The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), with the help of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) and IIT, Kharagpur, has initiated a programme for the development of affordable diagnostic methods for diabetes as the disease is fast spreading in India.


The programme aims to minimise the cause of diabetes detection drastically and the test kit, being developed under the project, will detect the disease at a cost of meagre Rs.2, sources said. The initiative was launched by the ICMR under the instruction of Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad.


ICMR is executing the project through CSIR, IIT and a private pharma company and hopes to make it available in the market by next year itself. Sources said at present, diabetes test usually cost between Rs.30 to Rs.100 and the effort by the ICMR was to cut it down maximum. The new test tool is expected to bring down the market rates of existing tests also considerably.


Azad himself acknowledged recently that he had urged the ICMR scientists to coordinate the efforts on affordable diagnostic methods for diabetes. He said the country badly needed affordable technologies and could not wait longer.


According the World Health Organisation (WHO) estimates, there are about 220 million diabetes patients worldwide. Nearly 50.9 million of them are in India. Around nine percent of the country’s population is expected to be affected by the disease by 2030.


Sources said the ICMR was also concentrating on more than 50 leads for development of new tools for vector control and diagnostic methods on various infectious diseases including dengue and chikungunya. But the test kit for diabetes was in advanced stage of development already.