Why is govt not allowing private labs test H1N1?

Why is the government the sole tester for the H1N1 flu infection? Why is the health minister making claims of extraordinary costs for the test? Why is the curative vaccine only being sold by the government?

The Union health minister had reportedly said that each swine flu test costs the government somewhere around Rs 10,000.

The test for H1N1 can be done through the Real Time Polymerase Chain Reaction test. This is 100 per cent reliable and costs around Rs 1,500 rupees a test, said a doctor who does not want to be named.

The other test is a CARD test which is sold as a kit, explains another doctor. In this test, the blood sample is dropped on the card and the colour of the reagent indicates whether the patient has swine flu or not.

This CARD is available for Rs 500. When bought in bulk the cost will work out to Rs 300. This test is 98 per cent reliable.

"By creating an artificial shortage, a monopoly, the government is assisting someone to make billions of dollars," alleges a Mumbai doctor.

The private sector is ready to carry out tests and import the reagent. Why is the government not allowing them?

Most doctors rediff.com spoke to said the symptoms of swine flu could only be diagnosed by experienced doctors, as normal flu, pneumonia, and swine flu more or less showed the same symptom.

Swine flu has a window period too. The virus manifests itself in the patient only three days after the infection sets in. Any tests before that will read negative.

Hence, two tests with a gap of three days are imperative, said a doctor. Apart from symptoms like cold and fever, the kind of cough the patient has is also important in diagnosing the flu. Doctors say a patient with swine flu will have a 'barking cough' which can be detected only by a trained ear.

"What the mind does not know, the eyes do not see," says a doctor who does not want to be named and insists that unless a physician has seen similar cases and symptoms, he will not be able to diagnose the disease.