Experts from many educational institutions, including from Mangaluru and Kerala, are lending their expertise in testing COVID-19 samples at the new virology laboratory which became operational at the Government Wenlock Hospital (also COVID hospital) here from April 7.
Father Muller Medical College, College of Fisheries, Mangalore University, K.S. Hegde Medical Academy, Yenepoya Medical College, National Institute of Technology – Karnataka (NIT-K), all from Mangaluru, and MES Academy of Medical Sciences, Mallapuram, Kerala, are some among them.
Anup Kumar Shetty, Professor of Microbiology at Father Muller Medical College, and Ramakrishna Pai Jakribettu, Associate Professor from MES Academy of Medical Sciences, are lending their expertise in the extraction of RNA from the throat swabs. Girisha S.K., Assistant Professor, and two research scholars from the College of Fisheries are involved in conducting tests using the real-time Poly Chain Reaction Machine.
The laboratory is among 11 government laboratories in Karnataka testing throat swabs for COVID-19. The laboratory at the Wenlock Hospital has been testing throat swab samples from Dakshina Kannada, Udupi and Uttara Kannada.
The government has posted microbiologist Madhusudhan, pathologist Sharath Kumar and five technicians to manage the laboratory. It tested 1,875 samples till April 22.
Dr. Kumar, who is also the coordinator of the laboratory, told The Hindu that the services of Dr. Shetty and five other experts were provided by Dean of Father Muller Medical College Jayaprakash Alva and Dean of College of Fisheries A. Senthil Vel. "Their expertise in the field has helped us in conducting tests in an effective way," he said.
Others assisting the laboratory include experts from the Department of Applied Botany, Mangalore University, and from the Department of Chemical Engineering and Centre for Disaster Management at NIT-K.
K.S. Hegde Medical Academy and Yenepoya Medical College are also providing consumables to the laboratory. Kanachur Institute of Medical Sciences and Srinivas Institute of Medical Sciences have promised to provide their personnel if required, Dr. Kumar said.
