ALAPPUZHA: The State Government’s decision to shift Filariasis Chemotherapy Unit (FCU), which is the only research centre functioning in the world for Brugia malayi filariasis, under the Department of Medicine, Alappuzha Medical College, is posing threat to its very existence.
The government has decided to shift the FCU to the General Hospital in Alappuzha. The two important projects, one concerning filarial disease in children and the other supporting the global programmes for filariasis elimination, are currently being carried out in the unit and these projects are being funded by the World Health Organisation (WHO).
According to the experts in the filed, the world scientific community is eagerly awaiting for the study report of the FCU which is the only research centre in the world for Brugia malayi filariasis and the Centre’s studies were greatly appreciated by Tropical Disease Research (TDR) of WHO. The research unit is a part of Department of Medicine and under the administrative control of the principal and the ethics committee of Vandanam Medical College. The unit is fully funded by the WHO and the State Government’s role is only to allot space for the centre.
At present, the centre is functioning in the Vandanam Medical College complex which was approved by the WHO. “Shifting of the research unit will be detrimental in continuing the patient care and research by the FCU. The WHO is allotting funds to the centre by considering it as part of the Alappuzha Medical College.
So finally the shifting of the unit will lead to the closure of the centre and will be a blot on the research works of the FCU,” the sources said.
It was in 1989 that the State Government had directed to start the FCU attached to Department of Medicine at Alappuzha Medical College Hospital to study the Brugia malayi filariasis prevalent in Alappuzha.
This unit is so popular internationally that many of the research protocols of the FCU were reproduced in other parts of the world. A total of 17 projects were already completed successfully at the centre over the last 20 years. Apart from research, this Centre treats patients with filariasis, conducts out-patient clinic and conducting night blood examination camps in Alappuzha.