Sero Survey by ICMR and NCDC

The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) and NCDC (National Centre for Disease Control) are to conduct a sero survey. The survey will help to learn about the prevalence of COVID-19 infection.

What is a Sero Survey?

A Sero Survey is testing of blood serum of individuals and determine the presence of antibodies against COVID-19.

Significance

The survey is to be conducted in 10 health facilities initially. After validating its success, it will be implemented in other regions of the country.

The Government of India intends to set up a systematic surveillance system. The sero survey will help in framing a mechanism to achieve this.

About the survey

The survey is to test 200 samples in a week. It will focus on pregnant women, out patients, that is, more of low-risk groups. The health care professionals will be selected from high-risk population. The survey will also collect samples of nasal and throat swabs to run RT-PCR tests. Pool Testing is to adopted while testing these collected samples.

Pool Testing

In Pool Testing, 4 to 5 swabs of the collected samples will be tested for the virus. This is done to save time. When, the test run shows positive results, the swabs will be run individually.

Month: Current Affairs - May, 2020