Develop cost-effective test kits for vector-borne diseases: PM

Prime Minister Narendra Modi today asked the scientific community to develop cost-effective medical kits to diagnose vector-borne diseases like dengue, chikungunya and malaria.
His comments come in the backdrop of several cities and metropolises grappling with vector-borne diseases.
Delhi alone has reported 40 deaths due to such diseases this season-- 15 due to chikungunya, 19 dengue and 6 malaria.
Addressing scientists here on the occasion of Platinum Jubilee celebration of CSIR, Modi said, "CSIR has done a lot of good things in the health sector. But people of our country have to counter diseases like tuberculosis, dengue, malaria and chikungunya. How can CSIR help in providing relief from such diseases?"

Founded in 1942, Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) is an arm of the Ministry of Science and Technology, under which 38 state-of-art institutes carry out research on varied subjects-- form aerospace to agriculture to medical sciences and genome.
"It is necessary to conduct time-bound research in these areas. Can we develop test kits which can help diagnose the diseases. The medical science has become technology-driven and there is an opportunity here," Modi said, asking if these issues could be addressed on a mass scale.

The Prime Minister said that more than doctors, "it is the machines that diagnose the illness. The machine determines what is wrong in the body".

"If medical science revolves around technology then I think you have a lot of opportunity," he said, adding such kits will also help the people in villages.
Modi said the world has shown a lot of interest in yoga and ayurveda and asked the scientists if they can do research in these two subjects.
Noting that unhygienic living condition is a major cause of illness among poor, Modi exhorted the scientists to create "wealth from waste".
"With this, we can also address the the problem of drinking water," the PM said.