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Background: Typhoid fever is a serious public health problem. It causes severe systemic infection in lesser developed areas of the world. Although blood culture is regarded as the gold standard for diagnosis, it is a time taking procedure. An early and accurate diagnosis is necessary for an effective treatment. Aims: The present study was done to comparatively evaluate rapid card and Widal slide agglutination tests for rapid diagnosis of typhoid cases. Settings and Design: The study design was a cross-sectional descriptive study done over a period of 6 months from January to June 2018. Materials and Methods: A total of 265 patients suspected of typhoid fever who gave their consent were included in the study whose blood samples were tested by both rapid card and Widal slide agglutination tests. Statistical Analysis Used: The collected data were analyzed using SPSS Data Editor Software version 20. Percentage of variables was calculated. Results: Of 265 patients, 97 patients were positive by the Widal slide test, whereas 113 patients were positive by the rapid card test, with 96.9% sensitivity and 88.7% specificity. Of 113 positives, 83 cases were positive for immunoglobulin M (IgM) only, whereas 30 cases were positive for both IgM and IgG. Conclusion: Rapid card test is a simple and easy to perform the diagnostic test for rapid detection of typhoid cases with an additional advantage of separate determination of IgM and IgG antibody, thereby aiding in identification of current infection and previous exposure so that appropriate and timely treatment could be given to the patients.

Japanese encephalitis (JE) is neurological infection which is caused by Japanese encephalitis virus (JEV), a flavivirus, and is closely related to St. Louis encephalitis and West Nile encephalitis. It is predominant in rural areas of Asia, which spread through bites of culicine mosquitoes, most often Culex tritaeniorhynchus. JE has broad range of manifestations. It can range from subtle changes in behavior to serious problems, including blindness, ataxia, weakness, and movement disorders.Japanese encephalitis virus is endemic in 24 countries in Southeast Asia and Western Pacific regions with more than 3 billion people at risk of infection. JE is the main cause of viral encephalitis in people in many countries of Asia amounting almost 68,000 clinical cases per year. Children are at greatest risk, with adults in endemic areas having protective immunity as a consequence of childhood infection. This disease is of particular importance in Gorakhpur, eastern belt of UP, the state with the largest population in India, where a large number of children have been dying in the past several years with alarming frequency since 1978.

Background: Hepatitis C virus (HCV) causes acute as well as chronic hepatitis such as cirrhosis of liver and hepatocellular carcinoma. The virus is mainly transmitted through blood and blood products. Hence, in order to provide safe blood supply testing of each blood unit for markers of HCV has been made mandatory. The infection is detected by the presence of anti-HCV antibody in the patient’s serum. The objective of the present study was to determine the prevalence of anti-HCV antibodies among indoor patients and blood donors. Methods: A hospital based cross-sectional study was done from January to June 2016. A total of 1991 subjects comprising of 1649 indoor patients and 342 blood donors were included in the study whose blood samples were screened for presence of anti-Hepatitis C antibody using rapid HCV TRI-DOT and HCV Microlisa. Results: Out of 1649 indoor patients tested, 39 were found to be reactive, and out of 342 blood donors tested, 4 were found to be reactive, hence, the prevalence of anti-HCV antibody was found to be 2.4% among indoor patients and 1.2% among blood donors. The seroprevalence of anti-HCV antibody was found to be more among replacement donors (1.2%) as compared to voluntary donors (1.1%). Conclusions: As blood transfusion is an important mode of transmission of HCV, hence, prevention in the form of proper screening of every unit of blood prior to transfusion is mandatory. As voluntary donors are relatively safe, this should be encouraged by organizing frequent blood donation camps.

Background: Enteric fever is a major public health problem with significant morbidity and mortality in developing countries. Although, isolation of causative organism from blood is the standard laboratory method, but due to frequent use of self-medication by patients, and its long turnaround time, it is seldom used, and enteric fever is usually diagnosed by using serological methods. Widal tube agglutination test is the standard serological test used, which is now a days replaced by slide agglutination test due to its convenience and rapidity. The present study was done to comparatively evaluate the slide agglutination and Widal tube agglutination test in detecting enteric fever. Methods: A hospital based cross-sectional study was done from January to June 2016. A total of 117 patients with clinical presentation suggestive of enteric fever were included in the study whose venous blood was collected and serum was tested by both slide agglutination and Widal tube agglutination test. Results: Out of 117 patients, slide agglutination test showed positive results in 39 (33.3%) samples, whereas, Widal tube agglutination test showed positive results in 23 (19.7%) samples only. The slide test had a sensitivity of 91.3%, specificity of 80.9%, positive predictive value of 53.8% and negative predictive value of 97.4% as compared to Widal tube agglutination test. Conclusions: Due to high false positivity shown by slide test, it is suggested that serological diagnosis should not be made solely on the basis of slide test rather its results should be confirmed by using Widal tube agglutination test.

Dengue fever, a very old disease, has re-emerged during past 20 years besides, an expanded geographic distribution of both the viruses and the mosquito vectors. With increased epidemic activity, the development of hyperendemicity (the co-circulation of multiple serotypes), and the emergence of dengue hemorrhagic fever in new geographic regions. In 1998 this mosquito-borne disease was the most important tropical infectious disease after malaria, with an estimated 100 million cases of dengue fever, 500,000 cases of dengue hemorrhagic fever, and 25,000 deaths annually. The reasons for this resurgence and emergence of dengue hemorrhagic fever in 21st century are complex and not fully understood, but demographic, societal, and public health infrastructure changes in the past 30 years have contributed greatly. Based on the data of National Vector Borne Disease Control Programme (NVBDCP), the number of cases reported in 2016 in India was about 1,11,880 for dengue with 227 deaths1. This paper reviews the changing epidemiology of dengue and dengue hemorrhagic fever by geographic region, the natural history and transmission cycles, clinical diagnosis of both dengue fever and dengue hemorrhagic fever, serologic and virologic laboratory diagnoses, pathogenesis, surveillance, prevention, and control. Major challenges for public health officials in all tropical areas of the world is to develop and implement sustainable prevention and control programs that will reverse the trend of emergent dengue hemorrhagic fever.

A computational method for lateral-directional aerdynamics of fighter configurations is developed. The leading-edge vortices are represented by free vortex filaments which are adjusted iteratively to satisfy the forcefree condition. The forebody vortex separation, both symmetrical and asymmetrical, is calculated with a slender body theory. Effect of boundary layer separation on lifting surfaces is accounted for by using the effective sectional angles of attack. The latter are obtained iteratively by matching the nonlinear sectional lift with the computed results based on a lifting-surface theory. Results for several fighter configurations are employed for comparison with available data. It is shown that the present method produces reasonable results in predicting sideslip derivatives, while roll- and yaw-rate derivatives do not compare very well with forced-oscillation test data at high angles of attack.