The Microbiologists Society of India has written a letter to the Health Minister Rajesh Tope has demanded that the Task Force constituted by the Government to work out strategy to control Corona virus infection, should have experts from the field of Microbiology, Virology, Immunology.
The letter signed by President of the Society Dr A M Deshmukh, Dr Sanjeev Patankar and 136 experts in the field from across India highlights the importance of Microbiologists in carrying out research in the field. With the evolvement of new variant Omicron, it is more important that further spread of infection through possible new variant, should be controlled.
The Society has been providing information about the virus and its variant, its behaviour, possible threats and preventive measures to be taken by the masses. The Society is also generating awareness since its inception in 1996.
The disease is caused by a virus, which is a microbe. Yet the task force has only doctors, who are experts in clinical diagnosis and treatment of the disease. But knowledge of the behaviour of the virus including its structure, occurrence, mutation, immunity, development of vaccine, vaccine’s efficacy, is not their purview. They have inadequate knowledge about these dimensions.
Development of vaccines and lab diagnosis is done by microbiologists. Only a small number of doctors work in laboratories. Thus inclusion of microbiologists is very important for effective control over the pandemic.
The same appeal was also made by the Microbiologists Society of India. The task force at various levels can involve at least one microbiologist for getting adequate scientific information about the virus and planning strategy to control it.
