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The Union Health Ministry has deployed a National Joint Outbreak Response Team to Gujarat and Rajasthan for the ongoing Chandipura Virus Disease outbreak.
The team comprises experts from the National Centre for Disease Control, the Indian Council of Medical Research and the Department of Animal Husbandry and Dairying.
NCDC's Public Health Emergency Operations Centre has been activated to support the response.
Surveillance continues under the Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme, coordinated by NCDC with State Surveillance Units.
Five premier research institutes across the ICMR and ICAR networks are conducting a coordinated investigation into transmission dynamics, clinical spectrum and treatment approaches.
Chandipura virus belongs to the family Rhabdoviridae and the genus Vesiculovirus - the same family as the rabies virus - and has the characteristic bullet-shaped enveloped structure with a single-stranded, negative-sense RNA genome. It was first isolated in 1965 from febrile cases during an outbreak in Nagpur district, Maharashtra, and takes its name from the village where the isolates originated. Its vector is the female phlebotomine sandfly, principally of the Phlebotomus genus - not a mosquito, which is the most common misconception about it. Clinically it causes acute encephalitis syndrome, an inflammation of the brain presenting with fever, altered consciousness and seizures, and it strikes overwhelmingly at children under 15. Case fatality in past outbreaks has been reported in the range of 57 to 70 per cent, which places it among the most lethal viral encephalitides recorded in India, and the disease progresses very rapidly - often within a day or two of onset - so the window for clinical intervention is narrow. There is no specific antiviral, which is why the response is built around vector surveillance and control, early detection and supportive care rather than treatment. Historically outbreaks have clustered in central India, in Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh.
Simple Analogy: It is a sandfly-borne cousin of the rabies virus that attacks children's brains within days - which is why the entire strategy is to find it early and kill the fly, not to cure the patient.
Coordinates the Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme with State Surveillance Units, and has activated its Public Health Emergency Operations Centre to support the response.
The apex body for biomedical research, contributing experts to NJORT and running the institute network investigating the outbreak.
Virological characterisation and laboratory confirmation.
Epidemiological assessment and vector control research respectively.
Contributes the animal-health dimension, alongside the Department of Animal Husbandry and Dairying in NJORT - reflecting a One Health approach to a vector-borne zoonotic-adjacent disease.
The national framework for detecting and responding to disease outbreaks through a network of surveillance units.
GS Paper 2 > Governance: Health; GS Paper 3 > Science and Technology: Developments in Health, Disease Surveillance
General Awareness > Science, Health and Current Affairs
General Awareness > Current Affairs
Among the following, which were frequently mentioned in the news for the outbreak of Ebola virus recently?
Answer: Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia
Which of the following statements is/are correct? Viruses can infect 1. bacteria 2. fungi 3. plants Select the correct answer using the code given below.
Answer: 1, 2 and 3
Consider the following: 1. Bacteria 2. Fungi 3. Virus Which of the above can be cultured in artificial/synthetic medium?
Answer: 1 and 2 only
Disease outbreaks, their vectors and India's surveillance architecture recur in UPSC Prelims science questions and in SSC general awareness.
A Rhabdoviridae virus of the genus Vesiculovirus, first isolated in 1965 in Nagpur, causing acute encephalitis chiefly in children under 15.
The female sandfly of the Phlebotomus genus, the vector of Chandipura virus - not a mosquito.
Inflammation of the brain presenting with fever, altered consciousness and seizures; the clinical presentation of Chandipura infection.
Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme - the national outbreak detection network coordinated by NCDC through Central, State and District Surveillance Units.
Public Health Emergency Operations Centre at NCDC, activated to coordinate outbreak response.
The approach treating human, animal and environmental health as one system - visible here in the inclusion of animal husbandry and veterinary epidemiology bodies in the response.