New Delhi, 20 February
To help determine the causes of outbreaks of food poisoning and infections effectively, the Union Health Ministery today launched an indigenously developed kit for detection of food-borne pathogens.
The technology has been developed by the National Institute of Nutrition (NIN), Hyderabad.
“The kit for detection of food borne pathogens will be very useful to determine the causes of outbreaks of food poisoning and food borne common infections caused by eating of contaminated eggs, poultry, meat, dairy products as well as vegetables, contaminated with water borne infections,” Union Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad said while launching the kit.
The Minister highlighted that this user friendly and rapid detection system will be of immense use not only to the Food Safety Authority of India but also to the Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme, which reports on food poisoning outbreaks and to diagnostic laboratories in Government as well as to private sector.
Studies show that about 13 per cent of deaths, among children of less than five years of age, are due to diarrhoea, which is caused essentially due to consumption of contaminated food and water, Azad said. The kits developed by NIN, in collaboration with Bioserve Biotechnologies, are indigenous, less time consuming and cost 1/3rd of the imported kits costs.
Use of the kits by the food industry will not only help domestic consumers in having safe food but also help reducing export rejections on account of microbiological contamination.
The second kit, Azad said, will help in estimating the quantity of ferritin and help in diagnosing iron deficiency anaemia individually as well as for mass level screening.
“This test will be useful to decide supplementation of iron according to the need and also to avoid iron dosing in conditions where iron accumulates in the body; for instance due to repeated blood transfusions in cases of Thalassemia, Haemophilia and others,” Azad said.
The present estimates of anaemia due to iron deficiency in different groups vary widely from 5 per cent to 50 per cent.
Besides this variation, there are large numbers of adolescent boys and girls who are anaemic. As per National Family Health Survey, 56 per cent of girls and 30 per cent of boys in the age group of 10-19 years are anaemic, the Minister said. In India, anaemia control strategies are based on haemoglobin levels. However, estimation of serum ferritin has been found to be the specific diagnostic tool for early detection of iron deficiency. Therefore, a ferritin test helps to diagnose with certainty and the extent of iron deficiency, avoiding unnecessary iron supplementation. It is based on ELISA principle and is specific, very accurate, cost effective and convenient method comparable to other commercially available kits, Azad said. The third kit is for diagnosing Vitamin-A deficiency. The dried blood spot collection system for Plasma Vitamin-A estimation is a simple system that allows the blood to be collected on a special type of filter paper which can be stored for 7 days at room temperature and for several days at refrigerated temperature.
“It will be valuable for mass screening for deciding on Vitamin-A supplementation as and when required. This system will reduce the inconvenience to children, cost of blood collection, storage and transportation associated with conventional vein puncture method of blood collection,” said Azad.
A national prophylaxis programme to prevent and control night blindness due to Vitamin A deficiency was first started in 1970, under which children aged between 1 to 5 years are administered vitamin A at six monthly intervals.
Currently, 30 million children are receiving vitamin A supplementation, which is linked with DPT and oral polio under universal immunization to increase the coverage. Launching new kits will help in better implementation of national programmes going on in these directions. Government implemented the renewed weekly iron and folic acid supplementation (WIFS) January, 2013, to give iron supplementation to 13 crore young girls and boys.
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