Magdalena Lenny Situmorang
On July 13, 2020, President Joko Widodo sought to increase the capacity of Covid-19 sample testing to 30 thousand samples per day nationally and will continue to increase to 50 thousand samples per day. The ratio of testing to the population in Indonesia is still below the target set by WHO. According to the Covid-19 task force in Indonesia, one of the obstacles in meeting this target was the unavailability of facilities, tools, materials, and resources for conducting RT-PCR analysis. Based on the problems outlined in the background and objectives of this community service program, the provision of Virus Transport Media (VTM) will be carried out for the referral agencies for Covid-19 testing in Bandung. The VTM product provided is a VTM produced in the laboratory of the School of Biological Science and Technology of ITB following the guidelines set by the WHO and the CDC. The existence of this VTM media can help in temporarily storing swab samples from people suspected of being exposed to Covid-19 so that it can subsequently be used as a testing material by the quantitative RT-PCR method. The more available this VTM, it will increase the speed of detection rates of patients with Covid-19 and accelerate handling and prevention of spread. This activity aims to (1) Produce Virus Transport Media (VTM) media to store sputum samples from people suspected of being exposed to COVID-19; (2) Donate the VTM that has been produced to the Covid-19 testing referral agency in Bandung, and (3) as proof that good quality VTM can be produced domestically. In conclusion, SITH ITB possesses the capability and capacity to produce VTM per the WHO and CDC guidelines. We also have assisted the detection effort for Covid-19 in the West Java Province.
Penerapan Karya Tulis
The unavailability of facilities, tools, materials, and resources for conducting RT-PCR analysis.