Prime
Ugandan makes Covid-19 test kits
Prof Vinand Nantulya
Prof Vinand Nantulya, a senior researcher and proprietor of one of the firms that make diagnostic kits in the country, has designed testing kits for coronavirus.
The Health ministry officials told Daily Monitor yesterday that results of evaluation of the rapid-results testing kits by the National Drugs Authority (NDA) will be released today.
Prof Nantulya said the kits, if approved by NDA team, will deliver results in five minutes compared to 45 minutes or three hours from other methods such as GeneXpert or PCR (Polymerase Chain Reaction) machine.
“The kits first have to undergo field evaluation to show whether it is working well before being approved,” the proprietor of Astel Diagnostics Ltd told Daily Monitor.
“I have developed an antibody detection kit, the test detects both IgG (Immunoglobulin G) and (Immunoglobulin M) IgM. The IgM tests is just like that from PCR machine and IgG detects if someone has been exposed to the coronavirus,” he said.
Antibodies are proteins produced by the immune system in response to an infection and are specific to that particular infection. IgM and IgG are the forms of the antibodies found in blood. IgG tests detect IgG antibodies that develop in most patients within seven to 10 days after symptoms of Covid-19 begin to manifest. IgM test detects IgM antibodies which is usually the first antibody produced by the immune system when a virus attacks.
Health ministry reacts Dr Joyce Moriku Kaducu, the State Minister for Primary Healthcare, said: “The kits were being validated. We are waiting for the validation report, it will be out either today [ (Wednesday] or tomorrow [Thursday].”
The minister did not give details about who was doing the validation.
However, some experts say the evaluation process often assesses the sensitivity and precision in testing for coronavirus.. The sensitivity of a test is the percentage of results that will be correctly positive when coronavirus is actually present. Lower rates of sensitivity will produce more false negative results.
The specificity of a test is the percentage of results that will be correctly negative when coronavirus is not present. Lower rates of specificity will produce more false positive results.
Dr Denis Mwesigwa, the product inspection and licensing director at National Drug Authority, said the kits are validated by Uganda Virus Research Institute (UVRI).
Prof Pontiano Kaleebu, the UVRI director, said the kits were being validated in a partner laboratory at Makerere University.
Prof Moses Joloba, an expert in diagnostics and the head of the Makerere laboratory doing the validation, was yesterday reported locked up in a meeting and could not comment on the issue by press time.
