PHC approves UHS for coronavirus testing

LAHORE: The Punjab Healthcare Commission (PHC) has allowed University of Health Sciences (UHS) to conduct laboratory tests for detection of coronavirus in suspected patients.

In a letter issued on Tuesday, the PHC chief executive officer granted UHS the "permission to proceed with PCR test for Covid-19" keeping in view the emergency situation caused by the pandemic.

UHS laboratory facility was inspected by a two-member team of PHC last week. The commission has directed UHS to follow interim national guidelines for laboratory tests for Covid-19 issued by the National Institute of Health on April 27.

Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) is a process that amplifies (replicates) a small, well-defined segment of DNA (or RNA) many hundreds of thousands of times, creating enough of it for analysis. Viruses such as coronavirus contain only RNA.

When a respiratory sample is collected from the person being tested, it is treated with certain chemicals that allow RNA to be extracted and tested. Reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) is a technique that first uses reverse transcription to convert the extracted RNA into DNA for amplification.

Real-time PCR (qPCR) provides advantages for PCR, including automation, higher-throughput and more reliable instrumentation. It has become the preferred method for detection of coronavirus.