At NICD, the virus doesn’t scare: it’s the very place

You return with the feeling that nothing has changed in a decade. Remember 1994? India’s testing facilities took a knocking after WHO confirmed that the country had gone overboard in reporting the magnitude and extent of the Surat plague outbreak.

Monkeys still screech at you as you arrive at the rusty gates of the institute, located on Shamnath Marg. You step in gingerly, visions of a hi-tech testing facility embedded in your mind and half-expecting men and women moving in protective gear in what must be a highly sanitised area. After all, they simply can’t go wrong here because the country banks on this centre.

But what you walk into is a dismal, dirty, run-down place. The lawns, barring the one outside the director’s office, have all gone to seed. The institute itself, housed in barracks dating back to the days of the Raj, are in urgent need of repair: the plaster’s peeling and the walls are crumbling.

The store room, library and administrative blocks, you’re told, are heritage structures which cannot be tampered with. Never mind if the wooden grills look new and the plaster recent. NICD Director Shiv Lal says the CPWD is supposed to take care of the buildings.

‘‘We are applying pressure on them to carry out renovations. We are more involved with our work. The NICD mandate is to provide diagnostic support and manpower development. It also provides laboratory support in times of outbreaks.’’

Close to where Lal sits is a four-storied building which serves as the main laboratory block. A pointer leads you to an unmanned hepatitis lab, empty barring a red refrigerator and an oven, identified by letters scrawled in bold. Test tubes in small boxes are also visible.

Opposite lies the virology laboratory. Post-SARS scare, entry has been prohibited. From inside the room, you can hear a voice: ‘‘We cannot respond to any query. Speak to the administration. The labs cannot be opened because the head of department is in Nirman Bhavan.’’ You peep in to find a lone woman in a chair, surrounded by rickety furniture in a dark, gloomy room. Scarring the wall opposite her is a large cement patch.

You take the stairs to the first floor and nearly throw up. The stench’s unbearable, emanating through some open door not visible. The HIV laboratory stocks two freezers, some equipment and chemicals. A technician, sporting a worn-out apron and double gloves, is busy testing. But no mask is visible though the writing on the door says ‘‘we handle hazardous material here.’’

In the block ahead lies the tuberculosis and micro-bacterial research laboratory. The sample collection window has turned into an AC duct. In a small cubicle to the right is the sample collection area: a broken sink, a leaking tap and stained floors. Manning the lab are three technicians and a doctor.

The next block seems a shade better: a board says it’s the site for blood culture, Zoonosis and biochemistry lab. The staircase has been newly constructed and the floors look maintained. But in the corridor, ultra low freezers are gathering dust. Layers of it.

The labs are supposed to be that of Zoonosis and blood culture. The area around the incinerator is no different from the one in any municipal hospital — it’s littered with hazardous material. The only place with a clinical look to it is the biochemistry division on the third floor of the building. This is where they do the test for SARS.

‘‘This place looks different because it has been given priority in utilisation of funds. I can confidently say we have all the infrastructure and expertise which is supposed to be in place in all major laboratories,’’ says a scientist there.

But not all of Delhi’s medical practitioners take the NICD word for granted when it comes to the issue of testing facilities. ‘‘If you have been bitten by a dog, they will simply do a routine check and declare that the dog has rabies. In other countries, the dog’s killed, a post-mortem done and his brain tested for rabies antibodies,’’ points out a government hospital doctor.

This may be debatable. What is, however, not debatable is that the NICD does not reassure. Certainly not in times such as these.