Indore: MGM Medical College soon to get diagnoses and culture test of Monkeypox virus

Indore (Madhya Pradesh): Diagnoses and culture based testing of Monkeypox virus and other zoonotic diseases would be done in three government medical colleges of the state, including MGM Medical College, soon.

Aiming to strengthen the surveillance and diagnostic capacity for zoonotic diseases, National Centre of Disease Control (NCDC) has decided to establish a network of Sentinel Surveillance Sites across the country, including three sites in Madhya Pradesh i.e. in government medical colleges of Indore, Bhopal, and Jabalpur.

NCDC had asked all the states to send proposals to nominate the medical college/institute for undertaking Sentinel Surveillance activity over which the state government has nominated these three medical colleges of the state.

According to a senior officer of the Medical Education Department, establishing these surveillance centres is one of the key objectives of National One Health Programme for Prevention and Control of Zoonoses (NOHP-PCZ).

Meanwhile, Dean of MGM Medical College Dr Sanjay Dixit said that the college has been nominated by the state government and now they will send the comprehensive proposal for being the Sentinel Site.

“The priority zoonosis proposed to be included (but not limited to) Scrub Typhus, Rickettsial infections, Leptospirosis, KFD, CCHF, Brucellosis etc. NCDC will upgrade our existing lab for the same after which we will be able to test the samples of Monkeypox as well,” Dr Dixit said.

NCDC will also provide appropriate technical and financial support to the sentinel sites for the same.

What are Zoonotic diseases?

Zoonotic diseases are diseases or infections that can be transmitted naturally from vertebrate animals to humans or from humans to vertebrate animals. More than 60 percent of human pathogens are zoonotic in origin. This includes a wide variety of bacteria, viruses, fungi, protozoa, parasites, and other pathogens.

No end to the wait for Genome Sequencing machine

The wait for getting a genome sequencing machine at MGM Medical College continues even after two and half months of the outbreak of the pandemic disease. The government had shifted the machine to Bhopal in place of Indore while the machine to be provided by WHO is yet to be received.