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Summary: Sequestration of parasitized erythrocytes (PE) in the microvasculature contributes directly to the virulence and severe pathology of Plasmodium falciparum malaria. The scavenger receptor CD36 appears to play an important role in PE adherence. Recently several mutations in the CD36 gene have been found to be associated with variability in susceptibility to P. falciparum infection in different ethnic populations. We investigated the possible association of T188G CD36 gene polymorphism with severe clinical manifestations of malaria in 95 adult patients with severe malaria admitted to SCB Medical College Hospital, Cuttack, Orissa, India (‘severe’ group) and 95 ethnically matched controls attending outpatient clinics at primary health centres (‘mild’ group). The frequency of the wild-type (T188T) allele of the CD36 gene was 0.91 in the ‘severe’ group and 0.78 in the ‘mild’ group of patients, while mutant (T188G) allele frequency was 0.09 in the severe group and 0.22 in the mild group. The Hardy-Weinberg equation indicates that the mutant allele is under selection pressure and disease association analysis shows that the presence of the heterozygote mutant allele renders protection against severe malaria (χ2 =10.67, odds ratio=3.51, 95% CI 1.67–7.36). [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Background: We investigated the epidemic of cholera that occurred in Kashipur and Dasmantpur blocks of Orissa, reported during July–September 2007. Methods: Sixty-two rectal swabs and 28 water samples collected from diarrhea patients at different hospitals and villages were bacteriologically analyzed for the identification, antibiogram, and detection of toxic genes of Vibrio cholerae. Results: The cholera outbreaks were caused by V. cholerae O1 Ogawa biotype El Tor in both Kashipur and Dasmantpur blocks. All the V. cholerae isolates from the clinical and environmental samples were sensitive to tetracycline, gentamicin, azithromycin, and chloramphenicol, but were resistant to ampicillin, ciprofloxacin, norfloxacin, co-trimoxazole, nalidixic acid, neomycin, and furazolidone, except the water isolates, which were sensitive to ciprofloxacin and norfloxacin. The multiplex PCR assay revealed that all the clinical and environmental V. cholerae isolates were positive for the ctxA and tcpA genes, showing biotype El Tor. Interestingly, 88% of the clinical and environmental isolates of V. cholerae were El Tor biotype with mutation at the ctxB gene of the classical strain, as confirmed by mismatch amplification of mutation (MAMA)-PCR assay. Conclusions: This is the first report of the El Tor variant of V. cholerae O1 Ogawa having the ctxB gene of the classical strain with altered antibiogram causing epidemics of cholera in Orissa, India. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]