Pakistan’s AKU; Member of Global Anti-virus Research Network working together against Covid19
Institutions from the United States, Brazil, Pakistan, Senegal, South Africa and Taiwan are working together to develop a united world for the Anti-virus Research Network . This network is an important global research initiative in the field of infections, diseases and pandemics, especially Covid19.
The National Institutes of Health has donated $ 8.75 million over five years to the Washington Institute (UW) and its six partners around the world for researching emerging infectious diseases.
Global Anti-virus Research Network
The goal of developing a unified international institutional network is conducting anti-virus research to control or treat the viral infections.
This antivirus research including, 1) identifying potentially contagious viruses, 2) developing diagnostic tools and 3) immediate medications that will help prevent a wide range of pathogens and 4) understanding the body’s immune response to viruses.
Two years ago, in 2018, the World Health Organization identified a list of priorities for viral diseases for which no vaccines or drugs were available. The list also included X disease for unknown pathogens that could cause a serious international epidemic. Covid-19 is exactly the type of threat that means X disease that was predicted in 2018 and this alliance is working on it.
Pakistan’s Agha Khan University is among the top seven research institutes as a partner of the United World Innovation Program for the Anti-Virus Research Network.
United World Anti-virus Research Network is having a multidisciplinary team of researchers from 30 nationalities.
Several faculties of Pakistan’s Aga Khan University are directly participating in this project. Nazia Talaat Iqbal, of the Department of Paediatrics, Biology and Medical Sciences, is in charge of the research in Pakistan.
Dr. Farah Qamar and Dr. Ali Faisal from the Department of Paediatric Health and Professor Irum Khan from the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine are collaborating on this project.
Agha Khan University of Pakistan: A Global Research Leader in Health Sciences
Expressing satisfaction with the Infectious Diseases Centre’s management’s involvement in Pakistan’s Agha Khan University for conducting global anti-virus research
Dr. Wesley C. Van Voorhis, co-chair of the Center for Emerging or Re-Emerging Infectious Diseases, and one of the lead researchers on the new initiative, talked about how to create a program. Dr. Voohis said: “We are particularly excited to work with the Agha Khan University because of its excellence in research and highly trained professionals’’.
Professor Asad Ali, a research assistant at Agha Khan University, also said that epidemics are becoming an increasing threat to public health in the developing world. We need to deepen our understanding of emerging infectious diseases to prevent new viruses from spreading during a epidemic, and to prevent new viruses that threaten our lifestyles.