We are better now but don't know if we'll slide like Europe, US: Ex-NIV chief

India, in the current scenario, may appear okay vis-a-vis COVID-19 infections but if stringent precautions are not continued, it would not take much time to slide like the United States and Europe, says eminent virologist Dr Akhilesh Chandra Mishra.

"Maybe the climate, maybe the ethnic factor, we do not know the reason for this but we cannot be off guard," he told DH on Tuesday.

Dr Mishra was the director of Pune-based National Institute of Virology in 2009 during the Swine Flu outbreak and is currently director of Interactive Research School for Health Affairs, Bharatiya Vidyapeeth Deemed University, Pune.

According to Dr Mishra, who had worked in epidemiology and control planning of vector-borne diseases, influenza and Chandipura viruses, said that crowded areas like the Mumbai-Pune belt pose a major challenge.

"We would not like to go the US and Europe way because as of now we are doing pretty well," he said, adding that we should not fulfil the biological need of the virus.

"The virus (COVID-19) is new to us. We have never seen it before. So, it would be wrong to say that we are immune to it," he said.

When asked about the discussion around "herd immunity", Dr Mishra said: "If we look at India and the number of cases, it is not. Such immunity is possible when 60 to 70 per cent of the population is affected. Herd immunity is also called community immunity and basically herd or group protection. It is not as far as we are concerned."

He went to add that perhaps Wuhan, New York or Italy may develop herd immunity simply because of the large number of cases.

Asked about the Swine Flu outbreak, he said: "As a pandemic, it may have claimed 18,000 lives. Here it would be 18,000 in a city."

Asked whether the Indian climate is acting as a resistant and hence we are better off than China, the US, Italy and Spain, he said: "Nothing scientific can be said about it."