Special lab in Gujarat to cut 42 hrs from H1N1 test time

The dread injected into Gujarat by the H1N1 death in Pune — from where hundreds travel daily to Ahmedabad — may be allayed soon; the state is  establishing a lab to provide test results in just six hours.

The Gujarat government will open a temporary virology lab at the BJ Medical college, in Ahmedabad, for confirmatory tests on suspected swine flu cases. At present, the state is not equipped to screen people for the H1N1 virus, and the samples are sent to New Delhi.

The process is time-consuming and the results are available only after 48 hours. Jaynarayan Vyas, the state’s health minister, said that the lab would be functional in 10 days.

“We have already received testing kits from the World Health Organisation,” Vyas said.
“Only 18 places in India have such a testing facility.”