FAILING THE TEST

The furore over Chinese rapid antibody testing kits reveals a number of problems, from ‘faulty’ equipment, long supply chains, disagreements on interpretation and even crisis-profiteering

- Sonali Acharjee

FIRST LINE OF DEFENCE Health workers take blood samples at a testing centre in Chennai

On April 16, a special Air India cargo flight landed in New Delhi, carrying a consignment of 276,000 rapid antibody testing kits from Guangzhou Wondfo Biotech, a Chinese medical technology firm. Designed to test for possible exposure to COVID-19 by detecting the presence of antibodies in blood samples, the arrival of these kits was greeted with much enthusiasm. They were expected to play an important role in India’s efforts to map the spread of the virus.

India, which had tested 770,764 samples as on April 29, is still far from reaching the testing rates of countries like South Korea or the US, which have preferred mass testing over lockdowns. Both those countries have made wide use of rapid antibody tests, one of the reasons their testing numbers are so high.

Suresh Kulandaivel, director of Matrix Labs, Chennai, which holds a licence from the Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) to import the testing kits, had been awaiting the shipment for almost a week. “There were some delays in custom clearances,” he says. His relief at their arrival was to be short-lived. Once received, the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) in Delhi distributed them to states across the country; but soon, complaints started pouring in from Rajasthan, Maharashtra and West Bengal, disputing the accuracy of the results these kits provided.