• Home
  • Articles
  • COVID-19
  • News
    • Biotech News – Featured
    • Biotech News
    • BioGadgets
  • Interviews
    • Interviews – Academia
    • Interviews – Industry
  • Issues
  • Subscribe
  • Board
  • Advertise
Facebook Twitter Instagram
Trending
  • Concord Biotech: Stock Market’s New Biotech entrant ready with IPO
  • National Research Foundation (NRF): facing support and resistance from scientific communities! Why?
  • Biodiversity- preserve or perish
  • Dr Rajesh Gokhale assumes charge as Secretary of Department of Science and Technology
  • Advancing allergy detection and management in India: A pathway to improved health
  • Gujarat govt signs MOUs with 15 companies for ₹2000 cr in a single day
  • Pune biotech firm announces cheaper drug for colorectal cancer
  • Ambiq Propels Remote Healthcare Monitoring Sector Growth with New Ultra-Low Processors
Biotech Express Magazine
  • Home
  • Articles
  • COVID-19
  • News
    • Biotech News – Featured
    • Biotech News
    • BioGadgets
  • Interviews
    1. Interviews – Academia
    2. Interviews – Industry
    Featured
    January 16, 20211

    Interview – Prof Rajeev K Varshney “The Youngest Indian Scientist (47)” who achieved an h-index of 100 recently

    Recent
    May 22, 2023

    Prof Rajeev Varshney becomes the 4th Indian Agricultural Scientist to be elected as Fellow of the Royal Society

    July 26, 2022

    We are making best hygiene solutions through Biotech applications: Dr Rachna Dave, founder MicroGO

    March 30, 2022

    Interview- Bioenergy: India’s Ministry of New and Renewable Energy started almost four decades ago…but did not catch up…, Professor Ashok Pandey

  • Issues
  • Subscribe
  • Board
  • Advertise
Biotech Express Magazine
You are at:Home»Articles»Letter: To PM, India from Virology Expert

Letter: To PM, India from Virology Expert

0
By Biotech Express on May 18, 2020 Articles, Articles- Guestorials, SARS- CoV2 & COVID-19 Updates

Dear Honorable Prime Minister Modi ji:

As I am aware of the fact that you have to listen scientific people around you for scientific suggestions but let me bring some facts to you.

World Health Organization puts out statistics on various causes of deaths in each country every year. I checked for one recent year, in India, 1.23 million people died of diarrhoeal diseases compared to 18000 in China. Influenza, pneumonia and TB together killed about 1.1 million people compared to 0.75 million in China. Another 4 or 5 million people are dying in each year from heart problems, stroke, cancer, diabetes etc.

Today Coronavirus is making the whole world panicked with deaths. This shows how important to control infectious diseases. There are no proper diagnostic kits to detect this virus; they don’t have antibody testing kits to check how many people got infected already (seroprevalence). Everybody is rushing to make poor quality kits, which don’t have the required specificity and sensitivity. These ventures are now becoming big news items in various media.

Prof Guntaka was one of discoverer of Proto-oncogenes, first to sequence genome of Rous Sarcoma Virus, was behind the successful development of the Recombinant Hepatitis B Vaccine by Shantha Biotech, developed interferon alpha, first scientist to clone and study the complete genome of the Indian strains of Hepatitis C virus, was produced all the antigens to detect Hepatitis C Virus etc.

They could have tested the genomes of the coronavirus that is prevalent in India. This would give some idea how it is evolving. Many research labs can do but we did not see many genome sequences of the virus from India whereas all the major countries in the world including China and Korea published a large number of these sequences, inspite of the fact that India has excellent genetic sequencing facilities all around the country through its lab’s network of CSIR, DBT, DST, ICMR, Private companies etc.

How many diagnostic kits are they “making” in India? How many kits are imported into India? From which countries? Are they assessing the quality of the kits with respect to its specificity and sensitivity? Because Millions of coronavirus kits are necessary to detect and determine the seroprevalence in India, meaning what percentage of people were infected and recovered. These are done by testing for the coronavirus antigens and antibodies.

Are these kits (both Ag and Ab) available in India? To my knowledge, not even a single State in India has the capability to develop these kits and even if some small companies developed, they can’t produce in quantities required. Everybody depends on countries like China and South Korea etc. As you all know the quality of Chinese kits and reagents are not good.

Ask your Health Department, the ICMR, the DST and DBT, who are spending several thousands of crores rupees on Research. Ask what the prestigious All India Institutes of Medical Sciences doing?

If we minimize political interference and influence in healthcare and other science and technology agencies and give highest priority to high quality research, India can be in the forefront of Research and Development and can compete with anybody in the world. Indians have enormous talent but most of it is wasted in India without doing much, whereas the same Indians are excelling in all fronts in USA and in other countries.

Locking down 130 crores of people in their homes and putting millions of policemen to achieve this, will not solve the problem. It is a big mistake. It might be prudent to do for 2 to 3 weeks initially but prolonged lock down will not do any good; it will only prolong the pandemic. Wiser decisions to protect the seniors and letting the younger (who are at minimal risk) work, would alleviate the problem.

In areas where there is one positive case, police are working at full force to block the people going out. They can spend that time to identify and isolate those positive cases and devote more time in taking care of and helping senior citizens.

Wise decisions by the Government with the advice of experts will slow down the current pandemic instead of locking down the whole country.

ONLY HEAVENS CAN HELP INDIA AND THE WORLD!

BY:
Ramareddy V Guntaka, Ph.D.
Professor, Department of Microbiology, Immunology & Biochemistry, University of Tennessee Health Science Center, 858 Madison Ave, Memphis, TN 38163, Phone; 901-448-8230, Fax:901-448-7360,
Cell:901-921-2161

Communicated on May 1, 2020

Note: Views expressed by author are personal and do not reflect the views of Biotech Express or its Editors/Advisers/Members.

Share. Facebook Twitter Pinterest LinkedIn Tumblr Email
Biotech Express
  • Website
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn

ISSN: 2454-6968 | Biotech Express Magazine publishes articles in the field of biotechnology and allied sciences in a way that have never been presented earlier. It publishes Editorials, Guest Articles, Reports, Interviews, Current News of Govt. Academics and Business, Research Highlights and Notifications of Events, Jobs, Research Proposals in the field of Biotechnology, Biological Sciences, Life Sciences, Microbiology, Biochemistry, Neurosciences, Genetics, Medical Sciences, BioPharma etc.

Related Posts

National Research Foundation (NRF): facing support and resistance from scientific communities! Why?

Biodiversity- preserve or perish

Advancing allergy detection and management in India: A pathway to improved health

Leave A Reply Cancel Reply

Current Issue – July 2023
Upcoming Event

                   VIEW SUBSCRIPTION PLANS

JOBS/NOTIFICATIONS

   

         CLICK HERE FOR RECENT NOTICES

Recent Posts
  • Concord Biotech: Stock Market’s New Biotech entrant ready with IPO July 31, 2023
  • National Research Foundation (NRF): facing support and resistance from scientific communities! Why? July 25, 2023
  • Biodiversity- preserve or perish July 24, 2023
  • Dr Rajesh Gokhale assumes charge as Secretary of Department of Science and Technology July 23, 2023
  • Advancing allergy detection and management in India: A pathway to improved health July 23, 2023
  • Gujarat govt signs MOUs with 15 companies for ₹2000 cr in a single day July 22, 2023
  • Pune biotech firm announces cheaper drug for colorectal cancer July 21, 2023
  • Ambiq Propels Remote Healthcare Monitoring Sector Growth with New Ultra-Low Processors July 20, 2023
  • BMJ Open retracted a diabetes paper because it was funded by tobacco company July 19, 2023
  • Indian scientist made First Marwari horse foal through Embryo transfer technology July 12, 2023
  • Prof Rajeev Varshney becomes the 4th Indian Agricultural Scientist to be elected as Fellow of the Royal Society May 22, 2023
  • FABA holds Conference on Antimicrobial Resistance Stewardship Series May 22, 2023
  • COVID no longer a global health emergency, WHO says May 18, 2023
  • Chemist in India loses seven papers of biology, blames outsourcing of images May 17, 2023
  • Indian Research scholars express frustration over DST’s tweet, plan stir May 16, 2023
  • BioAsia 2023 to be held in February 24-26 in Telangana, India January 10, 2023
  • Praj Industries and ESIIC partner to further bioeconomy in Egypt November 10, 2022
  • Who is The Real Anthony Fauci? A true Doctor, liar, pharma profiteer or a totalitarian? November 1, 2022
  • Guestorial: MALNUTRITION ACCELERATES THE METABOLIC AGE October 31, 2022
  • Event: Australia’s biggest week in biotech kicks off in Perth October 26, 2022
  • $3 trillion growth reported for biotech sector in USA October 25, 2022
  • Event : FABA’s Whale Tank Event – “Venture Capital – Biotech Start-up Connect” September 21, 2022
  • Vaccination, Rising Deaths, And The False Narrative September 20, 2022
  • Guestorial: Genome Mapping Techniques and its Application in Aquaculture September 19, 2022
  • Bombay HC Issues Notice To Bill Gates, Serum Institute, DGCI, Others Over Plea On Alleged ‘Vaccine Death’ September 5, 2022
  • Deaths due Covid-19 vaccines should be compensated by vaccine makers: Expert hope on Kerala HC remark August 21, 2022
  • Maker of Dolo-650, pandemic’s ‘magic pill’, faces income tax searches and PIL petitions August 20, 2022
  • Anthony Fauci, Controversial US Top-doc FINALLY, To Retire By Year-end August 20, 2022
  • SII’s Cervevac: The new DCGI approved vaccine without published clinical trial results August 20, 2022
  • Pitch your Start-up to National/International Venture Capitalists – first ever opportunity provided to Bio-Start-ups by FABA August 19, 2022
Archives
Categories
  • Articles
  • Articles- Editorials
  • Articles- Guestorials
  • BioControversial
  • BioEvents
  • BioGadgets
  • BioPolicies
  • BioResearch – Academic
  • Biotech News
  • Biotech News – Featured
  • Contents
  • Interviews
  • Interviews – Academia
  • Interviews – Industry
  • SARS- CoV2 & COVID-19 Updates
  • startups
About Us

Biotech Express Magazine publishes articles in the field of biotechnology and allied sciences in a way that have never been presented earlier. It publishes Editorials, Guest Articles, Reports,  Interviews, Current News of Govt. Academics and Business, Research Highlights and Notifications of Events, Jobs, Research Proposals in the field of Biotechnology and allied sciences like Biological Sciences, Life Sciences, Microbiology, Biochemistry, Neurology, Genetics, Medical Sciences, BioPharma etc.

Call us: _91-9311986177

Email – biotechexpressindia@gmail.com

About Us

About Biotech Express

Advisory and Editorial Board

Contact Us

Policy and Guidelines

Submission policies

Peer review policy    

Copyright policy

 

Follow Us
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
We use cookies to help provide and enhance our service and tailor content and ads. By continuing you agree to the use of cookies. Copyright © 2013-2020 Biotech Express except certain content provided by third parties.

Type above and press Enter to search. Press Esc to cancel.