ICMR to set up hospital based STIs surveillance network in India

India Pharma Outlook Team | Thursday, 28 April 2022

The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), the apex body in India for the formulation, coordination and sponsorship of biomedical research, is all set to establish hospital based sexually transmitted infections (STIs) surveillance network in India with an aim to collect data on clinical signs & symptoms of STIs and document the patterns of various etiologies of STIs, analyse the trends, and monitor antimicrobial resistance (AMR) patterns among identified STIs in the country. The 21st century witnessed a global resurgence of STIs.

The incremental rates of over 1 million new cases of gonorrhea, syphilis, and Chlamydia infections were recorded in high-income countries and low-income countries as well. Moreover, the increase in antimicrobial resistance has heightened concern. The factors contributing to the sustained transmission of STIs within a population are multiple, complex, and context-specific. They include the probability of transmission, the rate of change in sextual patterns, and the duration of infectiousness.

Furthermore, the example of factors, are unprecedented connectivity between persons facilitated by global travel and online social networking, and increased use of preexposure prophylaxis against human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection are some of their facilitators. Though the STI cases are widely evidenced in India, systematic epidemiological studies to determine their exact prevalence are yet not available.

The World Health Organization (WHO) set targets for a 90 per cent decline in the incidence of syphilis and gonorrhea between 2018 and 2030. There is an utmost need for data on clinical signs & symptoms, laboratory investigations, management protocols, the clinical course of STI diseases, disease spectrum, and outcomes of patients. The data will serve as an invaluable tool in predicting the burden of the

disease existing in our society. In view of this, ICMR has invited a letter of intent from the institutions/hospitals; clinics dedicated to STI pan India to establish a hospital-based surveillance network of STI clinics in government healthcare institutions, dedicated short-range communications (DSRCs), and private hospitals/clinics for data collection and to document the patterns of various etiologies of STIs, analyse the trends, and to see AMR patterns among identified STIs in India.

Interested investigators/scientists/clinical researchers working on recognizing R & D institutions can submit the LoI to ICMR. The last date for submitting LoI is June 10, 2022. The key objective of hospital-based STIs surveillance network is to study the frequency, clinical laboratory features, AMR patterns and treatment outcome related to STIs in the population.

It will utilize the data to answer the research questions on STIs including, disease spectrum, prognostic factors, risk factors, outcome data- medications, treatments, health systems, current AMR patterns. It will serve as a platform for additional clinical research and advanced AI-based studies in selected sites as well as collect follow up data of the patients, if possible. The study provides prospective data collection from the dedicated hospitals/clinics in centres among six regions, East, West, North, South, Central, and North East. The duration of the study will be 3 years.

The result of the study is to generate reports and interpretations to be released on the ICMR website, formulate patient management and rapid diagnostic protocols and develop a policy for decision making, understand the disease severity, and optimize the protocol accordingly, understand the variations, symptoms, and spectrum of the disease in India, generate content specific research (STI, venereal disease), publish the findings (data) periodically in peer-reviewed journals, make rapid, accurate, and evidence-based decisions on importing the various tools in diagnosing STI patients, develop a database for STI diseases which serve purpose to support in policy development. The designated and dedicated hospitals/clinics will serve as primary sites for the data collection. These sites will be monitored and mentored periodically.