The Virus Busters

Two major viral outbreaks, two deadly viruses in one year and several others on the horizon. India's top virologists gear up to defeat their most confounding enemies

- Namita Kohli

On most days, the life of a virologist would make for gripping science fiction. Dr Rima Sahay, a scientist at National Institute of Virology (NIV), Pune, describes how a day in her life, of late, includes navigating multiple layers of security, stepping in and out of “chemical showers”, slipping in and out of Tyvek suits (coveralls that are worn while working with dangerous biochemicals or pathogens) and decoding the structure of a virus and its history within 24 hours.

In Manipal, Dr G. Arunkumar, head, Manipal Centre for Virus Research (MCVR), is busy solving several mysteries. He tries to find out how the deadly Nipah virus struck one family in Kerala and challenged the entire public health infrastructure in the country, even as he investigates the dominant viruses in some 40,000 samples from across the country, identifying them from a list of 80 probables.

In the past few months, some of the country’s leading virologists have moved from biosafety level 1 and 2 laboratories to the extreme biosafety level 4 (BSL-4) facilities, where even the air they breathe is filtered through powered air purifier respirators (PAPR) that are attached to their Tyvek suits. Sahay works at the BSL-4 laboratory at the maximum containment facility in NIV, a high-security zone where access is limited, given the risks involved in working with deadly viruses.