Bangalore :
Neil Lobo, a graduate of St Joseph’s Arts and Science College here, recently made his city and India proud. This research associate professor at the University of Notre Dame , Indiana, US, and his colleague , won a $23 million grant from the . The 41-year-old researcher’s team is gearing up for a five-year global project to show the effectiveness of spatial repellency in preventing malaria and dengue fever.
Excerpts from an interview:
* Why should we be proactive in tackling malaria and dengue fever?
Mosquitoes kill more humans every year than any other living being by transmitting diseases. While malaria causes an estimated 300-500 million clinical cases and about 750,000 deaths annually, dengue is a problem for over 3.97 billion people in 128 countries. The people who suffer most are the poor.
* What helped you get the grant?
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation asked us to work on a project that would look at the benefits of using a spatial repellent product to prevent human infections with malaria parasites and dengue virus. The approval followed hard work, writing, rewriting, discussions and research. Demonstrating that the study was scientifically designed to get the most research out of resources, while still producing the highest quality data that would meet the objectives led to the approval.
* How will you go about it?
The primary objective is to demonstrate and quantify the efficacy of spatial repellent products. We’ll work with partner institutions and field sites worldwide. This project has given us an opportunity to combine our skills and work on something which may affect many lives.
How will you address the concerns of eco-activists’ reservations about chemicals in spatial repellents?
Spatial repellents are active in repelling insects in concentrations far below toxic concentrations. Also, these low concentrations of active ingredients (not toxic to humans) should be used where mosquito-human contact occurs (i.e. disease transmission) making their use limited to where humans are.
What’s your take on India’s measures to tackle malaria and dengue fever?
The health ministry’s decisions need to be evidence based. Various disease interventions (bed-nets, indoor residual spraying, etc) are effective to a certain extent depending on disease transmission dynamics in that area. For example, insecticide-impregnated bed-nets are known to reduce malaria infections. But what happens if mosquitoes in a certain area bite humans outside the house and early in the evening when people aren’t under their nets?
You wanted to stay in India for higher studies but left for the US…
I don’t think I’d be the person I’m today if I’d stayed in India. I wanted to be in a place more accepting of who I am, allow me to be the best person I could be, while still being true to what I am. The US universities to which I applied had research programmes in my areas of interest — infectious diseases and genetics.
What are your memories of Bangalore?
My favourite memories are the huge trees, particularly the gulmohur and rain trees, though they remain only a memory now. I miss the food and my family the most. I sometimes dream of crisp dosas, South Indian coffee, chaat, biriyani, my grandmother’s chapatis, Goan fish curry…
What’s your message to youngsters who want to achieve something special in health research?
Be true to yourself first. You can reach your potential only when you’re comfortable with who you are and the people around you. Hard work and patience and the realization that you’re only learning if you make mistakes are really important.
source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> City> Bangalore> Namma Metro / by Rohith B R, TNN / March 19th, 2014