit with qRT-PCR is very high (97%) compared to similar alternatives such as Rapid Antigen Tests (RAT) in which the positive agreement with qRT-PCR can be in the range of 12-71%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The test kit is equipped with an internal control assay based on human beta actin messenger RNA which can confirm the quality of the patient sample received by the laboratory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The developers of the COVID test kit have presented it to Minister of Health Keheliya Rambukwella, who commended the new invention.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>During the event, the minister stated that Sri Lanka is receiving international acclaim for its national COVID-19 inoculation drive. He assured that the Ministry of Health would take all necessary measures to bring the country back to normalcy as soon as possible.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Courtesy Adaderana The University of Peradeniya has developed a new low-cost test kit to diagnose SARS-CoV-2 infected patients in a relatively shorter time with a higher accuracy. Developed by a team led by Dr. Ruchika Fernando of the Department of Veterinary Public Health and Pharmacology, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine and Animal Science, this COVID-19 test [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[122],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-117957","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-health"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117957","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=117957"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117957\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=117957"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=117957"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=117957"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}