NEW DELHI, India, Nov. 22, Reuter: Indian Medical Authorities may be screening for the wrong strain of the killer Aids virus and allowing thousands of carriers to go undetected, a leading medical specialist said on Sunday. Only 15 cases of Aids (Acquitted Immune Deficiency Syndrome) and 40 carriers of the virus had been confirmed in India by mid-October, according to Health Ministry officials.
But the head of the Molecular Biology Department at Frankfurt Medical School, Parkash Chandra, told the Press Trust of India news agency that detection kits used in India were designed for strains of the virus found in the United States and Europe.
“There is a possibility that thousands of Indians may have already been infected if the virus strain isolated from the Indian patients turns to be an Asian strain different from the one in the West”, he said.
The Aids virus from Indian Victims was isolated only three weeks ago and Chandra said the country did not have the facilities to determine its type.
Identification of the Indian strain was urgent, he said.
“Otherwise you will not know whether or not you are doing the right screening test. In the meanwhile, you may be infecting each other”.
Article extracted from this publication >> November 27, 1987
