Central India Institute of Medical Sciences (CIIMS), Meditation, AIDS, Health, Addiction, Nutrition (MAHAN), Melghat and University of Nottingham (UON), United Kingdom jointly organized an Indo-UK Global Research meeting from January 6 to 10 under Global Challenge Research Fund (GCRF). The main objective of this meeting is to tackle infectious diarrhea in tribal population, rural areas, peri-urban areas and also in Urban areas.
The scientists will take care of baseline data on the mentioned disease, and look into the transmission of organism from environment, animals and other sources and finally intervention will be done in the selected study sites.
Diarrhea one of the major public health problem globally, and particularly in India where 626 million people are estimated to practice open defecation (WHO, 2019). Knowledge of which infectious agents cause diarrhea is lacking due to inadequate diagnostic facilities. Poor sanitation and unhygienic conditions are important risk factors for diarrhea. Diarrheal pathogens are transmitted along multiple environmental pathways, traditionally conceptualized as the “five-Fsâ€: fluids (water), fingers (hands), food, fields (soil), and flies. However, there is limited evidence on which of these pathways are the most important for transmission of diarrhea in Central Indian populations.
This research will bring together a highly experienced multidisciplinary team of Researchers and relevant stakeholders to share knowledge from a One Health perspective for planning future creative research activities aimed at reducing the overall burden of infectious diarrhea in India.
Around 30 scientists, 8 from UK and 21 from India attending this meet, informed by Dr. Rajpal Singh Kashyap, Director, Research, CIIMS. Many scientists from world’s reputed places like UON, Newcastle University, London school of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, University of Hyderabad, National institute of Nutrition, Nagpur veterinary college, National engineering and environmental Research Institute (NEERI), Kasturba medical college and Hospital, Karnataka , Mahatma Gandhi institute of Medical Science, Priyadarshini Institute of engineering and technology (PIET)  and also experts from Food microbiologist, Ayurveda physician attended the meeting.
A full day brain storming meeting was held in Hotel Radisson blue in presence of all experts on January 6. In which all experts shared their experience and given ideas how the project can be implemented at larger level. Dr Lokendra Singh, Director, CIIMS, welcomed all National and International GCRF participants and inaugurated the meeting. On January 7 all experts visited CIIMS to see the facilities available in CIIMS, which will be useful for the implementation of the project. GCRF team visited all the departments of CIIMS, including Research where the major portion of the project will be implementing.
Dr. Kashyap informed the team about the ongoing projects of Research work at CIIMS. Team also visited Nagpur veterinary college (NVC) and Maharashtra Animal and Fishery Science University, (MAFSU) to interact with veterinary team about the animal studies components under the guidance of Dr. Nitin Kurkure, Director Research and later also met with Vice Chancellor of MAFSU, Dr, Ashish Paturkar.
In the last phase of the day 2 meeting, Team visited to National Engineering and Environmental Research Institute (NEERI) to study about environmental aspects in the proposed project, Dr. Hemant Purohit, Chief Scientist, NEERI and his team interacted with the all the visited experts through presentations. Next day, All GCRF team members left for Melghat to visit tribal villages in Melghat, MAHAN and Dr G. M Taori, Jamnalal Bajaj Tribal health Research center, a joint venture of MAHAN and CIIMS.
In Chikaldhara, Dr. Ashish Satav, President, MAHAN delivered a lecture on the ongoing work at MAHAN from last two decades. GCRF team had a quite interactive meeting with him and Dr. Kashyap on different issues on Melghat.
On the last day, team visited to most affected village of Melghat, i.e. Kokmar to see the life style of population, their houses, water supply, water quality, human and animal health status, their diet and the prevalent diseases in that area.
Dr.Vibhvari Dani, Consultant, MAHAN, explained above mentioned things to the visited GCRF members. GCRF team also interacted with the villagers and discussed with them about their problems. Next day all GCRF experts returned to Nagpur and then meeting was wrapped up held to plan the future action in the project.
Dr. Rajpal Singh Kashyap informed that from last two and half years CIIMS and UON were working on to find prevalence of Clostridium difficile and many other organisms causing diarrhea in urbanized, peri-urban and tribal communities in India.
Dr. Tanya Monaghan, associate professor and honorary consultant in gastroenterology, university of Nottingham, United Kingdom as the principal investigator and Dr. Rajpal Singh Kashyap being the investigator from India along with Dr. Ashish Satav, President MAHAN, Melghat. Starting with a narrow vision, now the study has spread its roots in the southern and north-eastern parts of India as well and with an optimistic approach for near future. Under this project anaerobic organism culture facility is developed in Nagpur, which is first of its kind. Dr. Amit Nayak, Dr. Aliabbas, Rima Biswas (Indo UK project coordinator), Rupam Nashine and other members of CIIMS helped in organizing the event.
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