DIMAPUR, JANUARY 17 (MExN): The Kezekevi Thehou Ba (KTB) has written an open letter to the Principal Director, Health and Family Welfare calling for immediate purchase of a sequencer machine to upgrade the State Referral BSL 3 Lab at Naga Hospital Kohima.
The KTB stated that a sequencer machine is “imperative to detect omicron or any other Covid-19 variants and effectively contain them immediately to stop or reduce the load of community transmission which has begun in the country.”
It reported that the “extracted suspected omicron samples” from Nagaland were initially being sent to Dibrugarh ICMR Assam and National Institute of Biomedical Genomics (NIBMG), Kalyani West Bengal, which takes more than 30 days, “and in such delay, there is every possibility of sample being damaged while in transit or in the waiting period.”
The samples are currently being sent to the Institute of Bio-Resources and Sustainable Development (IBSD), Imphal, it informed. However, the KTC said that this also has been known to encounter inordinate delays, and “understandably so as the State of Manipur has to cater to its own test loads.” The KTB said that the sequencer machine will cost around Rs 2 to 3 crore.
“Such a machine is known to have various other important and crucial applications in the identification and management of many other complicated diseases including various types of cancers. It needs no telling how a lot of our state resources and finances have been spent in other states for diagnostics and treatment due to lack of requisite infrastructure within our own state,” the KTB observed.
It claimed that many biopsy samples in the past were reportedly being sent out of the State for investigations “but because it usually takes 10-15 days, samples do get damaged in transit or reports too delayed for timely treatment.”
The KTB pointed out that upgradation of the BSL-3 with sequencer machine will also go a long way to develop and help research scientists identify and diagnose different types of cancers for treatment. It meanwhile said that the State is also in need of a Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) Machine too, to upgrade BSL 3 Lab which would cost less than Rs 1, 60, 00, 000.
Meanwhile, the KTB said that ordinary citizens who cannot afford expensive treatment often perish for want of requisite facilities within the state.
Therefore, the KTB urged the Health Department to procure a sequencer machine and Next Generation Sequencing Machine at the earliest within 30 days for the health interest and security of the public of Nagaland.
