The shortage of instant blood glucose test kits remains persistent in State hospitals despite the stocks of Indian manufactured test kit strips arriving in the country recently, due to equipment compatibility issues, The Sunday Morning learns.

It is learnt that the imported test strips cannot be used for the available glucometers and that the authorities are waiting for the Indian manufactured glucometers to arrive in the country to distribute them to the State hospitals to carry out the usual instant blood glucose tests. 

It is learnt that a majority of the test meters used by the State hospitals are those manufactured in China and as such, are not compatible with the test strips made in India.

The Sunday Morning reported earlier this year that the new stocks of test kits which are being imported into the country are expected to be sufficient for a few months’ worth of demand. 

However, as only test strips have been imported in numbers, their use with incompatible equipment has caused the testing shortage to continue unchecked. Earlier, a group of medical experts raised concerns over the quality of Indian manufactured test strips.

The Sunday Morning also reliably learns that, as of last week, there has been no official quality assurance test conducted within the country to check whether the strips are up to the expected standard or not. 

The stock was imported during a period when an exception was granted by a waiver of registration of new pharmaceuticals. It is learnt that a waiver of registration for the specific test strips had been granted by the National Medicines Regulatory Authority (NMRA) last year.

Speaking to The Sunday Morning, Academy of Health Professionals (AHP) President Ravi Kumudesh said that shortages still remained at State hospitals. “However, these tests are not mandatory. Many health officials are misusing this instant test. Ideally the well-recognised test should be conducted in a laboratory, but since it is easy to use, many are now using test strips,” he said.  

However, when contacted, Director General of Health Services (DGHS) Dr. Asela Gunawardena said that there was an issue with regard to the machines as those available at present could not be used for the test strips brought down from India. “They will distribute the meters too,” he said.

Nevertheless, as reported earlier, the Medical Supplies Division (MSD) said that it had nearly 7.5 million stocks of blood glucose strips in its stores and that those stocks had been imported by the State Pharmaceuticals Corporation (SPC) via a donor agency.

According to a large-scale national survey jointly conducted by researchers representing several Sri Lankan universities, the Medical Research Institute (MRI) in Colombo, and the Institute for Health Policy (IHP) recently, nearly one in four Sri Lankan adults – 23% – and one in three adults or 31% in the Colombo District had diabetes while another one in three had high blood sugar levels in 2019.

Last year, it was found that Sri Lanka had the highest rate of diabetes in Asia.