Coronavirus – Disease, Medical Sciences Involved & Preventive Measures

What is INSACOG?

Note4Students

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :

Prelims level: INSACOG

Mains level: NA

The PM has announced that the Indian SARS-CoV-2 Genomics Consortium (INSACOG) would be extended to India’s neighbouring countries.

What is INSACOG?

  • INSACOG was established in December 2020 as a joint initiative of the Union Health Ministry of Health and Department of Biotechnology (DBT).
  • It aims to expand the whole-genome sequencing of SARS-CoV-2, the coronavirus that causes the Covid-19 disease, across India with the aim of understanding how the virus spreads and evolves.
  • It functions under the Ministry of Science and Technology with the Council for Scientific & Industrial Research (CSIR) and Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR).

Composition of INSACOG

  • INSACOG started out with the participation of 10 national research laboratories of the central government, and gradually expanded to a network of 38 labs.
  • It now includes private labs operating on a hub-and-spoke model.
  • These works to monitor genomic variations in SARS-CoV-2 by a sentinel sequencing effort which is facilitated by the National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC).
  • It now involves the Central Surveillance Unit (CSU) under the central government’s Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme (IDSP).

Working of the INSACOG

  • The data from the genome sequencing laboratories is analysed as per the field data trends to study the linkages, if any, between the genomic variants and epidemiological trends.
  • INSACOG helps to understand super spreader events and outbreaks, and strengthen public health interventions across the country to help break chains of transmission.
  • Linking this data with IDSP data and the patient’s symptoms helps to better understand viral infection dynamics, and trends of morbidity and mortality.
  • The data can be linked with host genomics, immunology, clinical outcomes, and risk factors for a more comprehensive outlook.
  • Sequencing assumes added significance as the incidence of reinfections and vaccine breakthroughs increases.

 

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1 year ago

This is definitely a great article. Thank you so much for taking the time to poppy playtime detail all of this for all of us. It was a great guide!

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