Pune, 19 June (IANS). Dr. Naveen Kumar, director of the National Virology Institute (NIV) of ICMR, has said that migratory birds and slaughterhouses are being studied under the ‘National One Health Mission’ for the prevention and investigation of diseases spreading from animals to humans.
The National ‘One Health Mission’ (NOHM), launched in the year 2022, adopts a health ‘approach. This is a better change from reactive reactions to active preparations.
Dr. Naveen Kumar told news agency IANS, “More than 70 percent of infectious diseases, especially viral diseases spread from animals to humans. This means that if you want to control the disease in humans, then you have to adopt measures to control the disease in animals and vectors (virus, bacteria etc.) around you.”
Kumar said that since it is not possible without an integrated approach, ‘NOHM’ was started with coordination with 13 or more ministries/departments. This includes Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairy, Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Science and Technology, and AYUSH. These ministries together have established strong monitoring systems for human, animal and environmental health. “
“The need for this mission was felt during the Kovid-19 epidemic, when only NIV (National Institute of Virology) was active with a bio-safety level (BSL)-4 labs, which is the highest control facility. The virus can be worked here and it does not leak out of the lab.”
Kumar said, “In the midst of the epidemic, it was felt that if we had more labs like NIVs, our response time could have been very low at the time of Kovid.”
Under NOHM, a separate center of ‘National One Health Institute’ is going to be built in Nagpur. Apart from construction work, scientific work has also started in the institute.
-IANS
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