A teacher from Durgapur, who has volunteered to participate in the clinical trial of the Covid-19 vaccine, is likely to head for Odisha next week to receive the antigen of the attenuated virus. The first volunteer from West Bengal, an RSS worker, will then undergo the phases of the human trial for Covid-19 vaccine, which is being developed by Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) and Bharat Biotech.
Chiranjit Dhibar, the 30-year-old teacher at a primary school in Durgapur, had applied to participate in the clinical trial of the proposed vaccine. He received a confirmation from the ICMR a few days back after his profile went through a rigorous “exclusion list” checked by the apex body for biomedical research. He has been asked to appear at the Indian Institute of Medical Sciences and SUM Hospital at Kalinganagar, Odisha.
“It immediately made me feel that there is a chance to do something for the country. This dreaded disease has been sweeping across countries and I now have a chance to contribute to putting an end to that,” said Dhibar. As a volunteer he will be placed in any of the three groups being prepared for the first phase of the trial. It will be followed by the collection of data and the volunteers will then enter into the second phase of the trial.
“The follow up of any volunteer will involve observing the health conditions apart from other observations,” said an official at the ICMR.
Dhibar, who faced initial resistance from parents was able to convince them. His father Tushar Kumar said, “There is always a fear as we never faced such a situation. But then I thought parents have accepted their children being on the frontline. We hope that the human trial is successful and the vaccine comes out quickly.”
Source:Times of India
