Haffkine Institute, a name almost synonymous with the molecular
diagnosis of the pandemic H1N1 (pH1N1) influenza (‘Swine Flu’) over the
last year is now finally able to reel forward from the pandemic
situation. With the end of the pandemic officially being declared by the
World Health Organization (WHO), Haffkine Institute is now once again
looking at other avenues in infectious disease and public health to
further the services offered to the nation.

Dr. Abhay
Chowdhary, Director, Haffkine Institute believes that “The work we do at
Haffkine is committed to maintaining the motto of our institute:
Rogapahari Vigyan Lok Kalyanasadhanam i.e. alleviating human suffering
and thereby serving the welfare of the people”

Since August 2009,
the Department of Virology had been swamped with the molecular
diagnosis of the pH1N1 Influenza for the regions of Mumbai, Thane and
Raigad Districts as a Government of Maharashtra and Ministry of Health
and Family Welfare (MoHFW) Centre. In 2010 as well, the onset of the
monsoon brought in a flurry of cases. However, the inflow of samples is
now subsiding gradually and the department is expanding its horizon for
uplifting the burden of infectious agents.

Although the threat
of pH1N1 is not as severe any more, Haffkine Institute will continue to
safeguard society against Influenza. Haffkine Institute now possesses
the city’s first Biological Safety Level III (BSL-III) Laboratory. After
a brief gap in the set-up due to unavoidable circumstances, the BSL-III
Lab is now almost functional. This laboratory will enable the institute
to conduct research on potentially dangerous and bio-hazardous agents
including Avian Influenza Virus as well as newer and re-emerging
pathogens which require stringent control mechanisms to avoid their
spread in the society.

The Department of Virology is a WHO
recognized centre for the diagnosis of rabies, primarily via ‘Negri body
staining’ techniques. Although for the last few years, this service had
been suspended, the department is in the process of re-establishing
rabies diagnostic services using an updated technique known as
‘fluorescent antibody test (FAT)’. Within the next few months, the
institute will be offering full-fledged service for the diagnosis of
rabies in both, animals and humans suspected of being infected with the
rabies virus. The test will also be available for post-mortem cases to
determine the cause of death in an animal-bite related case.

The
Department of Virology is also gearing up for providing services for
the diagnosis of various other viral infections as routine testing in
due course of time. Apart from diagnostic services, the department has
been and is expanding its services for the determination of anti-viral
properties of compounds for commercial and well as educational
establishments.

Besides viral infections, Haffkine Institute is
up-to-date with the current problems at home—Malaria. Vector borne
diseases including Malaria, Dengue and Chikungunya are transmitted via
mosquitoes. The Department of Zoonosis is in the process of setting up a
’Mission to Control Mosquito Menace (MCMM)’ Programme. The programme is
aimed at collecting and identifying mosquito larvae from various
locations in the city in order to establish a reasonable hypothesis of
the spread of Malaria and other vector borne diseases in Mumbai.

Haffkine
Institute has drawn an action plan for addressing this issue by
building up a team of qualified volunteers of college students who will
undertake survey within the complex urban environment of Mumbai to
establish a vector database that could provide valuable information
about vector distribution, diversity and type of larval habitat to
implement effective vector control measures. The MCMM is a multi-centric
project involving students from various colleges as volunteers. The
volunteers will be given adequate training for the collection and
transport of mosquito and/or their larvae to the institute and will also
be provided with a kit to help them with the collection.

The
primary aims and objectives of the programme can be enlisted as:
?
To build a team of qualified volunteers for collecting mosquitoes from
various areas in and around Mumbai region
? These volunteers will
help in creating awareness in general public about mosquito- borne
disease their transmission and preventive measures

The Department
of Zoonosis is already engaged in research on various topics such as
the Entomologic survey of mosquito borne diseases, molecular serotyping
of dengue viruses in field caught Aedes mosquitoes and in vivo
assessment of BCG vaccine in synergy with anti-malarials in murine
model.

The herpetarium (Snake Farm) at Haffkine, a
one-of-its-kind setup is fully licensed to maintain and ‘milk’ venomous
snakes for the preparation of anti-snake venin is also in the process of
establishing research on medicinal plants that have a potential snake
repellent activity. This research will be immensely useful in the
prevention of snake-bites in rural and urban settings alike.

Haffkine
Institute is an Indian FDA recognized laboratory for the testing of
chemicals, reagents and kits required in biosciences. The institute
plans to set up a section providing this testing as a pre-marketing
service to commercial manufacturers. Additionally, the institute also
has a vision of providing a one-roof facility for determining the
efficacy of traditional Indian medicines, providing a triage of
detection, quantisation, activity and toxicity of the active
component(s). In this field too, specific importance is being given to
medicinal plants that may be used to devise specific and definitely more
cost-effective drugs with the potential of being anti-viral,
anti-bacterial, anti-malarial and larvicidal in nature.

The other
departments of Haffkine Institute such as Department of Toxicology and
Department of Biochemistry are also expanding their research and testing
potential to keep up with the times. The Department of Toxicology that
currently offers in vivo oral and dermal toxicity studies in various
laboratory animals is planning on expanding services to include
Teratotoxicity, Genotoxicity and Reproductive Toxicity. Plans are also
to include estimation of LD50 of Snake Venom as part of the services
being offered.

As is the mandate of the institute, training is an
extremely important feather in Haffkine Institute’s cap. Already
established training programmes such as Annual Biotechnology Training
(ABT) and ‘Viro Vitals’ (Annual Virology Training Course) are extremely
sought after by graduate and post-graduate students. However, newer
training programmes including ‘Clinical Research Management’ are gaining
popularity as well.

To encourage further knowledge dissipation,
the institute is planning to initiate some more training courses
soon. These include a specialized training ‘Laboratory Animals: Care and
Management’ to be initiated by the Department of Zoonosis. Other
specialized training courses will also be introduced in the next few
months.

“Good education and appropriate training facilities are
required by most students in the biological and medical sciences field.
Haffkine Institute is proud to be one of the premier training institutes
in the country” says Dr. Chowdhary.

Haffkine Institute has been
at the fore-front of public health in the state for many years now and
the current plans seem to strengthen the objectives on which the
institute has stood its ground for over 110 years.


The author is Scientific Officer,Department of
Virology,Haffkine Institute