Health activists raise doubts over allergy testing camps

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Health activists have approached the Kerala State Council for Clinical Establishments against the dubious allergy testing camps conducted across the state claiming to detect a wide range of allergens. According to them, the tests conducted by a Chennai-based group are not scientific and their claims misleading. The state council which has the powers to regulate the functioning of clinical labs and medical diagnostic centres have sought reports from the medical officers. 

The CAPSULE (Campaign Against Pseudo Science Using Law and Ethics), a public health collective of the Kerala Sasthra Sahitya Parishad (KSSP) has also received a favourable response from Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI) which asked the laboratory to modify the claims in its advertisement by October 7.

“The claims are misleading by exaggeration, and are likely to lead to widespread disappointment in the minds of consumers,” said the Consumer Complaints Council of ASCI while upholding the complaint. The health activists raised doubts over the efficacy of tests being conducted and ethical issues regarding the sample collection.

“The advertisements given by the laboratory are misleading. We have approached various regulatory authorities to prevent people from being cheated with false claims,” said CAPSULE convenor Anil Kumar.“Most people have some allergy or the other. They will be misled to believe that they could diagnose the cause of allergy with a random blood test, which is not true,” said CAPSULE chairman, Dr U Nandakumar Nair.