The Gujarat Biotechnology Research Centre (GBRC) in Gandhinagar has published the only fully mapped genome of the Chandipura Vesiculovirus (CHPV).
Genome mapping
- Genome mapping refers to the process of determining the location of genes on an organism’s chromosomes.
- Genome mapping provides important clues on where a virus comes from, how it is changing, and whether it has any mutations that are likely to make it more transmissible or deadly.
- Scientists at the GBRC undertook this process to better understand the virus which was afflicting so many children in the state.
Chandipura virus
- Chandipura is a viral infection that can lead to outbreaks of Acute Encephalitis Syndrome (AES) or brain swelling.
- It is known to cause fever, headache, and encephalitis leading to convulsions, coma, and death, usually within a few days of the symptoms showing up.
- It was first isolated in Maharashtra in 1965.
- The Chandipura virus most severely affects children below the age of 15.
- It can be transmitted by sandflies, ticks, as well as the Aedes aegypti mosquitoe which also transmits infections such as dengue and chikungunya.
- No specific treatment is available.
- The mortality due to the virus can be as high as 56 to 75 per cent, as seen in Andhra Pradesh and Gujarat in 2003 during India’s worst ever Chandipura outbreak that killed 322 children.
