Division of Microbiology

Other Officer Details in Division:

Unit Details:

Broad Outline of activities of the Division

Microbiology Division is one of the oldest and largest divisions of NCDC, Delhi.  The main objective of the Division is to provide technical support for national health programme, outbreak investigation, operational research and manpower development in the field of communicable diseases.

Broad Activities:

Laboratory support to various National Health Programmes

Provide laboratory support to Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme (IDSP)

Provide laboratory support for diagnosis of respiratory viruses infections

Monitoring drug resistance in bacterial pathogens of public health importance

Identification of bacterial and viral Enteropathogens (Vibrio cholerae, Salmonella, Shigella, Escherichia coli and Rotavirus) in suspected acute gastroenteritis cases.

Diagnostic medical mycology services.

Referral services for identification and typing of bacterial and viral isolates received from medical colleges and other institutes across the country.

Bacteriological testing of drinking water

Conducting of training programmes/workshops for  laboratory personnel

Evaluation of diagnostic reagents

Co-ordination of National health programmes

Referral laboratory diagnostic services

Investigation of outbreaks and support of laboratory tests for the same

Routine diagnostic services provided:

Enteroviral infections (Polio virus by way of Culture and PCR)

Serology for Varicella Zoster Virus, Epstein Barr Virus, Parvo B-19 Virus and Mumps Virus, ,

Respiratory viral infections including Measles, Influenza, Adenoviruses, and Respiratory syntical virus, MERS CoV, etc. by PCR test

Teratogenic virus infections (Cytomegalovirus, Rubella and Herpes simplex by way of serological tests.

Acute bacterial respiratory infections (Diphtheria, Streptococcal and staphylococcal infections by way of microscopy and culture )

Acute pyogenic meningitis (Microscopy, Culture and serology)

Mycobacterial infections (Microscopy and culture)

Achievements

1. Bacteriology and DRT lab:

Support AMR surveillance network in testing 1% strains sent by sentinel labs for quality control.

2. Enterovirus Laboratory

The laboratory was accredited for polio and for measles and rubella by two different teams from WHO HQ.

The laboratory has been granted accreditation for Measles and Rubella IgM antibody testing with a score of 88.7% 

The laboratory has been granted accreditation for Polio Testing with a score of 97% (virus isolation) and 93% (PCR- Intratypic Differentiation)

The laboratory has performed consistently well in Proficiency Testing on panels received from WHO as well as Re-Validation.

Research Projects

 Study of acute gastroenteritis cases in Pediatric age group (Admitted cases)

The Enterovirus laboratory has also participated in a study on determination of Viral aetiological profile of children admitted with acute myocarditis in collaboration with a tertiary level hospital in Delhi NCR.

A study to determine the antimicrobial resistance pattern of the organisms isolated from sewage samples from Delhi.

Publications

Persistence of Corynebacterium diphtheriae in Delhi and NCR region   Shweta B, Grover S.S.,Nupur G., Ruma D., Khare S. in Ind J. Med Res 2016

Uma Sharma, Megha Singhal, Supriya Singh, Artee Chaudhary, Sunil Gupta, S. Venkatesh, Arvind Rai and Mohammad Husain. Early Screening of HIV-1 from Dried Blood Spots in Infants Born to HIV-1 Positive Mothers from North Indian States. Clin Res HIV/AIDS, 3(1): 1032; 2016

Uma Sharma, Poonam Gupta, Megha Singhal, Supriya Singh, Sunil Gupta, S. Venkatesh, Arvind Rai and Mohammad Husain. Comparative Genetic Variability in HIV-1 Subtype C nef Gene in Early Age Groups of Infants. Journal of Medical Virology, 2017. (In press)

Swati Singh., Kaushal, Sunil Gupta, Ashok Kumar: Gene specific Impedimetric bacterial DNA sensor for rheumatic  heart disease. Ind J. Micro, sept 2016

Journal  of Virological Methods (under Review)

Kumar, S .Karmakar, R.Prasad, R.Chopra , S.Khandelwal , Sunil Gupta , A C Dhariwal , P.Yadav and PK Yadava. Persistent diarrhoea in a 5-month-old baby carrying Vibrio cholerae nonO1/nonO139 producing Haitian cholera toxin. New Microbes New Infection 2018(Jan);21:72-74

Priyanka Singh, M. Chhabra, P. Sharma, R. Jaiswal, G. Singh, V. Mittal, A. Rai, S. Venkatesh. Molecular epidemiology of Crimean-Congo haemorrhagic fever virus in India Epidemiology and Infection,  2016

Other publications/Guidelines

National Treatment Guidelines for Antimicrobial Use in Infectious Diseases.

Interim Guidelines for Infection prevention and control for use in healthcare facilities

Bio-safety Manual for Public Health Laboratories. (Draft uploaded on NCDC website for comments)

National action Plan for containment of Antimicrobial Resistance(AMR)