PGIMER Researcher Awarded As The Young Scientist

A senior research fellow from the PGIMER's Department of Virology has been awarded with an title as the 'Best Young Scientist In Medical Virology'. It was held during the '21st Annual conference of Indian Virological Society (VIROCON-2012)' which was held in Uttarakhand.

The sources revealed that winner is Manasi Majumdar who won and bagged the prestigious award for her original research work on the "Role of TLR's and Cytokines- which are the two central components of Host Immune response- in the immuno-pathogenesis of viral hepatitis. The work has been carried out under the supervision of Prof.RK Ratho, Prof Y Chawla and Dr. Mini P Singh.

According to the research, almost around 2 billion people live in viral hepatitis E endemic areas. The disease has been responsible for large water borne epidemics in the past. The virus commonly spreads by contained drinking water. Poorly maintained drinking water pipelines often laid through sewerage systems leads to water leakage.

The intermittent nature of water supply helps in drawing of sweage, contaminating the drinking water. Also, the tullu pumps being used to overcome low water pressure aggravates the situation, it added.

PGIMER's department of Virology has been actively involved in investigating outbreaks of Hepatitis E over the past decade and reported many such outbreaks in the adjoining areas of Kurali Manasa, Mandi-Gobindgarh, Lalru, Pulsora and Nawanshahr.