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Journalism of Courage
After a zero-polio year,efforts are being made to keep it that way. One of the steps being taken is a virtual search and seal operation across the country to identify institutions like medical colleges or research centres,private or government,across the country that may have polio virus in samples stored in their labs to ensure the virus does not spread inadvertently.
A national task force will identify labs that may have the virus samples and prepare an exhaustive list to serve as a database,a crucial step towards eradication of the virus,says Dr J M Deshpande,coordinator of the national task force on laboratory containment of the wild polio virus.
In an interview with The Indian Express,Deshpande said a thorough search will be carried out to rule out any risk of inadvertent spread of the virus from labs,government or private.
It is likely that faecal samples preserved by labs in medical colleges or research centres may harbour the virus and other infectious material. At times,there could be cases where specimens collected by PhD students for research are forgotten and relegated to college lab shelves. This is where we need to contain potential risk of inadvertently transmitting the virus. Containment facilities need to be checked and viruses need to be kept under lock and key, says Deshpande,who is also the Director of the Mumbai-based Enterovirus Research Centre,Indias only WHO-recognised Global Specialized Laboratory for polio.
From January to December last year,eight laboratories in the country worked round-the-clock to detect the virus from the 1.10 lakh faecal samples sent for tests. The only case of the crippling disease was detected on January 13,2011 in West Bengal. Just two years ago,741 Indians had contracted polio,nearly half the worlds cases that year,Deshpande said.
There,however,is a danger of viruses lurking in labs of medical institutions and research centres. For instance,a stool sample may have been collected and preserved for diagnosing some infection and it is likely that it can harbour the polio virus. As a precautionary measure and to rule out any inadvertent leak,the task force has decided to make a list of such centres, Deshpande said.
