The microbiology department at Patna Medical College and Hospital. Telegraph picture

Patna, Nov. 19: Prevention is better than cure. The age-old adage holds true for dengue because the microbiology department of Patna Medical College and Hospital (PMCH) is unable to carry out blood test of dengue suspects because of test kit shortage.

Sources in the hospital said though the tests were being conducted at many private hospitals across the city, only PMCH lab could give the most authentic report as it carries out diagnoses through Elisa method. But currently, the hospital is not getting supply of test kits either from state government or National Institute of Virology (NIV), Pune.

Shankar Prakash, head of the microbiology department of the hospital, said: “Dengue fever rapid test devices, also known as one-step dengue tests, are a solid phase immuno-chromatographic assay for the rapid, qualitative and differential detection of dengue IgG and IgM anti-bodies to dengue fever virus in human serum, plasma or entire blood.”

He also said: “We are mainly dependent on NIV for the test kits. One set of kits supplied by them can carry out 96 tests. But we have not got any supply from them for several days. So diagnosis has been badly hit. We have only a few kits supplied by the state government. We can carry out one test each with every kit. Therefore, blood samples of only very serious patients are being tested now.”

Officials at PMCH said they had written to the top authorities in both the state health secretariat and NIV to supply the test kits immediately.

The authorities also said there had been a spurt in the number of patients coming for tests after the festive season.

“We have carried out 1,049 tests so far and after Diwali and Chhath, when lakhs of people came to the state from outside, we have noticed a sharp rise in people with dengue-like symptoms coming for diagnosis. But we are unable to process the results fast even though we are collecting the samples regularly,” said Vijay Kumar, a virologist at the lab.

Though authorities refused to divulge the exact number of positive cases of dengue, sources said 45-50 per cent of the total cases tested were positive.