PM for low-cost diagnosis kits

With the national capital and several other cities reeling under the epidemic of chikungunya, malaria and dengue, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday asked the scientific community to develop cost-effective medical kits to diagnose such vector-borne diseases.

Delhi alone has reported 40 deaths due to such diseases this season — 15 due to chikungunya, 19 dengue and 6 malaria.

Addressing scientists here on the occasion of Platinum Jubilee celebration of Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), Mr Modi said, “CSIR has done a lot of good things in the health sector. But people of our country have to counter diseases like tuberculosis, dengue, malaria and chikungunya. How can CSIR help in providing relief from such diseases ”

Founded in 1942, (CSIR) is an arm of the ministry of science and technology, under which 38 state-of-art institutes carry out research on varied subjects — form aerospace to agriculture to medical sciences and genome.

“It is necessary to conduct time-bound research in these areas. Can we develop test kits which can help diagnose the diseases. The medical science has become technology-driven and there is an opportunity here,” Mr Modi said, asking if these issues could be addressed on a mass scale.

The Prime Minister said that more than doctors, “it is the machines that diagnose the illness. The machine determines what is wrong in the body.”

“If medical science revolves around technology then I think you have a lot of opportunity,” he said, adding such kits will also help the people in villages.