Inaugurating the Golden Jubilee Symposium at the National Jalma Institute for Leprosy and Other Mycrobacterial Diseases, he said from just two laboratories in 2009 -- one each at Pune and Delhi, the network of HINI laboratories had been expanded to 45 in just one year.
In the past four years, 16 new BSL II and two BSL III labs have also been set up. A BSL IV laboratory, possibly the first in Asia, for human medicine has been set up at Pune to deal with most dangerous lethal infections like haemorrhagic fever.
Azad said under a new DHR scheme the network would be expanded to 160 laboratories - 120 in medical colleges and 30 at state level and 10 regional laboratories. The health research field has got a boost with the setting up of two new institutes.
He said inspired by the Jalma institute, the Department of Health Research has decided to replicate the model in 15 states in the next two years. Azad said that with introduction of multi-drug treatment of leprosy, the cases of leprosy has been reduced from six million to less than three lakh.
