The Ministry of Health has moved forward to import a huge quantity of NS1 kit amid an unprecedented outbreak of dengue fever across the country.
As part of the move, the Directorate General of Drug Administration (DGDA) approved seven business firms to import 1.61 lakh pieces of NS1 kit.
No-objection certificates (NOCs) have been issued in favour of these firms to import the NS1 kits, which are being used for rapid detection of dengue virus.
On Thursday, a company named M/S STP imported 65,000 pieces of NS1 kits. Of them, 35,000 pieces have been supplied to various medical device sales centres in the capital’s Mitford area, 15,000 pieces to Chattogram and 15,000 pieces to various medical device sales centres in the BMA Bhaban.
“A significant quantity of the NS1 kits have already reached the country and are being supplied to various
medical stores, hospitals and clinics,” a Health Ministry official told The New Nation on Friday.
Earlier, hospitals and diagnostic centres in Dhaka had reported shortage of the NS1 kit for dengue testing.
Pathologists said the NS1 is a highly conserved glycoprotein that is present at high concentrations in sera of dengue-infected patients during the early clinical phase of disease, and is found from day 1 and up to day 9 after onset of fever in sample of primary or secondary dengue affected patients.
The government had already imported 40,000 NS1 kits this year, according to Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS).
Besides, 50,000 kits had also been imported on an emergency basis amid a spiraling demand for the kits following the rapid dengue outbreak across the country.
The World Health Organization (WHO) is also expected to provide 1 lakh NS1 kits for dengue testing to the government of Bangladesh.
“We have approved private firms to import NS1 kits for ensuring plenty supply of the kit in the country,” said the Health Ministry official.
Rejecting the media reports of NS1 kit shortage, he said, ” There is no crisis of such kits as the government has already brought necessary nonstructural protein-1 (NS1) antigen test kits on an energy basis.
More than 19,000 people are being infected with the dengue virus this year. However, the official figures put the death toll at 14 though unofficial reports indicate that more than 40 people have died in various parts of the country due to dengue.
