GMC Jammu will initiate viral burden monitoring 2023

A team from the Centre for Disease Control (CDC) in New Delhi looked at the COBAS 6800 lab at GMC Jammu. They gave the lab permission to start viral load testing so that HIV and Hepatitis B and C patients can be treated better.

For better patient care, viral load testing on different viruses is also needed for solid organ transplant programs.

The Department of Microbiology’s COBAS 6800 Lab was inspected by Dr. Manoj Kumar, who is the senior manager of LaQSH, and the CDC New Delhi, which was the lead assessor.

Dr Kumar meticulously assessed the laboratory services and manpower and declared the laboratory suitable for initiation of viral load testing with an assessment score of 93.5 percent.

The next step would be to train the staff and start testing the viral load in GMC Jammu.

With the help of viral load testing, many people who are being treated for Hepatitis under the National Viral Hepatitis Control Programme (NVHCP) and HIV under the National AIDS Control Organisation (NACO) would get better diagnoses and care.

The COBAS Lab has been established under the VRDL programme as a state of the art lab and is playing a lead role in COVID RT-PCR testing in Jammu province.

For viral load testing, 64 Abbott platforms and 13 COBAS 6800 have been set up all over India.

NACO used to send samples of HIV viral load to Chandigarh, but now that this platform for viral load has been set up, all future tests will be done in Jammu, including viral load testing in people with Hepatitis B and C and transplant-related infections in people with weakened immune systems.