Search

Introduction: Hepatitis B Virus (HBV) causes most frequent chronic liver disease of infectious origin in human beings worldwide, with more than 600,000 deaths caused by end-stage liver disease complications per year. The most used test for identifying acute HBV infections and carriers is the detection of HBsAg. Immunochromatography assays have been suggested for routine use in clinical microbiology laboratories for the detection of HBsAg since they are easy to use, affordable, don't need specialised equipment, and are straightforward to run. Compared to commercially available HEPA card kit for the detection of the same markers, Enzyme Linked Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA) was shown to be more sensitive for the detection of HBsAg. This study is first of its kind in District Doda, Jammu and Kashmir, India. Aim: To know the burden of HBV in a tertiary Care Hospital, Government Medical College, Doda using HEPA card kit and ELISA method. Materials and Methods: The present hospital-based crosssectional study was carried out in the Department of Microbiology, Government Medical College and Hospital, Doda Jammu and Kashmir, India during the period from January 2020 to December 2020. The study comprised blood samples from all age groups referred by clinical departments for testing HBsAg. Tests were performed using an immunochromatographic technique (Hepa Card Diagnostic enterprises) for the qualitative detection of HBsAg, and results were interpreted in accordance with the manufacturer's guidelines. The collected data was analysed in microsoft excel sheet using Chi-square test to know the burden of HBV infection. Results: Among total number of 5,448 samples tested, 50 (0.92%) were positive for HBsAg which comes under low epidemicity (<2%) as per World Health Organisation (WHO) guidelines. The number of positive females and males were 30 (0.84%) and 20 (1.07%), respectively. Females were predominate over males and majority of the positive patients (N=29) were younger than 40 years though prevalance (2.1%) was higher in age group above 40 years. All samples which shows positive by rapid test were also shown positive by ELISA test. Conclusion: Overall prevalence of HBV was 0.92% which comes under low epidemicity (<2%) as per WHO guidelines. It can be an alternate option for community based studies and also helps to improve the public health and to prevent the spreading of disease in the local population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Scrub typhus is a fatal rickettsial infection. It is caused by mite-borne bacterium Orientia tsutsugamushi which is transmitted by the bite of mite larvae called chiggers. It usually presents with acute febrile illness. Clinicians usually do not consider it as differential diagnosis as it is still an unknown entity. Aim: To assess the seroprevalence of scrub typhus among the pyrexia of unknown cases in Eastern part of Odisha, India. Materials and Methods: This was a cross-sectional study involving 260 serum samples obtained from clinically suspected cases of scrub typhus. Detection of antibodies was done on the samples by Immunochromatography (ICT) and IgM ELISA (Enzyme Linked Immunosorbent Assay). Samples were also processed for dengue fever, malaria, typhoid and leptospirosis which are the other causes of febrile illness in this region and excluded from the study once they come positive. Among these febrile cases which were excluded from study, malaria was predominant (44%) followed by typhoid (34.4%), dengue (15%) and leptospirosis (6.45%). Descriptive statistical analysis was applied to evaluate the results. Results: Out of 260 clinical samples, 74 (28.46%) were positive by IgM ELISA. There was good correlation (98.6%) between ICT and IgM ELISA. Fever was the most common clinical symptom followed by abdominal pain. Pathognomonic feature such as eschar was seen in one patient only. Scrub typhus should be considered as one of the differential diagnosis of Pyrexia of Unknown Origin (PUO) cases, along with dengue fever, malaria typhoid and leptospirosis. Conclusion: IgM ELISA is simple, rapid and economical test and should be used as reference diagnostic test for the diagnosis of scrub typhus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background & objectives: Intermittent cholera outbreaks are major problem in many of the States of India. It is essential to identify cholera at the earliest for timely mobilization of public health responses and to abort the outbreaks. The present study was a part of a diarrhoeal outbreak investigation in Secunderabad, India, during May 2009 where the usefulness of Crystal VC rapid dipstick kit was assessed for detecting the aetiologic agent of the outbreak. Methods: Stool specimens were collected from 15 hospitalized patients with acute watery diarrhoea and analyzed for detection of cholera vibrios using Crystal VC rapid dipstick kit and the usefulness of the kit was determined by comparative analysis of the same set of specimens using both microbiological and real-time PCR (RT-PCR) based assays. Results: Detection of Vibrio cholerae O1 from 10 of 15 specimens was recorded using dipstick assay. Microbiological methods detected V. cholerae O1 positivity among 11 specimens. However, RT-PCR based assay showed all 15 specimens positive for the presence of V. cholerae O1. In addition, the same assay showed that the pathogen load in the dipstick as well as RT-PCR positive specimens ranged from 106 colony forming units (cfu)/ml or more. Interpretation & conclusions: Crystal VC kit had the potential to identify cholera cases in 10 min in field conditions without having good laboratory support. Therefore, dipstick kit may be considered as cholera detecting tool in diarrhoeal outbreak investigations. Specimens from clinically typical cholera cases, if negative by dipstick, should be reanalyzed by culture based methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current SARS-CoV-2 infection or the COVID 19 pandemic has taken the world by storm, where the best health care systems in the world seem to be overwhelmed and still this virus is eluding us as we are compelled to explore the preventive and/or therapeutic interventions to control the disease outbreak as well as to prevent deaths. In parallel to clinical services, laboratories have been overwhelmed with task of keeping up with ever increasing demand for testing. Real time PCR detection of COVID19 is the gold standard method, however, has certain shortcomings in terms of availability of infrastructure, reagents, consumables, and technical expertise. All these have paved the way for the alternative testing algorithms and strategies. Countries like United States and Italy have struggled with these issues. India has been criticized for not testing enough and not adopting the right policy, but has been managing the disease within its resource limited health care system to a fair extent. The present review provides the Indian perspective of COVID 19 testing, the journey from not testing enough in the past to a vast expanse and depth of testing in present time., (Copyright © 2021 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Introduction: Streptococcus pneumoniae is a significant cause of childhood bacterial meningitis in India. The United States Food and Drug Administration has licensed an immunochromatographic (ICT) test, Binax ® NOW™, to detect the C polysaccharide antigen of S. pneumoniae in cerebrospinal fluids (CSF). Accurate etiological diagnosis of bacterial meningitis in India is essential for effective treatment strategies and preventive interventions., Materials and Methods: CSF samples from 2081 children admitted, with clinically suspected bacterial meningitis at 11 sentinel sites of hospital based sentinel surveillance network for bacterial meningitis in India between September 2009 and December 2016 were tested with ICT. Concurrent CSF cultures were processed using standard procedures., Results and Discussion: S. pneumoniae was detected thrice the number of times by ICT than by CSF culture, with a sensitivity and specificity of 100% and 95.3% respectively. This rapid ICT test proves to be of immense use as a diagnostic test for meningitis patients with/without prior antibiotic treatment, especially in facilities with limited laboratory infrastructure in resource limited settings., (Copyright © 2018 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.)