28 July 2022 | News
NIV successfully isolates virus strain from infected patients
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The National Institute of Virology (NIV) in Pune which works under Indian Council for Medical Research (ICMR) has successfuly isolated and cultured the Monkeypox virus strain from the samples of infected Indian patients.
ICMR in a tweet said that genomic sequence of the Indian strains has 99.85 percent match with the West African Strains circulating globally.
ICMR has also invited an expression of interest proposing to hand over the virus strain to interested Indian Vaccine and In-Vitro Diagnostic industry partners for development of indigenous vaccine and diagnostic kits for Monkeypox.
According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), Monkeypox is a viral zoonosis (a virus transmitted to humans from animals) with symptoms similar to those seen in the past in smallpox patients, although it is clinically less severe.