Socio-Demographic and Clinical Profile of Drug Resistant Tuberculosis Patients in a Tertiary Care Centre of Kolkata

Background: Drug resistant tuberculosis is a major public health threat that hinders progress in tuberculosis control worldwide. In 2019, India contributed highest cases of TB (27%) Worldwide. In 2019, 3.3% of new TB cases and 18% of previously treated cases had MDR/RRTB worldwide and India (27%) had the largest share of the global burden. This study was done to find out the sociodemographic and clinical profile of drug resistant TB patients. Methodology: It is an observational descriptive study with cross-sectional design, conducted at the drug resistant tuberculosis centre of R. G. Kar Medical College of Kolkata, West Bengal. Study Population consisted of the patients who were registered for the DR-TB regimen. Study duration was July 2016 –March 2017. Pre-tested, semi-structured schedule was designed to capture their sociodemographic profile, treatment history, clinical findings and available medical records. Data were compiled in MS Excel and analyzed in IBM SPSS 23.0. Results: Out of 159 cases, 27% patients were between 21-30 years. Males were predominant (68.6%). Most patients (56.6%) were underweight (BMI<18.5kg/m2). HIV seropositivity was found in 4 (2.5%) cases. Among all cases, 81.1% had history of taking ATD and 34.4% was cured in previous episode of treatment. The commonest associated comorbidity was DM (15.7%). Rifampicin resistance (93.1%) was most common followed by Isoniazid (8.2%). Pallor was found among 94.3% patients. Most patients had bilateral (62.3%) and moderately extensive (57.2%) lesions in chest x-ray. Conclusion: DR-TB control should focus adequately on younger age group as numbers of resistance is increasing among them. Relapse in previously cured cases was found to be major contributor of DR-TB suspect cases. Though, Rifampicin resistance was so common but prevalence of resistance to 2nd line drugs is still low. Focus should be given on early detection of drug resistance in all TB cases and improvement of nutritional status of the TB patient

Factors influencing and changes in childhood vaccination coverage over time in Bangladesh: a multilevel mixed-effects analysis

Introduction: This study aimed to investigate the associated factors and changes in childhood vaccination coverage over time in Bangladesh. Methods: Bangladesh’s Demographic and Health Surveys from 2011, 2014, and 2017-18 provided data for this study on vaccination coverage among children aged 12 to 35 months. For three survey periods, multilevel binary logistic regression models were employed. Results: The overall prevalence (weighted) of full vaccination among children aged 12–35 months were 86.17% in 2011, 85.13% in 2014, and 89.23% in 2017-18. Children from families with high wealth index, mothers with higher education, and over the age of 24 and who sought at least four ANC visits, as well as children from urban areas were more likely to receive full vaccination. Rangpur division had the highest change rate of vaccination coverage from 2011 to 2014 (2.26%), whereas Sylhet division had the highest change rate from 2014 to 2017-18 (34.34%). Conclusion: To improve immunization coverage for Bangladeshi children, policymakers must integrate vaccine programs, paying special attention to mothers without at least a high school education and families with low wealth index. Increased antenatal care visits may also aid in increasing the immunization coverage of their children

Ferromagnetism in transparent Mn(II)-doped indium tin oxide films prepared by sol-gel process

We observe remarkably strong room temperature ferromagnetism (~1.5 Bohr Magneton/Mn) in optically transparent Mn(II)-doped indium tin oxide (ITO) films. The nanocrystalline films with average grain size 10-22 nm and thickness 150-350 nm are prepared by sol-gel coating technique on sodalime silica glass substrate. The ferromagnetic property is, of course, weak for films deposited on pure silica glass substrate. The structural parameters of the films appear to be governing the magnetic property strongly which vary appreciably depending on the substrate. The observation of room temperature ferromagnetism in transparent conducting ITO films may find a plethora of applications in the area of magneto-optics.Comment: 17 pages including 3 figures; pdf onl

Rectangular ZnO porous nano-plate assembly with excellent acetone sensing performance and catalytic activity

The controlled synthesis of a hierarchically assembled porous rectangular ZnO plate (2.5-3.5 mm length, 1.5-2.5 mm width and 100-150 nm thickness) from bulk ZnO without using any organic substrates, such as solvents/surfactants/structure-directing agents, is presented. The synthesized ZnO plates are single crystalline with exposed (10 (1) over bar0) facets on the flat surface, porous and formed through the calcination of a hydrozincite Zn-5(CO3)(2)(OH)(6)] intermediate. A gas sensor based on the synthesized porous ZnO architecture exhibited high sensitivity towards acetone even in low concentration (S = 3.4 in 1 ppm acetone) with good selectivity. The ZnO nanostructured material as a heterogeneous catalyst also showed excellent catalytic activity for the synthesis of 5-substituted-1H-tetrazoles (yield = 94%). Both the activities are superior than those of other reported ZnO based acetone sensors and heterogeneous catalysts. We believe that the improved properties of the synthesized ZnO nanostructure is due to the exposed (10 (1) over bar0) facets, and its porous and assembled structure, which provides a reasonably large accessible surface area, and facilitates diffusion and mass transport of gas or substrate molecules

The prevalence, preventive measures and economic impact of pandemic COVID-19 in India : the initial phase

The novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) is posing a serious threat to the mankind with its massive infection rate and potentially fatality. A total of 212 countries have been infected within the 112 days of fi rst report causing 2 314 621 confi rmed cases and 157 847 deaths worldwide. India, the country which is already battling with poverty, malnutrition and high population density is also at the second stage of coronavirus transmission. The situation is worsening and the attention has focused on the prevalence and preventive measures to be taken to protect 1.35 billion people of the largest democratic country of the world. In this review, a study has been designed to evaluate the prevalence, transmission, clinical symptoms, and preventive measures to control the community transmission of this fatal disease. The initial impact of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak on Indian economy has also been dealt with. This study reviews and summarizes the main points of the epidemic in India until the end of April 2020

Tumor Tissue Explant Culture of Patient-Derived Xenograft as Potential Prioritization Tool for Targeted Therapy

Despite of remarkable progress made in the head and neck cancer (HNC) therapy, the survival rate of this metastatic disease remain low. Tailoring the appropriate therapy to patients is a major challenge and highlights the unmet need to have a good preclinical model that will predict clinical response. Hence, we developed an accurate and time efficient drug screening method of tumor ex vivo analysis (TEVA) system, which can predict patient-specific drug responses. In this study, we generated six patient derived xenografts (PDXs) which were utilized for TEVA. Briefly, PDXs were cut into 2 × 2 × 2 mm3 explants and treated with clinically relevant drugs for 24 h. Tumor cell proliferation and death were evaluated by immunohistochemistry and TEVA score was calculated. Ex vivo and in vivo drug efficacy studies were performed on four PDXs and three drugs side-by-side to explore correlation between TEVA and PDX treatment in vivo. Efficacy of drug combinations was also ventured. Optimization of the culture timings dictated 24 h to be the time frame to detect drug responses and drug penetrates 2 × 2 × 2 mm3 explants as signaling pathways were significantly altered. Tumor responses to drugs in TEVA, significantly corresponds with the drug efficacy in mice. Overall, this low cost, robust, relatively simple and efficient 3D tissue-based method, employing material from one PDX, can bypass the necessity of drug validation in immune-incompetent PDX-bearing mice. Our data provides a potential rationale for utilizing TEVA to predict tumor response to targeted and chemo therapies when multiple targets are proposed