40 labs to get notice over illegal allergy testing camps

The Kerala State Council for Clinical Establishments will serve notice on around 40 labs in the State which had conducted unauthorised allergy testing camps by collecting blood samples from people.

Sources told The Hindu on Wednesday that these labs had not registered with the council under the Kerala Clinical Establishments (Registration and Regulation) Act, 2018. This was revealed after Health department staff inspected their premises in various districts as directed by the council. They may be fined up to ₹50,000 each.

Though the District Medical Officers (DMO) were asked to file reports to the council on this by November 20 last year, a majority of the officials have missed the deadline.

These labs held the camps on behalf of Jerath Path Labs & Allergy Testing Centre, Specialty Diagnostic Laboratories, based in Chennai, which placed full-page advertisements on the front page of major newspapers. These ads urged suspected patients to give their blood samples at designated labs in districts and charged them ₹3,600 each. Results were promised in a month and further treatment would be offered if additional charges were paid.

An inquiry by the vigilance wing of the department, however, found that these institutions were based in Punjab. The Academy of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine said that allergy could not be detected through blood tests alone and their claim could be a fraud.

A meeting of DMOs to discuss the findings of the inspections was held only by February last week. However, the officials from Kannur, Idukki, Alappuzha, and Palakkad did not submit their reports even then. The sources said that two of them had now filed the report and two others yet to do it. An official from the council said that a consolidated report would be submitted to the government after getting reports from all districts.

Meanwhile, the government is yet to act on the vigilance wing’s proposal to set up a panel of expert doctors in subjects such as pulmonology, dermatology, general medicine, and pathology from government medical college hospitals to check such practices. A complaint filed with the State Police Chief by Campaign Against Pseudo Science Using Law and Ethics, a platform under the Kerala Sasthra Sahitya Parishad, too has not made any headway. The Hindu