INSACOG

The Indian SARS-CoV-2 Genomics Consortium (INSACOG) was established in 2020 as a joint initiative of the Union Health Ministry of Health and Department of Biotechnology (DBT) (under the Ministry of Science and Technology) with the Council for Scientific & Industrial Research (CSIR) and Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) to expand the whole-genome sequencing of SARS-CoV-2, the coronavirus that causes the Covid-19 disease, across India with the aim of understanding how the virus spreads and evolves.
INSACOG started out with the participation of 10 national research laboratories of the central government, and gradually expanded to a network of 38 labs, including private labs, operating on a hub-and-spoke model.
The pan-India consortium works to monitor genomic variations in SARS-CoV-2 by a sentinel sequencing effort (random testing in the community) which is facilitated by the National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), involving the Central Surveillance Unit (CSU) under the central government’s Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme (IDSP).

The data from the genome sequencing laboratories is analysed as per the field data trends to study the linkages, if any, between the genomic variants and epidemiological trends. This helps to understand super spreader events and outbreaks, and strengthen public health interventions across the country to help break chains of transmission.
Linking this data with IDSP data and the patient’s symptoms helps to better understand viral infection dynamics, and trends of morbidity and mortality. The data can be linked with host genomics, immunology, clinical outcomes, and risk factors for a more comprehensive outlook.
INSACOG is working towards establishing a hospital network across the country with the aim to study clinical correlations in mild vs severe cases of Covid-19, and to carry out a longitudinal study to understand long-term post-Covid complications and change in immunity.
INSACOG is also looking to expand to sewage surveillance as an early detection tool, and to assess the spread of variants in hotspot localities.

A case of JN.1 subvariant of COVID19 has been detected in Kerala, as part of the ongoing routine surveillance activity by INSACOG.

Related Information

The genome, or genetic material, of an organism (bacteria, virus, potato, human) is made up of DNA. Each organism has a unique DNA sequence which is composed of bases (A, T, C, and G).
If you know the sequence of the bases in an organism, you have identified its unique DNA fingerprint, or pattern. Determining the order of bases is called sequencing.
Whole genome sequencing is a laboratory procedure that determines the order of bases in the genome of an organism in one process.

Significance

Genomic information has been instrumental in identifying inherited disorders, characterizing the mutations that drive cancer progression, and tracking disease outbreaks.
While genome sequencing is commonly associated with sequencing human genomes, the scalable, flexible nature of next-generation sequencing (NGS) technology makes it equally useful for sequencing any species, such as agriculturally important livestock, plants, or disease-related microbes.

Integrated Disease Surveillance Project (IDSP) was launched by the Union Ministry of Health & Family Welfare with assistance from the World Bank in 2004.
The IDSP constitutes State Surveillance Units (SSU) at all state/UT headquarters, District Surveillance Units (DSU) at the districts and Central Surveillance Unit (CSU) in Delhi.
Its objective is to strengthen disease surveillance for infectious diseases to detect and respond to outbreaks immediately.

Objective

To strengthen/maintain decentralized laboratory-based IT enabled disease surveillance systems for epidemic-prone diseases to monitor disease trends.
To detect and respond to outbreaks in the early rising phase through trained Rapid Response Teams (RRTs).

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