DIMAPUR, JANUARY 3 (MExN): The Government of India has ordered an inquiry into a study conducted in Nagaland on bats and humans carrying antibodies to deadly viruses like Ebola, The Hindu reported today.
The study was conducted by researchers from the United States, China and India, with the report published in October of last year.
The study titled ‘Filovirus-reactive antibodies in humans and bats in Northeast India imply Zoonotic spillover’, published in PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases found that “the presence of filovirus (e.g. ebolavirus, marburgvirus and dianlovirus) reactive antibodies in both human (e.g. bat hunters) and bat populations in Northeast India, a region with no historical record of Ebola virus disease.”
According to the report, the study came under the scanner of the Government of India as two of the 12 researchers belonged to the Wuhan Institute of Virology’s Department of Emerging Infectious Diseases, and it was funded by the United States Department of Defense’s Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA).
The report stated that the researchers would have required special permissions as foreign entities.
The study was conducted by scientists of the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, the National Centre for Biological Sciences (NCBS), the Wuhan Institute of Virology, the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences in the U.S. and the Duke-National University in Singapore.
It is now being investigated for how the scientists were allowed to access live samples of bats and bat hunters (humans) “without due permissions,” the Hindu reported.
The report further quoted a senior government official as stating: “The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) sent a five-member committee to investigate. The inquiry is complete, and a report has been submitted to the Health Ministry.”
Meanwhile, the US Embassy and the Union Health Ministry has declined to comment on the inquiry.
In a written reply to questions from The Hindu, the U.S. Centre for Disease Control (CDC) in Atlanta said it “did not commission this study and had not received any enquiries [from the Indian government] on it," the report added.
