While delivering Dr SC Parija oration award lecture in the 6th national conference of Indian Academy of Tropical Parasitology ( TROPACON-2012 ) on 13th Oct,2012 at Shri Auribindo Medical College and post graduate institute , Indore , I , Dr MC Agrawal, advocated the need of opening a national institute of Parasitology in India . Below is a more detailed write up for the proposed National institute of Parasitology (NIP) .
Name
of the institute is proposed to be National Institute of Parasitology and not
national institute of parasitic diseases as the former encompasses all aspects
of the parasites while latter reflects a narrow
aim of the institute –to deal parasitic diseases. Ironically, there are
all sorts of institutes in India like National institute of immunology,
national institute of nutrition , national institute of communicable diseases
,national institute of malaria ,national institute of tuberculosis (UNDER ICMR)
or national research centers for equine,
camel, goat, pigs, mithun (UNDER ICAR) but
there is no national institute of Parasitology though it’s a must for a
tropical country like India. This is because tropical climate of India allow
all sorts of parasites to propagate which are responsible for important
parasitic diseases in man and his animals including wild animals and fishes.
There are many parasitic diseases like malaria, trypanosomiasis, leishmaniasis,
toxoplasmosis, amoebiasis, coccidiosis, theileriosis, babesiosis, fascioliasis,
schistosomiasis, amphistomiasis, cysticercosis, hydatitosis, haemonchosis,
gastrointestinal nematodiasis, filariasis, paragonimiasis and emerging
diseases like cryptosporidiosis,
trichinellosis etc which are affecting our animals and human beings; there are
important vectors like mosquito, sand fly, ticks, mites which are responsible
for transmission of many important diseases (parasites ,virus, bacteria ) and
also causing damage to their host in form of allergies and blood loss.
In
spite of wide spread prevalence of these and other parasitic diseases throughout
Indian continent, there is no National institute of Parasitology that may deal
the subject in a holistic way to control the damage and economic losses by
these infections. Our negligence on this important issue becomes more
pronounced by the fact that other Asian countries like China and Japan etc have
national institutes on parasitic diseases which are dealing the subject more efficiently
. Even many European countries like Britain, Denmark etc where many of above
parasitic diseases are absent due to temperate climate are paying more
attention than that of India. These countries are having institutes which are
providing specialized training in Parasitology (MSc, Ph.D) to all those who are
holding basic degree in life sciences, veterinary or medical sciences and also
having international collaborative research projects with endemic countries to
deal the parasitic diseases. In India, in contrast, there is no academic university of pure science including, BHU, AMU,JNU,
which is providing any degree in Parasitology (they are providing degrees in
life sciences, zoology, botany, biotechnology). Likewise no Indian medical
institute, including AIIMS, New Delhi , JIPMER, Pondicherry, SGPI Lucknow , is
imparting MSc or MD or Ph.D in Parasitology
;here , the subject is studied under department of Microbiology. The
only exception is the PGI of Chandigarh which has a separate department of
Parasitology but do not confer MSc in Parasitology
though provides Ph.D in Parasitology . Therefore , it is only Veterinary
colleges which are having separate department of Parasitology and imparting
MVSc and Ph.D in Parasitology. Here,
admissions are given only to those holding BVSc degree and the subject deals
with parasites causing infection to the animals only; again there is less attention on basic aspects of
parasites.
Therefore,
there is an urgent need of a National Institute of Parasitology that may deal
the subject in more holistic way
encompassing all three important faculties- pure science, veterinary and
medical and will be a nodal agency to deal parasitic problems of the country. A
short outline of the institute may be as given below :
Name : National
Institute of Parasitology
It
should be an autonomous body with powers of conferring degrees in Parasitology
which should be recognized by all government and private organizations. Its
mandate will include dealing all parasitic diseases of Indian continent and
having collaboration with national and international organizations for solving
parasitic problems.
Faculty
·
Principal Scientist ; Senior Scientist, Junior
Scientist having basic qualifications
from all three faculties – pure science, veterinary , medical.
·
There should be provision of taking scientists
on deputation from different institutes for short durations.
·
International Parasitologists should be
encouraged to join the faculty for a short duration for specific purposes.
·
Even the retired Parasitologists should be taken
as Consultants/Advisors for specific projects/topics
Degrees
·
The institute will impart degrees in MSc in Parasitology and Ph.D. in Helminthology/Protozoology
/ Entomology .
·
The eligibility for admission will be BVSc
&AH/MBBS/ BSc (Hons) Biology or MSc zoology/life science for MSc and
Master’s degree in Parasitology for Ph.D.. Admissions should be through an All
India entrance examination system.
·
Some seats should also be reserved for
international students .
·
The duration of MSc will be for two/three years
and for Ph.D. , three/four years .
·
Both the degrees will include course work as
well as a research problem resulting in submission of a thesis. External
examination system will be followed for examining the students in their course
work as well as for thesis approval . At
least two research papers must be accepted/published in peer reviewed journals
prior awarding the degree.
·
The students should be encouraged to take
collaborative research projects with other national and international
organizations for their thesis problems.
·
The degrees of the institute will make eligible
its students to be recruited in all veterinary, medical colleges as well as in
the departments of life sciences ;zoology of academic universities .
Parasitic
Problems
·
The institute will act as a nodal agency to deal
the parasitic problems of the country and will frame rules and regulations to
deal them more accurately. As there is a separate National institute of
Malaria, the proposed institute will exclude dealing Malaria from its domain ,
but may join Malaria institute where its effect on other parasitic diseases is
to be ascertained.
·
The institute will collaborate with other
institutes, including international institutes for solving parasitic problems
,affecting the nation or future problems which may affect the country.
Subjects of
study :
·
Traditionally , the subject of Parasitology is
divided in three main subjects- Helminthology, Protozoology and Entomology. The
study incorporates Morphology of
parasite, its life cycle, diagnosis or key for identifying the parasite,
treatment and control.
·
Now the teaching of the subject has changed
,to identifying the parasite,
epidemiology, parasitological and immunological diagnosis , chemotherapy and
control measures including biological control.
·
New fields of research have emerged which will
need attention . These are identifying strains, hybrids of parasites, molecular
studies of the parasites which include PCR studies, isoenzymic studies,
biochemical, hormonal changes in the host beside anatomical pathology, clinical
Parasitology , phylogenetics and paleo-parasitology, application of remote
sensing system in studying epidemiology, molecular epidemiology , nutritional
Parasitology, economic losses, monoclonal antibodies, recombinant technology,
vaccinology, malacology , parasite genom , drug resistance, hyper-parasitism ,molecular
diagnosis and other emerging areas of studies.
Finances :
·
The funds will be provided by the Government of
India for running the institute. It may be at proportion basis from Ministry of
Health (ICMR) and Ministry of Agriculture (ICAR) OR a single ministry may be
given responsibility.
·
The institute will also try to fund its projects
from international organizations like WHO and FAO
Obviously
above is the basic idea for the National Institute of Parasitology and may be
fine tuned further by taking suggestions from other organizations/Parasitologists .
The only aim of this write up is to emphasize the need for such an institute in India where parasitic problems of
the country may be solved ,incorporating all the present and future knowledge
of the subject.
(Part of this write up was published by "THE PARA-SIGHT-2" volume 2 issue 1 of IAAVP )
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