At around the age of 24, the thirst forunderstanding RNA / DNA ultimately landed me in prestigious IVRI – an almost 3year journey – my tryst with the virus. And now after a span of 30 + years, itis again a virus threatening the whole world both vertically and horizontallyat all levels. That is why I could perhaps visualize what would be the effectof Corona pandemic – since the first week of March. I had seen multiple layers of cells beingdestroyed by virus, in vitro, in as large as Provisky bottles or in as small asRous flasks at FMD centre, Bangaluru. And what destruction Corona, a tougher virus,could cause in vivo was what I could imagine with much horror.
This provoked me to volunteer for theCorona Virus Mitigation Efforts Control Room of Kashmir Division, certainly abit in advance. After all, human beings have shown the determination as thecapacity to conquer whenever their survival was threatened cutting across thebarriers of geographical borders,, religion, race, colour, language, sex etc.
Virus – a zero outside but once inside the living cell/system devastates its kernel i.e. the tiny genome and changes whole arithmetic of the host cell. But present day Corona seems smarter; capable of surviving better on surfaces, table tops, mobiles, door knobs for a longer time; and again in the cough and nasal discharges, droplets etc. During my span of more than 3 decades in biological science, I saw researchers concurring Foot & Mouth Disease – a Picornavirus to a great extent.
Exclusion of Type C and increasing theantigenic mass of Type O virus in the FMD vaccine cocktail has so far proved workingwell in the field. Hence the optimism that biologists world over do have therequired skills to conquer Corona – is now only a race against time.
But there are many unanswered questionsregarding Corona – which are going to haunt the scientific world for long.Definitely the sudden spread of Corona all over the world taking us almostunawares is a matter of introspection as well as demands a biologic audit.Normally organizations like WHO, FAO, Zoonosis, Public Health relatedinstitutions at national and international level are mandated to and do keep astrict vigil on various researches being undertaken in these. A biologicalresearcher or a professor is weighed as per the diverse numbers of isolates hehas in his – 120*C or custody in the laboratory. How the world labs could skipthe mischief of traditionally suspicious China especially the developments inWuhan; is a matter of intensive enquiry.
Again a research paper from University ofHong Kong published in 2007 in a prestigious journal having most of the authorsof Chinese origin should be an eye-opener ;
It can even be put forth as evidence for declaring China as the main culprit, which says “The rapid economic growth in southern China has led to an increasing demand for animal proteins. Large numbers and varieties of these wild game mammals in overcrowded cages and the lack of bio-security measures in wet markets allowed the jumping of this novel from animals to humans.. The small re-emergence of SARS in late 2003 after the resumption of the wildlife market in southern China and the recent discovery of a very similar virus in horseshoe bats, bat SARS-COV, suggested that SARS can return if conditions are fit for the introduction, mutation, amplification, and transmission of this dangerous virus.”. The authors concluded in the research paper “The presence of a large reservoir of SARS-CoV-like viruses in horseshoe bats, together with the culture of eating exotic mammals in southern China, is a time bomb ( a brave commitment that too in a Communist China ). The possibility of the re-emergence of SARS and other novel viruses from animals or laboratories and therefore the need for preparedness should not be ignored.”
Humanity either has been deceived or onemore terror in a new format !!!
Dr. Ramesh Razdan M.V.Sc. Vety.Virology who recently retd. As Jt. Director ( A.H.D.). He volunteered as N.O. with Additional Commissioner CVME K Div.