Dr Samiran Panda, Additional Director General, Indian Council of Medical Research has accepted proposals from over 80 institutions to conduct evidence-based scientific research on COVID-19, with the aim of gaining a better understanding of the virus that has brought the world to a standstill. To do. ICMR said.
These medical research projects are being carried out in 83 premier medical colleges, hospitals and medical research organizations such as All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), Public Health Foundation of India (PHFI), Dr. BR Ambedkar Institute of Medical Sciences, Post Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS). Institute of Medical Education and Research (Chandigarh), and ICMR-National Institute for Implementation Research on Non-Communicable Diseases and University of Delhi.
The studies are being conducted simultaneously.
Long-term projects on psychological and behavioral changes among school-going adolescents and older people, and the temporal association of sleep apnea – a potentially serious sleep disorder – on COVID-19 survivors will help policymakers formulate health policies, in particular He said that for the management of Kovid-19 in India.
According to ICMR, despite intense efforts by the global scientific community, there is still not enough information about the functional aspects of the virus, its transmission dynamics, immunological response to natural infections and vaccines. In India, ICMR is the principal agency for formulation of ethical guidelines for conducting biomedical research.
“ICMR is funding research projects because we need a better understanding of the virus. These long-term studies are being conducted to answer the most pressing research questions in clinical research, diagnostics and biomarkers, epidemiology and surveillance and operations research,” Panda said.
It is also important for the ICMR to understand vaccine hesitancy and low uptake, the clinical spectrum of the disease and its progression factors. The projects also include a 12-month follow-up study to characterize pulmonary sequelae – a disease outcome – in patients who have recovered from severe COVID-19 infection, and risk factors for chronic sequelae and genetic evaluation. Also, acceptance and uptake of COVID-19 vaccine in tribal, rural and urban community, risk factors on post-Covid-19 diabetic patients; And building resistance to the pandemic on covid-19 in the rural community and the effectiveness of the covid-19 vaccine are also topics of research.
ICMR had invited research ideas in the form of concept proposals from independent researchers and had received around 2,800 proposals.
“These long-term studies will help us build a policy framework in line with emerging global evidence. We need to understand COVID-19 from different aspects- for example its clinical management etc. The study results will help us take necessary action in the interest of public health in future,” said Dr Lokesh Sharma, scientist, ICMR.
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