{"id":36521,"date":"2023-07-25T12:32:55","date_gmt":"2023-07-25T07:02:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=36521"},"modified":"2025-04-21T22:31:44","modified_gmt":"2025-04-21T17:01:44","slug":"india-takes-its-first-step-towards-opening-door-to-chis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/india-takes-its-first-step-towards-opening-door-to-chis\/","title":{"rendered":"India takes its first step towards opening door to CHIS"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3><strong>What\u2019s in today\u2019s article?<\/strong><\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Why in News?<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>What are Controlled Human Infection Studies (CHIS)?<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>How do CHIS Work?<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Benefits of CHIS<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>News Summary<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Need for CHIS in India<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<h2><strong>Why in News?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>India has taken its first step to introduce Controlled Human Infection Studies (CHIS), used in many countries for vaccine and treatment development.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><strong>What are Controlled Human Infection Studies (CHIS)?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Alleviating the impact of infectious diseases on human health remains a key global health priority.<\/li>\n<li>In controlled human infection studies (CHIS), <strong>healthy volunteers are intentionally exposed to pathogens in a controlled environment<\/strong>.\n<ul>\n<li>This is done in order to promote understanding of the pathogenesis, transmission, prevention and treatment of infectious diseases in humans.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Such studies may be conducted \u2013 a\n<ul>\n<li>to gain insights into how pathogens infect human hosts and cause disease,<\/li>\n<li>to better understand immune responses to infection, or<\/li>\n<li>to evaluate the efficacy of vaccines and drugs designed to prevent and treat infectious diseases.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>CHIS have a long history and have made important contributions to the treatment and prevention of many infectious diseases of global health importance.<\/li>\n<li>Although recognition of the potential value of CHIS is leading to such studies increasingly being conducted in a wider range of contexts, they remain <strong>a relatively unfamiliar research method<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><strong>How do CHIS Work?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Researchers recruit a group of healthy adult volunteers to take part. They give an in-depth explanation of the process and the risks involved, and they monitor the volunteers&#8217; health throughout the study.<\/li>\n<li>The study could involve testing \u2013\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Vaccines<\/strong> \u2013 doctors give the volunteers a dose of the vaccine, then administer a controlled dose of the relevant challenge agent, for example a virus<\/li>\n<li><strong>Treatments<\/strong> \u2013 doctors administer the challenge agent, then give volunteers a treatment.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>There are strict guidelines in place to protect the people taking part, and they are financially reimbursed for their time.<\/li>\n<li>In many of the developed countries, CHIS has been used to study malaria, typhoid, dengue, etc.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Benefits of CHIS<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>CHIS offers accelerated, cost-effective, and efficient outcomes using smaller sample sizes in comparison to large clinical trials.<\/li>\n<li>Its social value includes potential contributions to public health response to diseases of concern, healthcare decision-making, policies and economic benefits, improved pandemic preparedness, and community empowerment.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><strong>News Summary<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Due to ethical issues, Controlled Human Infections Studies (CHIS) has till now been a no-go area in India.<\/li>\n<li>However, the Indian Council of Medical Research\u2019s (ICMR) Bioethics Unit is set to change this.<\/li>\n<li>ICMR\u2019s <strong>Bioethics Unit has introduced a consensus policy statement which is now open for comment and argues the case for bringing in CHIS<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li>The document talks of the need, benefits, and challenges associated with CHIS.<\/li>\n<li>ICMR notes that India has so far stayed away from CHIS, because regardless of the potential scientific benefits, <strong>these studies are ethically sensitive and raise concerns about contentious research ethics<\/strong>.\n<ul>\n<li>Ethical issues like deliberate harm, possible disproportionate payment and hence inducements, third-party risk, withdrawal from the study and research with vulnerable participants.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Need for CHIS in India<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>India carries a high burden of morbidity and mortality from infectious diseases. They contribute about 30% of the disease burden in the country.<\/li>\n<li>Finding novel, efficient, and cost-effective alternatives to existing methods of research in these diseases and their prevention is imperative to reduce this burden.<\/li>\n<li>CHIS can provide unique insights into disease pathogenesis and also accelerate the development of novel medical interventions.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h3><strong>Q1) What is the main role\/responsibility of the ICMR?<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), New Delhi is the apex body in India for the formulation, coordination, and promotion of biomedical research.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3><strong>Q2) How are bacteria different from viruses?<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>Bacteria are single cells that can survive on their own, inside or outside the body. Most bacteria aren&#8217;t harmful.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Viruses are smaller and are not cells. Unlike bacteria, they need a host such as a human or animal to multiply. Viruses cause infections by entering and multiplying inside the body&#8217;s healthy cells.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><strong>Source:\u00a0<\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thehindu.com\/sci-tech\/health\/india-takes-its-first-step-towards-opening-door-to-chis\/article67116133.ece#:~:text=India%20has%20taken%20its%20first,is%20set%20to%20change%20this\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><u>India takes its first step towards opening door to CHIS<\/u><\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.who.int\/publications\/i\/item\/9789240037816\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><u>WHO<\/u><\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In CHIS, volunteers are intentionally exposed to pathogens in a controlled environment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":36522,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-36521","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-upsc-mains-current-affairs","8":"no-featured-image-padding"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36521","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36521"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36521\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/36522"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36521"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36521"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36521"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}