NAGPUR, DEC 7: The holy town of Hardwar is sitting on a time bomb which is ticking away for the day of the Kumbh to arrive - the time bomb of an epidemic of cholera, typhoid and dysentery.That the Ganga Action Plan has failed is no more a secret. The water is contaminated with bacterial and viral pathogens, particularly around place of human inhabitation. The UP state health department would no doubt be gearing up to face the situation. What the authorities probably do not know is that the pathogens have already become resistant to the normally administered antibiotics. This startling discovery has been made by scientists of the National Environmental Engineering Research Institute (NEERI), Nagpur.Ironically, the purpose of the tests conducted by Dr Hemant Purohit and Dr Atya Kaple at Hardwar and Rishikesh was not to monitor the water quality. Their experiments were related to field calibration of the gene probe protocol developed at the Institute.NEERI decided to use the gene probe to improve the quality of the environment. The `Multiplex Polymerase Chain Reaction' technique developed by the Institute's scientists allows detection of bacteria, viruses and protozoa, discharged through human excreta, in a single reaction. at one go the scientists are able to ascertain the water quality to assess the damage its consumption can cause. whereas the techniques already available in the market take at least two days for final detection, NEERI's polymerase chain reaction (PCR) method gives the result in four hours.Thus, even in the case of an epidemic breakout, this technique can help to sharply reduce the damage by collecting samples from various sources of water and isolating the most active ones.``What we are looking for, however,'' says NEERI Director Professor Purushottam Khanna, ``is to send a warning that would prevent such a disaster from taking place at all.''The concerned health authorities need to realise that the pilgrims would really be quite defenceless against the conventional anti-biotics that their doctors might be armed with, Khanna told The Indian Express. Purohit informed that samples for field calibration of the PCR protocol were taken from the river at spots near Har Ki Pauri, Lakshman Jhula and Ram Jhula.The results revealed that the water contains e.coli (water quality indicator organism), salmonella (causative agent for typhoid), shigella (causative agent for bacterial dysentery) and vibrio (causative agent for cholera) in thousands.The scientists were surprised at the resistance which the pathogens have developed to routinely-administered antibiotics.
