Panacea Journal of Medical Sciences 2020;10(2):56–57

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Panacea Journal of Medical Sciences

Journal homepage: www.ipinnovative.com

Editorial

Microbiology laboratory: A backbone for COVID management

Neena Nagdeo1,*
1Dept. of Microbiology, N. K. P. Salve Institute of Medical Sciences & Research Centre and Lata Mangeshkar Hospital, Nagpur,
Maharashtra, India

A R T I C L E I N F O

Article history:
Received 19-08-2020
Accepted 21-08-2020
Available online 26-08-2020

© 2020 Published by Innovative Publication. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC license
(https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/)

1. Introduction

Over the past 2 decades, coronaviruses (CoVs) have been
associated with significant disease outbreaks in East Asia
and the Middle East. The severe acute respiratory syndrome
(SARS) and the Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS)
began to emerge in 2002 and 2012, respectively. Recently,
a novel coronavirus, severe acute respiratory syndrome
coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), causing coronavirus disease
2019 (COVID-19), emerged in late 2019, and it has posed
a global health threat, causing an ongoing pandemic in
many countries and territories. 1 CoVs belong to the family
Coronaviridae (subfamily Coronavirinae), the members of
which infect a broad range of hosts. SARS-CoV-2 is
considered one of the seven members of the CoV family
that infect humans, 2 leading to a pandemic.

Microbiology laboratories play a vital role in diagnosis of
Infectious Diseases particularly viral diagnosis. In COVID
management there is a vibrant role of a Microbiologist
which starts with proper collection and transport of sample,
followed by establishment of virology laboratory. In the
laboratory it is the responsibility of a microbiologist to carry
out the tests like PCR, Rapid Antigen Test or Antibody
tests. RT PCR test requires skill, patience and dedication for
which training in molecular technologies is required. Rapid
antigen testing is made available now which is used for

* Corresponding author.
E-mail address: neenagdeo@yahoo.co.in (N. Nagdeo).

screening of large population for COVID-19 and antibody
tests for sero-surveillance of various groups.

Microbiology labs not only conduct different tests but
they are also involved in development and production
of new testswith high sensitivity and specificity. Along
with these, microbiologist has to look after the Infection
Control Practices in Hospital, Proper biomedical waste
management, Teaching and Training of Medical staff
about COVID Diagnosis and Prevention. Microbiology lab
becomes an important part or essential part of Research
related to COVID diagnosis, management, prevention or
vaccine development.

To combat this COVID pandemic Indian Council of
Medical Research is helping all laboratories by formulating
guidelines. Every functional laboratory is following these
guidelines and since the guidance evolves periodically, the
latest revised version is followed. Testing laboratories also
ensure timely reporting to State health Officials for rapid
initiation of contact tracing and report is also uploaded on
the online portal of ICMR. Funds are provided for research
projects that have direct bearing on the applicability of their
outcome for the benefit to the public.

While dealing with COVID-19, Microbiology
laboratories have to overcome many challenges and at
times resource limitations. The labs require trained staff
in molecular lab so all microbiologists along with the
technicians have to undergo this training to work in
virology labs. After setting up a lab there is a mandatory

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Nagdeo / Panacea Journal of Medical Sciences 2020;10(2):56–57 57

requirement by ICMR to have a NABL Accreditation for
private Medical colleges and private labs to ensure quality
and technical competence. This competence is not required
from Govt set up. The research funds are usually provided
to the government labs leading private institutes to lag
behind in research due to this discrimination.

In spite of these challenges, Microbiologists are ready
to deal with COVID converting every problem into an
opportunity and helping the mankind in this pandemic.

2. Conflict of Interest

None.

References
1. Rodriguez-Morales AJ, Bonilla-Aldana DK, Balbin-Ramon GJ, Rabaan

AA, Sah R, Paniz-Mondolfi A. History is repeating itself: probable
zoonotic spillover as the cause of the 2019 novel coronavirus epidemic.
Infez Med. 2020;28:3–5.

2. Zhu N, Zhang D, Wang W, Li X, Yang B, Song J. A novel coronavirus
from patients with pneumonia in China. N Engl J Med. 2019;382:727–
33.

Author biography
Neena Nagdeo Professor

Cite this article: Nagdeo N. Microbiology laboratory: A backbone for
COVID management. Panacea J Med Sci 2020;10(2):56-57.


	Introduction
	Conflict of Interest