UP’s veteran virologist TN Dhole dies of Covid

Played a major role in UP’s fight against polio.

VETERAN VIROLOGIST Dr T N Dhole died of Covid-19 in Lucknow on Wednesday. He was 67. Dhole, who is credited with establishing an independent Microbiology Department at Uttar Pradesh’s premier Sanjay Gandhi Post Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences in Lucknow in 1988, played a major role in the state’s fight against polio for over 15 years and also in tackling encephalitis, dengue and chikungunya.

A former head of the Microbiology Department at SGPGI, Dhole died on Wednesday at SGPGI’s Covid hospital. Dhole had retired last year but was still active and had joined a private hospital in Lucknow. From 1988 till last year, Dhole focused on virology research and contributed to surveillance and testing techniques for different viruses that hit the state as well as adjoining regions of north India.

“It is a major loss. He was active even just a few days before his death. He was admitted in the first week of September. He was the first faculty member of the Microbiology Department here and made a great contribution to polio eradication and surveillance for over 15 years,” said Dr Ujjala Ghoshal, head of the SGPGI’s Microbiology Department.

Before an NIV field laboratory was established in Gorakhpur, SGPGI lab was the only testing lab in the region.

He was admitted at the SGPGIMS Covid hospital on September 4 after having tested positive and complaining of breathlessness and fever. Because of co-morbidity, he could not recover from infection in his lungs and other complications, hospital sources said.

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