SPPU, IISER to conduct epidemiological survey in Pune

The Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) will undertake an epidemiological and serological surveillance project in the city within the civic limits.

The project will be undertaken by researchers at the Savitribai Phule Pune University’s (SPPU) Interdisciplinary School of Health Sciences and Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER), Pune.

As of Sunday, the city’s Covid tally reached 12,474 and the overall death toll was at 510.

According to officials, the data from the survey will help the civic body in decision making and planning.

Dr Aarti Nagarkar, director, SPPU’s Interdisciplinary school of health sciences, said, “The survey will help us understand how many people have developed antibodies against Covid-19 infection. This proportion is important because this will give us an idea about the level of herd immunity in the community.”

“In phase 1 only in high-risk areas will be covered, where the proportion of cases to the population is high. For this, we have selected randomly five wards out of the 11 high-risk wards currently in Pune city. From this wards, we have identified 61 different locations and from each location, we will be collecting data of 25 random people around the location above the age of 18,” said Dr Nagarkar.

“During the project, we have a one-page questionnaire which includes questions like travel history, contact with infected people, among others. We will also be collecting 5ml blood of the persons,” said Dr Nagarkar.

“The actual work of the survey will start in next 15 days. Currently, we are recruiting people for the same and the team will be of 20 people,” she added.

“We are doing this project under the guidance of SPPU vice-chancellor Prof Nitin Karmalkar,” she added.

Shekhar Gaikwad, PMC commissioner, said, “The findings will provide an insight into the effectiveness of measures and initiatives taken by PMC to combat with Covid-19. It will help us to make appropriate decisions.”

The project will be funded by Persistent Systems.