A Central Government team inspected the Coimbatore Medical College Hospital on Sunday to assess its proposal for establishing a Viral Research and Diagnostic Laboratory (VRDL).
Led by R.P.Meena, Joint Secretary, Department of Health Research, which comes under the Union Health Ministry, the team assessed if the infrastructure at the hospital was adequate to support a Grade-II State-level VRDL.
Fund
The Centre will sanction Rs. 30 crore, split into equal instalments over the next five years. Dean A. Edwin Joe said that the team had asked the Hospital to submit a proposal immediately through the State Government.
It is expected to be one of two such laboratories that would become operational in Tamil Nadu by this year.
The laboratory would undertake serology, RT-PCR, isolation, fluorescence microscopy, tissue culture and sequencing of viruses.
It would also conduct basic and applied research on virus, development of kits and diagnostic reagents and identification of unknown or referred samples from sub-State level Grade-III laboratories.