News Analysis India

Tag: Council for Scientific and Industrial Research

  • CSIO transfers disinfection system technology to 28 companies to boost availability amid pandemic

    By PTI
    NEW DELHI: The Central Scientific Instruments Organisation (CSIO) has transferred to 28 companies its technology of disinfection system that can be used in auditoriums, large conference rooms, classrooms, malls which will provide a relatively safer environment for indoor activities in the current pandemic.

    The technology has been developed according to the requirements for deactivation of SARS COV-2 virus contained in an aerosol with necessary ventilation measures, necessary safety and user guidelines and tested bio-safety standards, the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) said in a statement on Saturday.

    The CSIO is a constituent of the CSIR.

    It also cited that a research by two of its institutes — the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB) and the Institute of Microbial Technology (IMTECH) — in September 2020 had demonstrated experimentally that SARS-CoV-2 viral particles could be detected in air even after two hours of exit of infected persons from a room and at distances much greater than a few metres as well, strengthening evidence of airborne transmission of the virus.

    On Thursday, the Office of the Principal Scientific Adviser said nasal droplets fall within two metres from a COVID-19 infected person and the aerosols can travel in air up to 10 metres, adding that proper ventilation can decrease the risk of transmission.

    UV-C disinfection system deactivates over 99 per cent of viruses, bacteria, fungus and other bio-aerosols, etc. with appropriate dosages using 254nm UV light.

    Use of UV-C may also help in ameliorating the fungal infections being witnessed during the current wave of the pandemic, it added.

    “The UV-C is energy efficient system, improves airflow through coils, enhances indoor air quality, requires less maintenance, easy to retrofit with any existing system having AHU (air handling unit) ducts, and has low initial setup cost,” the CSIR said.

    The system comes with commercialised standards and certifications and has been transferred to 28 companies, the CSIR added.

    S Anantha Ramakrishna, Director of the CSIO, added that this technology developed by the Fabrionics division led by Harry Gargis available now for deployment with wide availability throughout the country via these companies.

  • Recurrence of COVID in March could be due to lack of antibodies in seropositive people: CSIR survey

    By PTI
    NEW DELHI: The recurrence of coronavirus outbreak in March could have been due to lack of “meaningful antibodies” in seropositive people after a peak in September last year, suggests a survey by the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR).

    The CSIR conducted a sero-survey on 10,427 people comprising the staff members of its 40 laboratories, including contractual employees, and their family members from 17 states and two union territories.

    In 10,427 people, the average sero positivity was 10.14 per cent.

    The survey suggested that the neutralising antibodies declined significantly after five-six months, making people prone to reinfections.

    The coronavirus cases in the country peaked in September 2020 and there was a nationwide decline of new cases starting in October, said Shantanu Sengupta, one of the lead authors of the paper.

    “Our data shows that while anti-NC (nucleocapsid) antibodies provide long-lasting evidence of viral exposure or infection, about 20 per cent of seropositive individuals lack meaningful neutralisation activity after 5-6 months.

    “Using more stringent measures (more than 30 per cent inhibition of surrogate receptor-spike protein binding), the loss of neutralisation may be even higher.

    We speculate that this may be related to recurrence of outbreaks in March 2021 after the peak in September 2020,” the paper said.

    India is currently witnessing a massive surge in infections with logging a daily case count of over 3,00,000 on four consecutive days.

    According to the paper, the aggregate sero-positivity of 10.

    14 per cent in its multi-centre study suggests India had a large pool of recovered immune subjects by September 2020, especially amongst its high contact workers and people using public transport, leading to a decline in new infections.

    “However, the duration of such immunity may not be sufficient to prevent future outbreaks, even in highly affected regions,” the paper said.

    States like Maharashtra have witnessed an explosion of cases since March.

    “The present study, which recruited subjects from 24 cities in India, provides an important and timely snapshot of the spread of SARS CoV2 pandemic across India shortly before the peak of new cases.

    It confirms that by September 2020, a large pool of recovered Indians with at least partial immunity existed,” the paper said.

    Between its study and the other national sero-survey at the same time, more than a hundred million Indians were likely to belong to this category, it estimated.

    The study said the fraction of such recovered people was more than double amongst those performing high-contact jobs and using public transport.

    Thus, in combination with a strong emphasis on masking and distancing, new cases started declining soon after this sero-survey which started in June.