Feluda Covid-19 testing kit: Here’s all you need to know about it

Named after a famous Satyajit Ray character, Feluda is said to give a test result in 45 minutes and is priced at ₹500. It has been developed by the New Delhi-based CSIR-Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology (IGIB) and the TATA Group.

A team of Indian scientists has developed a coronavirus test, which, they say, would give result in less than an hour. It has been described as a ‘simple, precise, reliable, scalable and frugal test.’

A health worker in PPE coveralls readies to collect a swab sample from a boy for coronavirus testing, at Savitri Nagar, in New Delhi (Photo by Sanchit Khanna/ Hindustan Times)

Here’s what you need to know about it:

(1.) The testing kit has been named ‘Feluda,’ after a famous character--a detective--created by legendary director Satyajit Ray, though its full name is Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats (CRISPR) Feluda test.

(2.) It has been developed by researchers at New Delhi’s CSIR-Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology (IGIB) and the TATA Group. It has been priced at ₹500 and, scientists say, would give a test result in 45 minutes.

(3.) Based on a gene-editing technology called Crispr, Feluda, CSIR scientists say, was tested on samples of 2,000 people, including those who had already tested positive for coronavirus. It was found to have 96% sensitivity and 98% specificity.

(4.) A ‘sensitive’ test is one which detects almost everyone who has the disease. A ‘specific’ test, on the other hand, rules out almost everyone who doesn’t have a disease. The accuracy of any test is based on these two aspects.

(5.) The Feluda test kit is quite similar to a pregnancy strip test in that it changes colour on detecting a virus. Having already received approvals from the Drug Controller General of India (DCGI) for a commercial launch, it could also be the world’s first paper-based Covid-19 test kit available in market.

(6.) India is currently conducting Covid-19 testing through the real-time polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) test and the rapid antigen test (RAT). While an RT-PCR test gives a result in 1.5 hours, a rapid antigen test takes 30 minutes.

(7.) ‘Feluda’ is actually an acronym for FNCAS9 Editor-Limited Uniform Detection Assay.

(8.) India is currently the second worst Covid-19 affected country in the world, after the United States, with a caseload of 66,23,815. This includes 55,86,703 recovered cases and 102,685 deaths.