The National Chemical Laboratory (NCL) here has successfully developed an indigenous nasopharyngeal (NP) swab for collecting samples from the throat cavity of patients affected with Sars-Cov-2 virus which causes the Covid-19 (coronavirus) infection.
The NCL, a lab under the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), will manufacture one lakh nasopharyngeal swabs a day, a press release issued by the organisation said.
A team of three scientists, namely, Chandrashekhar V Rode, Dr Prakash P Wadgaonkar and Dr Anuya A Nisal worked on the specifications of nasopharyngeal swab polymers and adhesives.
Ashwini Kumar Nangia, director, CSIR-NCL, said, “This is an excellent example of optimising the polymer specifications and validating the chemical analysis of an urgently needed medical swab product in a very short time.”
It said that the nasopharyngeal swabs are in huge demand across the globe and therefore, their supplies are not dependable and could result in delays, escalated prices and variable quality. The organisation, therefore, decided to make indigenous nasopharyngeal swabs in mid-April. The nasopharyngeal swab is a medical device with stringent specifications of quality, polymer grade, dimensions and sterilisation.
“It consists of a cylindrical plastic stick with a brush-like tip of synthetic bristles/flocks. Flocking is a very important processing step in the manufacture of medical swabs, which is to align the fine bristles in a parallel orientation on the stick head, much like a toothbrush, except that this has round uniform geometry and the nasopharyngeal swab bristles are of micron diameter,” the release said.
{{/usCountry}}“It consists of a cylindrical plastic stick with a brush-like tip of synthetic bristles/flocks. Flocking is a very important processing step in the manufacture of medical swabs, which is to align the fine bristles in a parallel orientation on the stick head, much like a toothbrush, except that this has round uniform geometry and the nasopharyngeal swab bristles are of micron diameter,” the release said.
{{/usCountry}}