The Department of Health Research (DHR) will soon begin joint research in the area of zoonoses, which have been defined as diseases and infections that naturally transmitted between vertebrate animals and humans.
According to senior officials in the DHR, the effects of zoonoses are accentuated among marginalised groups since the poor tend to have closer interactions with animals and are further removed from accessible health services. India possesses a favourable environment for transmission of both known and novel diseases between animals and human.
Officials also said that a targeted, multi-disciplinary and multi-sectoral efforts are required to mitigate the effects of zoonoses on human and animal health. Since zoonotic diseases encompass animal-human interface, these collaborative projects will be better equipped to address the multiple aspects of the zoonotic diseases.
The diseases that have been identified for this collaborative researches are rabies, rickettsial infections including Q fever (Coxiella burneti), anthrax, listeriosis and Crimean Congo hemorrhagic fever.
The priority domains of the collaborative research on rabiesare Design and implementation of epidemiological studies; Designing and implementation of integrated rabies control strategy suitable for Indian scenario; and standardisation of vaccination schedule for dog.
The priority domain on rickettsial infections including Q fever (Coxiella burneti) include human, animal and entomological studies for diagnosis and sero epidemiology of rickettsial diseases from different regions in India; Establish determinants responsible for increased populations of Orientia tsusugamushi infected mites and periodic increases and decreases in incidence of disease in humans; Elucidation of the vulnerable points in the zoonotic maintenance cycles of Orientia tsusugamushi and develop an effective, environmentally acceptable intervention to decrease the infected tick populations; and Ecological and epidemiological determinants and their GIS mapping to understand the expanding horizon of Rickettsial infections.
On anthrax, the research will focus on analysis of individual host risk factors for anthrax exposure and infection and risk characterisation; Preferred prevention strategy/decontamination procedures for population exposed to anthrax especially pregnant women; Expanded veterinary surveillance and integration with human health information; and socio-economic burden of anthrax in tribal population in anthrax endemic areas. Behavioural studies on tribal population regarding meat eating habits of dead animals died of unnatural death.
The priority domain on Listeriosis are developing methodologies for Listeria strains, effective support for trace-back investigations, and increased monitoring capacity by facilitating access to reliable, real-time technologies; Ecological studies of Listeria especially as applied to the investigation, identification and handling of sporadically appearing isolates; and analytical system to be identified for listeriosis, where sub-typing, finger printing, sequencing could result in specific diagnostic markers to provide immediate, on-site capability for the identification of outbreaks with no loss of sensitivity or specificity.
The priority domain on Crimean Congo hemorrhagic fever are human surveillance of CCHF envisaging early detection of CCHF, case management and outbreak control; animal srveillance studies in affected states; entomological surveillance for developing disease outbreak prediction methods; and studies on molecular epidemiology and evolution of CCHF virus.