ETV Bharat exclusive: COVID-19 like common cold, should learn to live with it, says CCMB Director

With India ranking third worldwide in terms of coronavirus cases, Director of Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology, Rakesh Mishra in an exclusive interview with ETV Bharat said that the virus is now functioning like the common cough and cold. He added that the onus of protecting oneself from the virus on the people.

Hyderabad: Coronavirus or COVID-19 that has taken the world by storm and abruptly halted the world in ways one could never imagine has become a subject of intense studies. Various researchers across the globe are dedicated to learning more about the novel virus in order to aid with a possible vaccine to control the pandemic.

One of the researches is being done at the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB), Hyderabad.

Operating under the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, CCMB recently conducted a study taking sewage samples from the city to determine and estimate the spread of the infection in a given locality or area.

ETV Bharat in an exclusive interview spoke to Dr Rakesh Mishra, Director, CCMB on COVID-19, its mutation, a possible vaccine, her immunity and more.

According to Dr Mishra, COVID-19 is not very potent as it was made out to be in the initial stages of the outbreak, however, one mustn't let their guards down because it's still prevalent.

He said the mortality rate and mutation of the virus are low in the virus which is why a number of people are able to recover from it, barring people with comorbidities.

"The COVID-19 virus is a threat only because it is spreading very fast. The mutated strains of the virus aren't very potent. But, since India is a densely populated country, if at a time, say 50 per cent of the population is infected, it will create a crisis," Dr Mishra said.

Likening it to a common cold, the Dr added that though there are many symptomatic and asymptomatic carriers, one can recover from it and avoid it altogether by following social-distancing and using a mask and sanitizers etc.

He explained that the viruses have an innate ability to target specific cells in a human body and the COVID-19 attacks the respiratory tract.

"Since COVID-19 starts multiplying rapidly in the alimentary canal, it spreads through cough, sneeze, faecal matter (not yet proved), while talking etc," Dr Mishra added.

He further told ETV Bharat that mutation of the viruses is quite common and luckily, the COVID-19 mutations aren't alarming.

"Different individuals may have a various genomic version of COVID, but it's nothing to worry about," Dr Mishra said.

Talking about a possible vaccine, he said that vaccines are a result of "trial and error", very rarely it happens that one combination will serve all.

Adding that vaccines are like gambling where Doctors and researchers put together various versions of antigens, DNA, RNA, proteins he said, "it may take a while for the world to see vaccines for COVID-19."

Dr Mishra also dismissed relapsing of the viruses and said it cannot be said that the virus is relapsing since there are too few cases of the matter. He said, to ascertain for sure a detailed study should be carried out.

On the CCMB's sewer sample taking study, he said that the method is very useful as it predicts en masse the number of people that may be infected with the virus.

"Sometimes the results may warn us of any looming infections and the method should be further developed. The sample taking from the sewers can be used for different others experiments as well," the Dr added.

Concluding that the virus is here to stay and may become a way of life that humans have to learn to live with, Dr Mishra said that until a vaccine is invented and herd immunity kicks in - which will take months - one should learn to accept the new age of masks, sanitizers and social distancing.