ICMR

According to a preliminary investigation conducted by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR)-National Institute of Virology (NIV), three of the five Monkeypox cases reported from Delhi had a history of heterosexual interaction. However, the other two cases out of five have no sexual interaction. All five individuals had mild to moderate grade intermittent fever, myalgia, and genital, groin, lower limb, trunk, and upper limb symptoms.… read-more

The ICMR Director-General Dr. Balram Bhargava's term has been extended for another three months. In April, the appointment committee of the cabinet approved the extension, following which Bhargava will continue as the secretary of health research and director-general of the ICMR. Starting from April 15, Dr Bhargava's term would end on July 15. Notably, Dr. Balram Bhargava was appointed as the ICMR Director-General on April 16, 2018.

The Director Controller General of India (DCGI) approved India made RT-PCR kit to detect new COVID-19 variant "Omicron".  On January 5, ICMR General Director Dr Balram Bhagava said, the new RT-PCR kit has been manufactured by Tata MD and ICMR, to test Omicron. "This kit test will give results in four hours," said Dr. Bhagava. Meanwhile, in India, there are a total of 2,135 Omicron cases. 

According to research reports, children aged 12 and above are at a higher risk of contracting coronavirus. The fourth round of the National Serosurvey in June 2021 concluded that children between the age group of 6 to 17 were seropositive and mostly had caught the virus. ICMR has suggested the medical practitioners and the government to prioritize children's above 12 for the vaccines first.

ICMR has revealed that the mixing of two different vaccines based on the ''adenovirus vector'' does not produce any adverse effects. Furthermore, the research revealed that mixing helps to fight the COVID-19 virus and also produces immunity better than excepted. The research in India also helps to mitigate the rumors about the adverse effects of vaccines. Reportedly, many countries have proven this process to be promising.