Mother-to-child HIV transmission and its correlates in India: systematic review and meta-analysis

BACKGROUND: In India, preventing mother-to-child transmission (PMTCT) of Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) remains one of the foremost challenge in community health. Countrywide MTCT of HIV is estimated to be > 10,000 annually. Aims of present study are to find out the prevalence of HIV and correlates of HIV transmission among children given birth by HIV infected mother through systematic review along with meta-analysis. METHODS: All avaiable articles are retrieved using MEDLINE, Cochrane Library, Science Direct, EMBASE, Google Scholar and PUBMED following guidelines for Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA). Joanna Briggs Institute Meta-Analysis of Statistics Assessment and Review Instrument (JBI-MAStARI) are applied to critically reviewing the selected articles. STATA 13.0 is used to preparation of forest plot for Meta-analysis. For assessment of heterogeneity and publication biases I2 statistics along with Begg and Mazumdar's test and Egger's tests are used. Odds ratio (OR) along with forest plots have been showing with 95% confidence interval (CI). RESULTS: All together 10 studies including 1537 pairs of mothers and new births are assessed in present meta-analysis. Present analysis revealed the prevalence of HIV due to MTCT in India as 8.76% (95% CI; 5.76, 12.31). Analysis of subgroups exhibit a higher pooled prevalence in eastern region of India, 10.83% (95% CI: 5.9, 17.81) and lower in in Western region in India, 6.37% (95% CI: 4.65, 8.49). Status of MTCT before and after initiation of universal ART are 10.23% (95% CI 6.61, 14.55) and 7.93% (95% CI 4.18, 12.76) respectively. Associated factors with MTCT of HIV include absence of maternal prevention of MTCT intervention, OR = 10.82 (95% CI: 5.28, 22.17), lacking in administration of infant ARV (antiretroviral), OR = 8.21 (95% CI: 4.82, 14.0) and absence of medical facility during childbirth OR = 3.73 (95% CI: 1.67, 8.33). CONCLUSIONS: In India, pooled HIV prevalence of MTCT as high as 8.78% (95% CI; 5.76, 12.31) among babies born to infected mothers warrants urgent need of focused intervention for providing ART (PMTCT intervention), ensuring proper infant ARV prophylaxis, and avoiding delivery without proper medical facility to pregnant women with HIV for reduction of occurrence in HIV transmission from mothers to children

Coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2): a systematic review for potential vaccines

COVID-19 is an international public health emergency in need of effective and safe vaccines for SARS-CoV-2. A systematic review has been done to analyze the availability, development and status of new COVID-19 vaccine candidates as well as the status of vaccines for other diseases that might be effective against SARS-CoV-2 infection. PubMed, MEDLINE, EMBASE, Science Direct, Google Scholar, Cochrane library, ClinicalTrials.gov, Web of Science and different trial registries were searched for currently available and probable future vaccines. Articles and ongoing clinical trials are included to ascertain the availability and developmental approaches of new vaccines that could limit the present and future outbreaks. Pharmaceutical companies and institutions are at different stages of developing new vaccines, and extensive studies and clinical trials are still required

Coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2): a systematic review for potential vaccines

COVID-19 is an international public health emergency in need of effective and safe vaccines for SARS-CoV-2. A systematic review has been done to analyze the availability, development and status of new COVID-19 vaccine candidates as well as the status of vaccines for other diseases that might be effective against SARS-CoV-2 infection. PubMed, MEDLINE, EMBASE, Science Direct, Google Scholar, Cochrane library, ClinicalTrials.gov, Web of Science and different trial registries were searched for currently available and probable future vaccines. Articles and ongoing clinical trials are included to ascertain the availability and developmental approaches of new vaccines that could limit the present and future outbreaks. Pharmaceutical companies and institutions are at different stages of developing new vaccines, and extensive studies and clinical trials are still required

A STUDY ON ETHNO-MEDICINAL USE OF SOME COMMONLY AVAILABLE PLANTS FOR WOUND HEALING AND RELATED ACTIVITIES IN THREE SOUTHERN DISTRICTS OF WEST BENGAL, INDIA

The information of ethno-medicinal uses as haemostatic, antiseptic wound healer and anti-dermatitic properties containing plants in human and animals were collected from three districts of southern West Bengal, India, viz. Paschim Medinipur, Purba Medinipur, and Murshidabad which are situated in different agro-climatic conditions. Presently twenty one such plants were recognized and most of them are new claim regarding the said treatments. The plants were properly identified with the help of relevant literatures, photographed and available relevant previous information about the medicinal properties or uses were also searched out from the earlier literatures and were enlisted for comparison

Diabetic myonecrosis: An underreported complication of diabetes mellitus

Diabetic myonecrosis is an underreported complication of long-standing, poorly controlled diabetes mellitus which is usually self-limiting and responds well to conservative management. Patients frequently have microvascular complications, and although short-term prognosis is good, the long-term prognosis is poor. We report four cases of diabetic myonecrosis admitted in a tertiary care hospital

Dual Ectopic Thyroid with Normally Located Thyroid: A Case Report

Dual ectopic thyroid is a rare presentation of thyroid ectopia. Only a few cases have been reported in the world literature. Dual ectopic thyroid in the presence of a normally located thyroid is even rarer. We report a case of dual ectopic thyroid in the lingual and submandibular areas in a seventeen-year-old female with hypoplastic thyroid gland in its normal location. The patient presented with a midline swelling at the base of tongue with dysphagia. Thyroid function test revealed primary hypothyroidism. Ultrasonography of the neck showed hypoplastic thyroid in its normal location. A thyroid scan with Technetium-99 m pertechnate showed two intensely hyperfunctioning foci of ectopic thyroid tissue at a higher level in the midline consistent with dual ectopic thyroid, one at the base of tongue and the other in submental region. No uptake was seen in the normal bed

Where Brain, Body and World Collide

The production cross section of electrons from semileptonic decays of beauty hadrons was measured at mid-rapidity (|y| < 0.8) in the transverse momentum range 1 < pt < 8 Gev/c with the ALICE experiment at the CERN LHC in pp collisions at a center of mass energy sqrt{s} = 7 TeV using an integrated luminosity of 2.2 nb^{-1}. Electrons from beauty hadron decays were selected based on the displacement of the decay vertex from the collision vertex. A perturbative QCD calculation agrees with the measurement within uncertainties. The data were extrapolated to the full phase space to determine the total cross section for the production of beauty quark-antiquark pairs