Biotechnology at first appears to be a high-fi technology which could improve only curative health of a populace by way of developing antibiotics and personal drugs and therefore leaving huge chunk of population almost untouched with its impending benefits. However, when look more closely, one is amazed by its simple ability to transform public health scenario in India.

Treatment of waste water through bio-films ensures abundant supply of clean drinking water thus help curbing water-born diseases. Similarly, organic farming and genetic-engineering guarantee sufficient supply of nutritious food catering to the entire population. This reliable access to safe food and drinking water would lay foundation for improved public health in India.

Biotechnology helps in building a healthy environment by way of converting industrial and sewage wastes into fertile biomanure. It replaces hazardous plastics by environment-friendly biodegradable plastics. This clean & green environment in turn translates into better public health outcomes.

Timely diagnosis and effective treatment of various infectious diseases is critical to protect India’s large and diverse population. For example, rapid kits for tuberculosis and PCR test kits for HIV (in infants) would help in early diagnosis and effective treatment of these diseases.

Vaccines are in development for various infectious diseases with the potential to cause epidemics. Biotechnology researchers are working on fruits and vegetables genetically engineered to contain vaccines which could protect large populations in a very short span of time. Further, affordable multi-valent vaccines (eg. BCG+DPT+OPV) bring renewed hope for reverting falling immunization trends in the country. Promoting indigenous R & D and facilitating technology transfer from the developed world would go a long way in equipping the country to fight its varied public health challenges.

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Tags: biotechnology, food security, healthy environment, molecular diagnostics, Public Health, safe drinking water

This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 2nd, 2010 at 5:17 pm and is filed under Information, Communications and Technology. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.