Healthcare major Abbott Laboratories is looking to set up a virus surveillance centre in India, its second outside the United States, besides China.
The research initiative will help map both known and “unknown” viruses, said Chicago-based Sushil G Devare, who was part of Abbott's team that developed the Elisa test to diagnose HIV in the US way back in the early 80's.
“In India we are going to do it little bit differently,“ says Devare, Director (Diagnostic Research), in that the blood samples will be collected in India , screened and analysed here.
“They will remain in India. They will be tested in India using all the different kits and so on. The surveillance will be done right in India,” he told Business Line. This would be a departure from the present practice of sending samples from across the world to Abbott's Chicago centre that presently holds about 60,000 samples since it was started in the 90s. Like in China which already houses a virus surveillance centre, Indian rules too do not favour the sending of blood samples overseas.
The plan in India is to collaborate with an academic institution here, he said, unwilling to divulge names and financial investment details, as discussions are still underway.
Global outbreaks The proposed India surveillance centre gains importance as the global scientific community and governments grapple constantly with the outbreak and rapid spread of Bird flu, Swine flu, Ebola and Zika most recently. “Surveillance becomes a very critical part of everything. How do you monitor what is going on in the world and how do you stay two steps ahead of the viruses,” he points out.
The samples held at the e global centre include HIV and HCV (Hepatitis C) and HBV (Hepatitis B), for instance. But surveillance is not just to map the viruses, he explains, but to also monitor how the existing ones are changing.
“The advantage of having these samples is whenever we develop a new test we can take out the samples to see that we can detect all the viruses efficiently,” he explains. Besides, if there is a new virus , “we can screen these samples again to see if the virus was there in early days, he says, adding that Zika for instance was a “reemerging virus” that had been known for a long time in Africa.
jyothi.datta@thehindu.co.in