• Tuesday, Mar 21, 2023
  • Last Update : 10:24 am

Dr Senjuti: Bangladesh should invest more in genome sequencing

  • Published at 07:34 am May 19th, 2021
Dr Senjuti
Dr Senjuti Courtesy

Dr Senjuti and her team of researchers completed the genome sequencing for Sars-Cov2 for the first time in Bangladesh. In an interview with Dhaka Tribune's Kohinur Khyum Tithila, she speaks of the importance of genome sequencing in tracking and controlling the spread of viruses or bacteria

Along with her father Dr Samir Kumar Saha, Dr Senjuti Saha led a team of researchers to successfully complete the genome sequencing for the novel coronavirus – Sars-Cov2 – for the first time in Bangladesh in May last year.

Dr Senjuti, a microbiologist working at the intersection of Clinical Microbiology and Global Health as a scientist at the  Child Health Research Foundation (CHRF) in Bangladesh, recently published a paper titled, “Covid-19 rise in Bangladesh correlates with increasing detection of B.1.351 variant” with a team of researchers in BMJ Global Health journal. 

Would you briefly explain the findings of the paper you authored?

We started SARS-CoV-2 genome surveillance in April last year but found no significant changes in the circulating viruses from between April and  December 2020. Both the death rate and infection rate were declining till December. 

We started seeing a change in January this year.  

About 21% of the infections were by the UK variants. In February and March, the South African variant started dominating. The South African variant clearly correlated to the increasing infection rate. This paper presented this correlation scientifically.   

Why should Bangladesh invest more in genome sequencing?

Genome sequencing is not really rocket science.  I think any lab in Bangladesh conducting PCR tests can learn genome sequencing. However, researchers need to be consistent and patient, use their resources optimally and analyze the data intelligently.

We need more genomic surveillance of different kinds of viruses and bacteria. Genome sequencing is not just crucial to understand coronavirus mutation, it can also help us determine if a vaccine would work on the circulating variants or not. 

Take the example of dengue fever. Too many people were infected two years back in Bangladesh. Did we pay  as much attention to genome sequencing for this virus? Genome sequencing is crucial for tracking and controlling the spread of any virus or bacteria.

What can you find by genome sequencing a virus?

There are three major things which can be identified by sequencing the coronavirus – tracking and transmission, flagging important mutations, and determining the reproducing number of viruses. We can tell how rapidly the virus is spreading. 

We can look at the sequencing data and tell where the virus comes from. We can find out the important and dangerous mutations and stay alert. 

And finally, if we can determine the reproduction number, we will be able to tell how contagious a variant could be. 

Some are showing reluctance to get vaccinated since they can still contract the virus. What is your take on it?

People can still contract some variants of the virus even after being vaccinated. Some vaccines do not really protect against infection, but these vaccines have the ability to reduce severity of the disease, that is reduce the need for hospitalization or the risk of death. 

Any vaccines, take the example of the Oxford Astrazeneca vaccine, can reduce the number of hospitalization and ICU admission in vaccinated Covid-19 patients. At this moment, the most crucial thing is to not overwhelm the hospitals with Covid-19 patients.

What is the most contagious variant so far?

There is no published data on head-to-head comparisons of all variants. However, there are four variants that we are concerned about – B.1.1.7 (UK), P.1 (Brazil), B.1.617.2 (Indian) and B.1.351 (South Africa) – which appear to be more infectious than the original SARS-CoV-2 because of certain mutations.

50
Facebook 50
blogger sharing button blogger
buffer sharing button buffer
diaspora sharing button diaspora
digg sharing button digg
douban sharing button douban
email sharing button email
evernote sharing button evernote
flipboard sharing button flipboard
pocket sharing button getpocket
github sharing button github
gmail sharing button gmail
googlebookmarks sharing button googlebookmarks
hackernews sharing button hackernews
instapaper sharing button instapaper
line sharing button line
linkedin sharing button linkedin
livejournal sharing button livejournal
mailru sharing button mailru
medium sharing button medium
meneame sharing button meneame
messenger sharing button messenger
odnoklassniki sharing button odnoklassniki
pinterest sharing button pinterest
print sharing button print
qzone sharing button qzone
reddit sharing button reddit
refind sharing button refind
renren sharing button renren
skype sharing button skype
snapchat sharing button snapchat
surfingbird sharing button surfingbird
telegram sharing button telegram
tumblr sharing button tumblr
twitter sharing button twitter
vk sharing button vk
wechat sharing button wechat
weibo sharing button weibo
whatsapp sharing button whatsapp
wordpress sharing button wordpress
xing sharing button xing
yahoomail sharing button yahoomail