Pune: A 10-member National Media Delegation, headed by Dr. Manisha Verma, Additional Director General from the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, visited the Indian Council of Medical Research’s (ICMR) National Institute of Virology (NIV) in Pune. The visit was part of a three-day media tour across Maharashtra, which will also include a stop at ICMR-CRMCH in Chandrapur.
Dr. Naveen Kumar, Director of NIV, welcomed the delegation and provided a detailed overview of the institute’s cutting-edge research in virology and its vital role in managing viral outbreaks in India. He highlighted NIV’s key contributions in detecting and isolating various COVID-19 variants, which played a significant role in formulating the country’s pandemic response strategies.
During a media interaction, Dr. Kumar reassured that the recent rise in COVID-19 cases posed no major concern, noting that most infections were mild and required minimal medical attention.
He also spotlighted the institute’s swift response to the Guillain-Barré Syndrome (GBS) outbreak earlier this year, crediting NIV’s rapid diagnostic capabilities and containment measures for effective outbreak management.
In a major scientific development, Dr. Kumar revealed that India is close to launching indigenous vaccines for several emerging viral diseases, including Mpox, Kyasanur Forest Disease (KFD), H5N1, and Japanese Encephalitis (JE) using virus-like particles (VLP) technology.
A key highlight of the visit was the unveiling of “NAKSHATRA,” India’s first High Performance Computing (HPC) cluster dedicated to virology. Inaugurated by Dr. Rajiv Bahl, Secretary of the Department of Health Research and Director General of ICMR, the advanced system significantly enhances India’s computational capabilities in virus genomics and bioinformatics.
(Source: PIB)