JOIN USTucked away in a corner of north Delhi, the National Institute of Communicable Diseases (NICD) has emerged as one of the major Indian hubs to deal with medical emergencies. The institute, however, is aspiring for more.
Prior to SARS attack six years ago, NICD was like any other government laboratory doing mostly routine tests at a leisurely pace. SARS acted as a catalyst for the first wave of change and avian flu two years later transformed the laboratory’s perspective and functioning completely.
NICD is now one of the few Indian bio-safety level-3 (BSL-3) laboratories. The institute has facilities to identify new disease causing agents at the earliest.
Before 2003, NICD was an ordinary bio-safety level-2 laboratory where researchers had to just change their clothes and wear personal protective gear to work in the laboratories. Such labs cannot handle dangerous virus, bacteria and other pathogens.
After SARS, the Union health ministry approved NICD’s upgradation to BSL-3. The main difference from the previous set up is that a BSL-3 lab is kept under negative pressure so that the air inside the laboratory – contaminated with dangerous virus and germs – are not allowed to mix with outside air.
Moreover, entire waste from a BSL-3 laboratory is incinerated in autoclaves to ensure nothing is mixed with outside environment and an air exchange system maintains the temperature.
The doors in a BSL-3 facility are controlled by pressure gradient. When a scientist enters a BSL-3 laboratory, he or she has to pass through two doors. After the first door, a gush of wind and external pressure is applied to ensure removal of all dust and outside agents from the clothing.
Only after the “pressure-cleaning” the second door opens, allowing the scientist into the laboratory. While coming out, the person has to take a decontamination shower between the two doors. “The BSL-3 system was imported from Hong Kong,” a NICD scientist told Deccan Herald.
Other facilities came in the wake of avian flu. NICD scientists underwent extensive training to operate the devices.
After its success with avian flu, the laboratory aspires to become a BSL-4 level facility for handling the world’s most dangerous pathogens like Ebola. A proposal to upgrade NICD on the lines of US Centre for Disease Control in Atlanta is pending. Will the new government take a call?