Events
Roundtable Discussion on Respiratory Syncytial Virus
Feb 12, 2024
NDMC organised a round-table discussion on the current challenges and opportunities of respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) in the Indian context on 12th February, 2024. Professors Rama Pal, Mithun Mitra, and Sarika Mehra from IIT Bombay, facilitated the exchange of insights and perspectives among a panel of esteemed experts who participated in the gathering. Dr. Padmini Srikantiah, Deputy Director, Pneumonia & Pandemic Preparedness team, BMGF, gave a presentation on “Respiratory syncytial virus: priorities and opportunities for prevention”. This was followed by presentations on “Navigating data challenges in RSV burden estimation” by Prof. Anand Krishnan, Centre for Community Medicine, AIIMS; “Identifying and addressing challenges in RSV epidemiology - a multivariate analysis” by Dr. Nithya Gogtay, Department of Clinical Pharmacology, Seth GS Medical College and King Edward Memorial Hospital, Mumbai; “Rolling out a vaccine in India” by Dr. Pradip Haldar, Former Advisor (RCH) MoHFW, Govt. of India; “RSV disease burden estimation: methodological considerations” by Prof. Harish Nair, Chair of Paediatric Infectious Diseases and Global Health, The University of Edinburgh; “Impact and effectiveness of Indian rotavirus vaccines” by Prof. Venkata Raghava Mohan, Professor and Chair, Department of Community Health And Development, CMC Vellore; “Disease burden of acute lower respiratory tract infection (ALRTI) - respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) in children” by Prof Rama Pal, Associate Professor, Department of Economics, IIT Bombay, and “Delay epidemic model determined by disease duration, immunity duration and seasonality: Application to RSV” by Prof. Subhra Sankar Dhar, Associate Professor in Statistics, Department of Mathematics and Statistics, IIT Kanpur. Other participants who shared valuable perspectives and made notable contributions to the discussion included Dr. Arup Deb Roy, Project Director, JSI India; Dr. Siddhivinayak Shriram Hirve, Global Influenza Program, WHO, Geneva, Switzerland; Dr. Varsha Potdar, Scientist E, NIV Pune and Influenza group leader, National Influenza Centre; Dr. Rakesh Kumar, Centre for Community Medicine, AIIMS; Dr. Sumit Bharadwaj Scientist C, NIV Pune; Prof. Keith Klugman, Director, Pneumonia, BMGF; Prof. Siuli Mukhopadhyay, Department of Mathematics, IIT Bombay; Dr. Arindam Ray, Senior Program Officer, Vaccine Delivery, BMGF; Ms. Krittika Bhattacharya, Research Analyst, NTAGI and Dr. Angela Guo, Strategy Office, BMGF. Online participants included, Dr. Nivedita Gupta, Head of Division of Communicable Diseases, ICMR; Dr Jacob John, CMC Vellore; and Dr. Eva Leidman, Epidemiologist, CDC. Overall, the meeting proved to be very productive and laid the groundwork for exchange of ideas and collaborations for future endeavours.