Kolkata: Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) has installed Reverse Transcription Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR) machines for diagnostic services.
The innovative cutting edge device can directly detect viral DNAs. This is the first time in India that a corporation had installed RT- PCR machines.
"Installation of RT- PCR machines as high end diagnostic tool is another feather in the cap of KMC's health department. I understand KMC is the first Municipal Corporation across the country to install such machines. This will do away with diagnostic confusion of diseases such as dengue, and TB. I am thankful to Confederation of Real Estate Developers Association of India or CREDAI Bengal's Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiatives which have made RT- PCR machines available at KMC," said Kolkata Mayor Firhad Hakim.
"No matter how expensive and complex the technology involved, tests will be done completely free of cost. At times, we witnessed dengue written in death certificates issued in private hospitals. Often it is found that they
never had dengue. Several private organisations are using dengue as a means of profit," said Kolkata Deputy Mayor Atin Ghosh.The number of people afflicted with the disease in South Kolkata is far more than the North and Central parts of the city.
Many houses in New Alipore, Jodhpur Park and Golf Club remain under lock and key and the civic workers have no access there. Recently, the civic workers used a ladder to reach the roof of an abandoned house at Baghajatin in ward 99 and found mosquito larvae there. The newly-acquired drones helped KMC spot water patches on the roofs of high-rise buildings, which serve as breeding grounds for mosquito larvae. "Polymerase chain reaction can accurately predict the viral load. The reports generated by this RT-PCR machines are way more specific," said Dr Tapan Kumar Mukherjee, advisor of Heath department, KMC.