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Facilities

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The department has been at the forefront of leading the laboratory response in our fight against the COVID-19 pandemic. RT-PCR testing began on 29.03.2020. During this pandemic the laboratory received samples from Lok Nayak Hospital, G B Pant, GNEC, CNBC, Rajiv Gandhi Super-specialty and various districts of Delhi. The department has multiple laboratories to cater to hospital diagnostic services.

  • Anaerobic Laboratory (Room no 128): Anaerobic culture and identification of pathogen is available for samples. The isolation and identification of pathogen is done by conventional and automated methods.
  • Antibiotics Laboratory (Room no 27-28): The laboratory provides antibiotic sensitivity tests for all bacterial samples received in routine laboratory. The AST is done by manual as well as automated system as per current guidelines. The Laboratory also functions as coordinating centre for WHO IAMM Network of Surveillance of Antimicrobial Resistance-Delhi and is also a part of National Antimicrobial Resistance Surveillance Network (NARS-Net India).
  • Routine bacteriology Laboratory (Room no 34): The laboratory receives sample for bacterial culture from body fluids, blood culture and urine. It has facilities for isolation and identification of various pathogenic bacteria by conventional as well as automated methods.
  • Enterobacteriaceae Laboratory (Room no. 124A): This laboratory provides testing for stool culture and microscopy. The new tests included are Stool for Occult Blood by Standard Guaiac Method, Stool for Clostridium difficile Glutamate Dehydrogenase (GDH), Toxin A/B by Rapid immunoassay, Stool-Helicobacter pylori antigen by Rapid immunoassay, Stool-Rotavirus and Adenovirus by Rapid immunoassay and Stool for simultaneous detection of Cryptosporidium parvum, Giardia lamblia and Entamoeba histolytica by Rapid immunoassay.
  • Serology Laboratory (Room no 126): Serology lab has latex agglutination tests for ASO titres, CRP and Rheumatoid factor. It also has serological tests available for syphilis including TPHA, enteric fever (WIDAL and rapid) and leptospirosis.
  • Mycobacteriology Laboratory (Room no 330): Mycobacteriology lab provides microscopy and culture services for diagnosis of pulmonary and extrapulmonary tuberculosis.
  • Mycology Laboratory (Room no 253): The laboratory is receiving samples for Wet mount, KOH mount, Gram stain, India Ink preparation, Fungal culture, Blood culture for fungus, Cryptococcus antigen detection test. This laboratory has also started new tests which are: Galactomannan Antigen and Candida IgM detection tests.
  • Parasitology Laboratory (Room no 128): Identification of blood and enteric parasites is available. Rapid test for antigen detection of Malaria and Microfilaria and ELISA for Cysticercosis and Echinococcus are also available. The laboratory is also a State Malaria Referral Laboratory for cross verification of laboratory results of microscopy of all blood smears found positive at malaria clinics at sentinel surveillance hospitals, Primary Health Centres (PHC) and other peripheral laboratories.
  • Virology Laboratory (Room no 277B): The virology laboratory functions as a Surveillance Laboratory for various vector borne diseases, under the aegis of National Vector Borne Disease Control Program (NVBDCP), MOHFW. The laboratory conducts assays for diagnosis of various vector borne diseases, such as Dengue, Chikungunya and Japanese Encephalitis. During the sero-survey for COVID-19, the virology laboratory of the department performed detection of anti SARS-CoV2 on more than 5500 samples received from the community. Hepatitis A, B, C, and E including all markers of Hepatitis B are also available. Complete TORCH profile is also done. Anti-SARSCoV2 antibodies, are also done.
  • Research laboratory including Molecular diagnostics (Room no 137): Department has a well-equipped, fully functional molecular diagnostic section.
  • Advance virology (Room no 279): It performs RT-PCR for Covid as well as other diseases. Currently it also offers viral load estimation for Hepatitis B and C.
  • Virus Research and Diagnostic Laboratory (Room no 275-277): The department has been designated as State Level Virus Research and Diagnostic Laboratory (VRDL) under the VRDL network established by Department of Health Research, Ministry of Health & Family Welfare, Government of India, as a part of implementation of the Scheme "Establishment of a Network of Laboratories for Managing Epidemics and Natural Calamities" to strengthen infrastructure of viral diagnostics in India. Initial funding for the establishment of the VRDL has been received.  The laboratory facilities for various epidemic prone viral diseases, such as Influenza A H1N1, Dengue, Viral encephalitis, Chikungunya, and COVID-19 has been further strengthened.
  • Hospital Infection Surveillance Unit: It is an active and important part of the department work profile. It conducts surveillance of various ICUs, OTs and kitchen etc. Awareness programs for staff/doctors are conducted regularly. During covid pandemic multiple training sessions were conducted in infection control activities, hand hygiene, PPE donning doffing etc. The Infection control manual can be accessed at  HIC LNH MANUAL.
  • HIV Laboratory (Room no 274): The HIV testing performed by rapid tests has been accredited by National Accreditation Board for Testing & Calibration Laboratories (NABL) as per International Standard, ISO15189:2012. It also functions as a State Reference Laboratory (SRL) for HIV under the aegis of National AIDS Control Organization (NACO), MOHFW monitoring the quality of HIV testing of the 26 linked ICTCs and PPTCTs for HIV serology, training programs and through onsite assessment. It also provides facility for absolute CD4-T-Lymphocyte count ART Centers in Delhi.
  • Immunology Laboratory (Room no 128/135): Laboratory provides testing for Anti-Nuclear Antibody (ANA) by indirect Immunofluorescence assay. Line Immune Assay testing is available for ANA, Hepatitis (Autoimmune) and Myositis (Autoimmune) Profiles and Quantitative ELISA testing for anti-CCP, IgM & IgG anti-Cardiolipin, IgM & IgG anti-Ꞵ2 Glycoprotein I, Vasculitis (p-ANCA, c-ANCA), anti-ds DNA autoantibodies.
  • Integrated Counseling & Testing Centre or ICTC (Room no 31 A): The ICTC provides laboratory testing and counseling services for HIV to direct walk-in clients and in-patients. The HIV laboratory also functions as one of the designated laboratories for the conduct of nation-wide HIV sentinel surveillance under the patronage of NACO, Ministry of Health & Family Welfare, Government of India.
  • Emergency Microbiology Laboratory (Window no 3, First floor, Lok Nayak Hospital): These services were started in year 2000 to ensure that samples received after regular working hours are processed and reported upon as rapidly as possible. The number of samples processed in Emergency Microbiology Lab has gone up from 11,400  in year 2001 to  1,12,799 in the year 2022. The laboratory is providing 24 hours services to emergency patients, health care workers and dialysis patients.

Other laboratories:

  1. Media preparation (Room no 25): Preparation of culture media and biochemical reactions for culture and identification of micro-organisms is done here in quality assured manner.
  2. Sample receiving area (Room no. 30)
  3. Report dispatch area (Room no. 31)

The diagnostic tests that are provided currently include the following ( Directory of services for microbiology laboratory can be assessed by clicking here )

  • Microscopy and culture of different samples for Bacteria, Fungi, & Parasites.
  • Antimicrobial susceptibility testing for bacteria.
  • Serological Tests like Widal, ASLO, VDRL, CRP,TPHA.
  • Tests for HIV, Hepatitis Viruses, Toxoplasma, Dengue Virus, Cytomegalovirus,     Herpes, Tuberculosis etc.
  • Immunofluorescent test for Pneumocystis Jirovecii, Latex Agglutination for Cryptococcus.
  • PCR for HIV, Hepatitis B, C, Dengue virus, Mycobacterium tuberculosis & Mycoplasma pneumoniae.


Equipment available

State of the art equipments are available in the department to impart quality education and cutting-edge research :

  • MALDI-TOF: Identification system of bacteria/fungi/Mycobacteria within 13 minutes by Matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization–time of flight mass spectrometry
  • Automated Bacterial Identification and antibiotic sensitivity system (with MIC values).
  • CO2 Incubator for growth of fastidious organisms.
  • Lyophilizer for stocking organism by freeze drying them
  • Anaerobic culture automated system
  • Automated RNA extraction platforms
  • Real time PCR machines
  • Freezers (-80 and -20C)
  • Cytocentrifuge
  • Genomic sequencer


State Level VRDL

  1. The department is now a designated State Level Virus Research and Diagnostic Laboratory (VRDL) under the VRDL network established by Department of Health Research, Ministry of Health & Family Welfare, Government of India, as a part of implementation of the Scheme "Establishment of a Network of Laboratories for Managing Epidemics and Natural Calamities" to strengthen infrastructure of viral diagnostics in India since January 2021.
  2. It was also a designated State Inter lab Quality Center lab under ICMR’s Inter-Laboratory Quality Control (ILQC) program for COVID-19 testing from July 2020 to Feb 2022. MAMC ILQC lab receives samples from more than 80 COVID-19 testing laboratories every quarter to ensure inter-laboratory quality control.
  3. The department is also a designated COVID antigen kit validation center by ICMR since September 2020
  4. The department has been designated as the nodal center for coordinating three rounds of state-wide serosurvey for COVID-19 under the aegis of the Department of Health and Family Welfare, Government of NCT of Delhi.
  5. The department is also a State Malaria Referral Laboratory from August 2020 for cross verification of laboratory results of microscopy of all blood smears found positive at malaria clinics at sentinel surveillance hospitals, Primary Health Centers (PHC) and other peripheral laboratories.
  6. The department is enrolled as a site in National Antimicrobial Surveillance Network (NARS-NET) from April 2021 and is the State level coordinator in NARS-NET for Delhi state.
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