The Government of India has banned the manufacture, sale, distribution and use of sero-diagnostic kits in public interest under the provisions of the Drugs and Cosmetics Act 1940 on June 7, 2012, a release quoting Commissioner, Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Rakesh Gupta said.
Despite the ban, some centres were still using these kits for gains, he added.
Gupta said directions have been issued to all senior drug control officers as well as drug control officers to keep a strict vigil on such elements and, if any such case was detected where sero-diagnostic kits were manufactured, sold or or used, necessary action would be taken.
He appealed to the State Indian Medical Association, pathologists and private clinical laboratories to use alternate test methods available for TB like sputum smear examination, X-ray and other histo-pathological tests.