Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, May 6: More than 100 participants comprising of eminent personalities participated in the web talk delivered by Prof Manoj Dhar, Vice-Chancellor, University of Jammu, which was organized by the JU Media Cell.
Speaking on the occasion, Prof Dhar dedicated today’s web talk to frontline Corona Warriors, such as doctors, nurses, policemen, Government officials, media, sanitation workers, who are risking their lives to save others.
Prof Dhar, in his PowerPoint presentation, shared valuable information about COVID-19 caused by Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Corona Virus (SARS-CoV-2). Starting with the basic concepts to the most recent information about Corona virus, he enriched the audience with a masterly presentation. Prof Dhar underlined the importance of social distancing, sanitization and constant vigil, until a vaccine/drug is developed to control this highly contagious and dangerous virus.
“COVID-19 is proving to be the biggest challenge of the century so far, and India with a population of 1.38 billion, is facing a daunting task to overcome the negative effects of the pandemic. Viruses are genetic entities falling in between the living and non-living states. They can reproduce only inside a host cell after causing infection,” explained Prof Dhar.
Vice-Chancellor talked about the genetic material of the virus. He very lucidly explained how the structure and function of DNA/RNA, which is made of four chemical entities ACT(U)G called bases. He mentioned that a particular order of these bases determines the nature of an organism. “There are various research groups in India which are involved in sequencing the genomes of the Corona virus. This information shall prove to be highly useful detection of viruses in various population groups as several diagnostic kits are being developed,” said Prof Dhar and explained about the Corona Virus, which is generally spherical, enveloped, 125 nm (100 million will be equal to pin head) present in various species of birds, snakes, bats and other mammals.
In order to create better understanding about the spread of COVID 19, Prof Dhar highlighted the most common routes of transmission of virus i.e. droplets and close contact and in some cases aerosol transmission. He said that Coronaviruses can also be present in stools, gastrointestinal tract, saliva and urine. He said that various commercial and research labs have developed Rapid diagnostic test kits which can detect SARS-CoV-2 in few hours.
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