The Union Health Ministry will soon spend about Rs.1000
crore to establish a large network of virology laboratories in the
country. The ministry's decision in this regard comes in view of the
acute shortage of laboratories for diagnosis of viral infections in most
parts of the country.

Dr Vishwa Mohan Katoch, secretary,
department of health research and director general of ICMR, said that
the government has decided to establish a large network of virology
laboratories in the country at a cost of about Rs.800
to Rs.1000 crore.

By establishing
such a network even rare viruses can be detected and it will also help
in the early detection of viral diseases, said Dr Katoch who recently
inaugurated the first such laboratory in the country at Manipal
University in Karnataka. He said this was the beginning of a great
experiment in the structural changes in health research for the benefit
of public health. "It is proposed to establish a three-tier system of
virology labs in a phased manner. The state governments have been told
to identify centres where the labs can be set up," Dr Katoch said.

The
Grade I laboratory (highest facility) will be equipped with facilities
to carry out serology, tissue vulture, virus isolation, PCR/RT-PCR,
fluorescence microscopy and sequencing of all major respiratory,
enteric, blood borne, vector borne, zoonotic viruses and viruses which
have the potential to cause outbreaks. The Grade 1 laboratories can be
given up to Rs.15 crore depending on the
type of research the labs carry out.

The Grade II laboratories
will be equipped to carry out serology, PCR, fluorescence microscopy for
immuno-detection and the Grade III laboratories will carry out serology
for viruses (ELISA based diagnosis) and PCR.

The Manipal Centre
for Virus Research - ICMR network laboratory, which is headed by Dr G
Arunkumar, is the first of the four sanctioned Grade I laboratories in
the country. The others are in Chhatrapati Sahuji Maharaj Medical
University, Lucknow (formerly KGMC), Regional Medical Research Centre,
Bhuvaneshwar and Regional Medical Research Centre, Port Blair.

The
Manipal Centre will add a new dimension to the diagnostic virology
capability of the country as an immediate outcome and serve as a
regional reference laboratory. It will undertake research and
epidemiological studies which will lead to development of policy matters
in health sector, like, introduction of vaccination, effectiveness of
vaccination etc.