Overview
Health Economics is a growing academic and research discipline in India. The importance of health economics is being increasingly recognized in public health and health research settings at the government and non-governmental levels. More complex research, development and diagnostic capabilities are leading to higher healthcare costs, healthcare budgets are stretched at state and central level so that health economics is now foundational and integral to healthcare decision making at every level. With this background for the first time under ICMR a separate Department of Health Economics was established in ICMR-NIRT, Chennai in on 4 th July 2018. The mandate of Department of Health Economics is to conduct research on economic aspects of diseases with special focus to tuberculosis. In addition Scientist and staff of the department will provide their technical support on application of economic tools in their research to generate health economics evidence to make decisions relating to drugs, devices, treatment pathways and preventative health intervention strategies. One of the key mandates of Department of Health Economics is to build the capacity for health economic research and practice in the country through various training, workshops and capacity building programme. Department of health Economics also closely working with Department of Health Research (DHR), Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India and had set up a Regional Resource Hub for Health Technology Assessment in India (HTAIn) in the institute. The mandate of ICMR-NIRT's regional resource hub is to develop capacity at its own institute level and state level for conducting HTA.
Head of the Department:
Dr. Muniyandi M, M.A., M.Phil., MPS., Ph.D., Scientist 'E'
Email id :
muniyandi[dot]m[at]icmr[dot]gov[dot]in
| Sr. No. | Name of the Staff | Designation |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Dr. Muniyandi M | Scientist E |
| 2 | Mr. Balagopal B | Technical Assistant |
| 3 | Mr. Kothoju Bhaskara Chary | Technical Assistant |
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Isolation and Characterisation of the first temperate phage capable of lysogenising M. tuberculosis
In an effort to develop luciferase reporter phage (LRP) constructs with high sensitivity of detection, attempts were made successfully for isolating a temperate mycobacteriophage capable of infecting and lysogenising M. tuberculosis.
Well stained acid fast bacilli (AFB) were demonstrated in smears prepared from pot stained sputum and smear results were comparable with conventional ZN method.
The efficiency of the construct was found to be higher than the existing LRPs with cultures as anticipated. The attempt marked the beginning of diverse attempts to improve the LRP diagnostic assay.
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LRPs for the rapid detection of dormant tubercle bacilli
The luciferase reporter phages (LRP) show great promise for diagnostic mycobacteriology.
Since the tuberculosis (TB) cases among HIV infected population result from the reactivation of latent bacilli, development of LRPs capable of detecting dormant bacteria would be useful.
In a milestone study, 3 LRP constructs were developed using promoters of genes functioning during dormancy. These LRP constructs exhibited detectable luciferase activity in dormant as well as in actively growing M. tuberculosis .
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Phagebiotics cocktail as substitute for antibiotic supplements in liquid culture of M. tuberculosis
Organisms of the normal flora that survive the action of the decontaminating agent during sputum processing can cause heavy contamination of the culture, especially liquid culture.
Antibiotic supplements are used in liquid cultures to control such growth despite reports that these agents have deleterious effect on the tubercle bacilli.
This study demonstrated a novel hypothesis that a cocktail of phages that infect and lyse these organisms could be used in liquid cultures instead of the antibiotic supplements with better decontaminating efficiency and M. tuberculosis retrieving capacity.
Further study established the feasibility of using phage lysin supplement to phagebiotics in decontaminating processed sputum samples in liquid culture of M. tuberculosis . The study opened up new possibility of developing a novel biofriendly method of sputum processing.
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Phagebiotics cocktail as substitute for antibiotic supplements in liquid culture of M. tuberculosis
Organisms of the normal flora that survive the action of the decontaminating agent during sputum processing can cause heavy contamination of the culture, especially liquid culture.
Antibiotic supplements are used in liquid cultures to control such growth despite reports that these agents have deleterious effect on the tubercle bacilli.
This study demonstrated a novel hypothesis that a cocktail of phages that infect and lyse these organisms could be used in liquid cultures instead of the antibiotic supplements with better decontaminating efficiency and M. tuberculosis retrieving capacity.
Further study established the feasibility of using phage lysin supplement to phagebiotics in decontaminating processed sputum samples in liquid culture of M. tuberculosis . The study opened up new possibility of developing a novel biofriendly method of sputum processing.
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