Sri Vijaya Puram, March 9: A five-day National Level Hands-on Training Workshop on Diagnosis of Leptospirosis commenced today at the ICMR–Regional Medical Research Centre (RMRC), Sri Vijaya Puram, bringing together participants working as scientists, laboratory professionals, and public health experts from across India. The workshop, scheduled from March 9 to March 13, aims to strengthen laboratory capacity and improve the diagnosis and surveillance of leptospirosis, a significant zoonotic disease of public health importance.
Dr. Rehnuma Parvez, Scientist-E, delivered the welcome address for the workshop and gave an overview of the workshop agenda. Dr. Muruganandam Nagarajan, Scientist-E at ICMR-RMRC, Sri Vijaya Puram, and Regional Co-ordinator for National One Health Programme for Prevention and Control of Zoonotic Diseases (NOHPPCZ) in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, spoke about the institute serving as the Regional Co-ordinating Centre for NOHPPCZ under the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. He also highlighted the institute’s role in strengthening zoonotic disease surveillance and diagnostics in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. He further mentioned that the institute also functions as a WHO Collaborating Centre and Reference Laboratory for Leptospirosis, contributing significantly to research, surveillance, and diagnostic support in the region for the last 22 years across South-East Asia.
The inaugural session was attended by distinguished dignitaries from national public health institutions. Dr. Naveen Kumar Gupta, Director, BCG Vaccine Laboratory, attended the programme as the Chief Guest and appreciated the important role played by ICMR-RMRC in strengthening research and surveillance activities related to zoonotic diseases in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.
The Guest of Honour, Dr. Aarti Tiwari, Joint Director & OIC CAZD, NCDC, emphasized the importance of enhancing diagnostic capacity, strengthening laboratory quality assurance systems, and improving surveillance for leptospirosis across the country.
The workshop has been organized under the guidance of Dr. Aparup Das, Director, ICMR-RMRC, Sri Vijaya Puram, whose leadership has been instrumental in advancing research, surveillance, and capacity-building initiatives in the region.
In this first day of workshop, there has been various intense brainstorming scientific discussion sessions for improving diagnosis, treatment and vaccine development of Laptospirosis.
During the technical session, Dr. M. G. Madanan, Scientist ‘F’ & WHO CC, spoke on advances in laboratory diagnosis of leptospirosis, highlighting RT-PCR, culture techniques, and microscopy for early detection and confirmation of infection. He also discussed aspects of diagnosis, treatment, and vaccine development, and emphasized the role of proteinases in diagnostics and the development of point-of-care tests to improve accessibility and enable rapid disease detection in field and rural settings.