BSMMU starts use of BCSIR Covid kit

Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University (BSMMU) has started commercial use of BCSIR Covid kit to detect corona virus at a much lower cost and in a shorter time.
 
The kit was invented under the leadership of the Bangladesh Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (BCSIR) in collaboration with BSMMU and Dhaka University. 

With this kit, Covid test will cost only Tk250 to Tk300, BSMMU Vice-Chancellor Professor Dr Sharfuddin Ahmed said on Tuesday at a program on the official launch of the kit at BSMMU premises.  

It was informed at the program that the Bangladesh Medical Research Center (BMRC) and Directorate General of Drug Administration (DGDA) have given an estimate for the production and marketing of the kit. Initially, five lakh kits have been produced which will be used commercially from Tuesday.
 
With this kit, it will be possible to provide accurate corona virus detection services to people at a much lower cost. The kits will be distributed across the country in phases and there will be no need to import kits from abroad by spending dollars, Dr Sharfuddin said.

BCSIR Chairman Professor Aftab Ali Shaikh said that all the kits used so far to test 1.31 crore samples in Bangladesh to detect coronavirus were imported. World-class RT-PCR gold standard kits are expensive, with each test costing Tk3,000-Tk3,500. The kits developed by the BCSIR are of simple and cost-effective methods.

"The specificity, sensitivity and accuracy of this kit are equal to the gold standard and better than imported kits. Limit of Detection (LOD) of the kit is 100 copies of virus/ml which is much lower than the kits available in the market. That's why, the kit is able to detect Covid-19 at the beginning of infection," he said.
"The kit is capable of detecting all types of variants (Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta, Omicron etc),'' added Aftab Ali Shaikh.