BRD may soon have JE research centre

DESPITE THE threat that Baba Raghav Das Medical College may lose recognition by the Medical Council of India, it is likely to have a surveillance centre for Japanese Encephalitis. The Union Government, in collaboration with the World Bank, has decided to establish JE surveillance centres at eight places in the country, including one at the BRD Medical College.

According to head of department of paediatrics in the medical college Dr AK Rathi, the college authority has received a fax from director of vector-borne diseases in the Union Government Dr PL Joshi in this regard. Principal of the medical college would be the coordinator for the centre while paediatrics department, medicines and microbiology department would extend cooperation in the surveillance.

Union Government would bear all expenditure for establishment of the centre and an entomologist has already been appointed. According to report, two technicians, a computer operator will be provided to the centre, besides testing kits.

A technician would collect serum from patients while the other would examine it in the microbiology department. Employees deployed at the centre would go on field to identify virus that spreads encephalitis and specimens of mosquitoes would be collected for research.

Rathi admitted that establishment of the surveillance centre will be an achievement for people of the region as it would make it easy to examine the virus and to contain the outbreak of the killer disease.

Meanwhile, JE patients are constantly being admitted to the medical college and their number has increased in the last week. The college is facing dearth of teachers for the last 10 years and this became the ground for de-recognising of the postgraduate degree of six departments of the college, including medicines, paediatrics and maternity department. 

Political parties are finalising strategy to launch an agitation to register their protest against the MCI decision. MLC Dr YD Singh blamed MCI for adopting double standards in providing recognition of degrees. He said there were various private medical colleges facing dearth of teachers and had insufficient infrastructure, but their degrees had not been derecognised. He said there was lack of infrastructure and teachers at the Saifai Rural Medical Science and Research Centre yet MCI took no action. He said he would raise the issue in the Assembly.