TEHRAN – The World Health Organization (WHO) has donated 2 million automated nucleic acid extraction tests to the Ministry of Health of Iran through financial support from the Federal Republic of Germany.

The 60-ton shipment of 261 packages, procured through the German Federal Foreign Office (GFFO), landed at Tehran’s Imam Khomeini International Airport early on Friday, December 24, and will be distributed to public medical laboratories across the country.

The delivered automated nucleic acid extraction kits can deliver up to 2 million laboratory reactions and are used in diagnostic devices called ‘extraction machines’ to extract genomic nucleic acid DNA and RNA of bacteria, viruses, and parasites for PCR-based detection from a wide range of samples.

Automatic extraction kits have higher accuracy and speed in sample analysis and deliver higher quality final results when compared with manual kits, and therefore, the donated kits will play an important role in enhancing diagnostic capacity in the country.

The procurement comes at the request of the ministry of health to support national medical diagnostic capacity in response to the viral pandemic.

The kits will be used as consumables for the automated extraction devices that were supplied by WHO earlier this year within the framework of the Iran COVID-19 Emergency Response Project, a collaboration between WHO and the Ministry of Health beginning in June 2020 and ending in July 2021 in an effort to support the country’s health care system in diagnosing and treating patients with COVID-19.

FB/MG