Why genomic sequencing of the dengue virus can help control the disease

In a first, B J Government Medical College (BJGMC) and Pune Knowledge Cluster (PKC) will undertake studies to decode the genetic material present in the dengue virus. “Whole Genome Sequencing from specimens will help track the spread of the virus apart from providing a deeper understanding into how it changes and why those mutations could affect public health,” Dr Rajesh Karyakarte, professor and head, Department of Microbiology, BJGMC and Maharashtra coordinator of genome sequencing told The Indian Express.

Dengue is a viral infection transmitted to humans through the bite of infected mosquitoes. As per the World Health Organization, about half of the world’s population is now at risk of dengue with an estimated 100-400 million infections occuring each year .”Hence, the effort towards genomic sequencing of the virus is important as this information will be useful for the effective control of the disease’s spread,” professor L S Shashidhara, director, National Centre for Biological Sciences and a founder of PKC, said.

“From the experience of SARS Cov-2, we know that viruses spread widely and during this spreading they also change and newer and newer variants emerge. Some cause severe disease, some milder and some may be entirely harmless. Our immune response to infection too varies with different variants of the virus. Given this, it is important to know in any given region, which variant is spreading. This information will be useful to effectively control the disease’s spread. The genomic information will also be useful for developing vaccines to ensure that a given vaccine protects us from all variants of the virus,” Shashidhara said. Advertisement Maharashtra records 100 dengue deaths, over 45K cases in last four and a half years In the last four and a half years, Maharashtra health department has recorded a total of 45,438 confirmed cases of dengue viral fever and 100 deaths. State entomologist Mahendra Jagtap told The Indian Express that several measures have been taken to step up awareness about this viral infection. From checking mosquito breeding sites to daily inspection of homes as part of the container surveys, several activities have been taken, Jagtap said and appealed to citizens to help in the efforts. “We can prevent mosquito breeding by covering, emptying and cleaning domestic water storage containers every week,” he urged. In Pune Municipal Corporation area , Dr Suryakant Deokar, Assistant health chief said that from January till May this year there were 303 suspected cases of dengue. Ten patients were confirmed with dengue viral fever.