Mumbai: Learning lessons from Covid and measles outbreaks, the BMC has decided to set up a Metropolitan Surveillance Lab Unit (MSU) at the civic-run Kasturba Hospital. It will be established in coordination with the State and Central Governments.
The MSU will be a combination of robust technology and expertise. In a high-tech lab, doctors, data analysts, and other staff will be hired for research and constant monitoring of diseases. Senior health official said the budget for setting up the MSU is under process for approval. A nodal officer will be appointed who will coordinate with the staff for the execution of the project.
Initiative announced in BMC budget
The initiative was announced by the BMC in its budget for the financial year 2023-24. As per sources from the health department, the National Center for Disease Control has approved the location for this center. A memorandum of understanding (MoU) has also been signed between the BMC, State and Centre in this regard.
Dr Sanjeev Kumar, Additional Municipal Commissioner, said the main objective of setting up the MSU is to link private and public health facilities through the Integrated Health Information Platform (IHIP). Moreover, it will also enable the surveillanceand monitoring of infectious diseases in urban areas.
“It is the much needed unit for keeping real-time data and analysis to act on outbreak or pandemic which helps us to make strategies to tackle the health crisis. We will be hiring manpower who will be trained for data reporting on the IHIP. We will also aim at collecting relevant samples for zoonotic diseases,” he said.
Health experts have welcomed this initiative citing that civic body should have taken this step beforehand. Considering the mutations in Covid virus, it's the need of the hour to set up such surveillance units across Maharashtra and India, they added.
