While many of us are worried about the low Coronavirus in India, this brave mother came up with a testing kit to help detect the cases early.
With the increasing number of COVID-19 infections worldwide, many countries including India have been forced to put their citizens under complete lockdown.
Though many countries are trying hard to contain the virus through lockdowns, however, the top officials of the World Health Organization recently said that isolation or lockdowns are not enough.
As per WHO, the best way to stop the virus from spreading is to test the cases as sooner as possible. Recently, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus shared:
“We have a simple message for all countries: Test, test, test. Test every suspected case,”
But, what is heartbreaking is the fact that Indian, with 1.3 billion population has only tested 6.8 people per million. This number is one of the lowest rates in the world.
While many of us are worried about the rates in India, a brave mother came up with a testing kit to bridge this gap. A Pune-based virologist, Minal Dakhave Bhosale, developed the country’s first coronavirus testing kit. Being the research and development chief of Mylab Discovery in Pune, she led the team to design a testing kit called ‘Patho Detect’ in just six weeks.
What made this discovery even special was the fact that Minal began working on the kit in February, just days after leaving the hospital with a pregnancy complication.
She didn’t let pregnancy become a reason to delay her service to the country. Just a day before delivering her baby girl, she submitted the kit for evaluation to the National Institute of Virology (NIV) on 18 March, the BBC reported.
“It was an emergency, so I took this on as a challenge. I have to serve my nation.”
She further added how her team of 10 members worked very hard to make the project a success.
This first Made-in-India coronavirus testing kit hit the market late March. This kit focuses on increasing the frequency of testing patients with the symptoms of the infection and quickly identifying the cases with the viral infection. While sharing the details about the kit, Minal said in an interview with Hindustan Times:
“Our kit gives the diagnosis in two and a half hours while the imported testing kits take six-seven hours,”
Talking about the accuracy of the kit, Minal said,
“If you carry out 10 tests on the same sample, all 10 results should be same. And we achieved that. Our kit was perfect.”
The best part of this kit is how it is an economical alternative to imported testing kits. As per the company, each kit can test 100 samples and costs Rs.1,200, making it highly economical.
People online thanked Minal for her exceptional efforts:
Ms. Bhosale, you delivered not just the test kit and your baby , but you also delivered a ray of hope to the country. We stand and salute you… https://t.co/iqQgQvBzg3
— anand mahindra (@anandmahindra) March 28, 2020
Coronavirus: The woman behind India’s first testing kit- makes us all so proud to see women leading the way Congrats Mylab https://t.co/W1WnC8Knrm
— Kiran Mazumdar Shaw (@kiranshaw) March 28, 2020
Good story of @MylabSolutions, #Pune… ‘The woman behind India’s first testing kit’
Built in record time, the team leader, Minal Dakhave Bhosale submitted the kit for evaluation by the NIV on 18 March, just a day before delivering her daughter.
https://t.co/04qjzEntdK via @BBC pic.twitter.com/So6wjTTYEe— Amit Paranjape (@aparanjape) March 28, 2020
As of now, the total number of coronavirus-infected patients in India has crossed 3 Lakhs. At IFORHER, we are sure that with the real heroes like Dr. Minal, who are giving their heart and soul to help contain the virus, we’ll definitely defeat COVID-19 soon.
We at IFORHER salute Dr. Minal and her team for giving us a ray of hope during these dark times.