Study of bacterial diversity of Dal Lake, Kashmir with particular reference to pathogenic bacteria.

Water is a necessity for all living beings, without it there would be no life. Life originated in water and the ultimate basis of it, the protoplasm, is a colloidal solution of complex organic molecules in a watery medium (70 to 90% of water). Most of the biological phenomena take place in water medium. Moreover, wherever water exists in nature it always holds life. So the study of a water body is the study of life as well. Water is essential at all levels of life, cellular to ecosystem and it stands as the key substance for the existence and continuity of life through different cyclic process in nature; it plays the central role in mediating global scale ecosystem processes, linking atmosphere, lithosphere, and biosphere, by moving substances among them, and enabling chemical reactions to occur. Humans depend on this resource for all their needs of existence and survival. Nature has an innate mechanism to maintain its purity after every natural use, but unables to do so at the rate at which humans add dirt to it. Nature does not know how to deal with several toxins and pollutants that are flowing from industrial and other wastes. Therefore, humans are bound to monitor the impact of this activity on natural freshwaters continuously. The study on Bacterial diversity of Dal lake with particular reference to Pathogenic bacteria was carried out from April 2010 to March 2012 .The study area (Dal lake; latitude 340 07′ N, longitude 740 52′ E, altitude 1583 m) selected for this work is a multi-basined lake with many inlets and outlets, so an extensive network of sixteen sites with different altitudes and geographical co-ordinates viz., Hazratbal open, Hazratbal littoral, Nigeen open, Nigeen littoral, Gagribal open, Gagribal littoral, Nishat open, Near Centeur, Boathall nallah-I, Boathall nallah-II, Tailbal nallah-I, Tailbal nallah-II, Dal lock Gate-I, Dal lock gate-II, Pokhribal nallah-I and Pokhribal nallah-II were selected. Among the selected sites eight (8) sites were selected in the four basins, four (4) were selected from two inlets and four (4) were selected from two outlets. These sites selected included microhabitats from both littoral zones as well as limnetic zones.Digital copy of Ph.D thesis.University of Kashmir

Hepatitis E Epidemic, Uganda

In October 2007, an epidemic of hepatitis E was suspected in Kitgum District of northern Uganda where no previous epidemics had been documented. This outbreak has progressed to become one of the largest hepatitis E outbreaks in the world. By June 2009, the epidemic had caused illness in >10,196 persons and 160 deaths

Development of a World Health Organization International Reference Panel for different genotypes of hepatitis E virus for nucleic acid amplification testing.

Globally, hepatitis E virus (HEV) is a major cause of acute viral hepatitis. Epidemiology and clinical presentation of hepatitis E vary greatly by location and are affected by the HEV genotype. Nucleic acid amplification technique (NAT)-based assays are important for the detection of acute HEV infection as well for monitoring chronic cases of hepatitis E. The aim of the study was to evaluate a panel of samples containing different genotypes of HEV for use in nucleic NAT-based assays. The panel of samples comprises eleven different members including HEV genotype 1a (2 strains), 1e, 2a, 3b, 3c, 3e, 3f, 4c, 4g as well as a human isolate related to rabbit HEV. Each laboratory assayed the panel members directly against the 1 World Health Organization (WHO) International Standard (IS) for HEV RNA (6329/10) which is based upon a genotype 3 a strain. The samples for evaluation were distributed to 24 laboratories from 14 different countries and assayed on three separate days. Of these, 23 participating laboratories returned a total of 32 sets of data; 17 from quantitative assays and 15 from qualitative assays. The assays used consisted of a mixture of in-house developed and commercially available assays. The results showed that all samples were detected consistently by the majority of participants, although in some cases, some samples were detected less efficiently. Based on the results of the collaborative study the panel (code number 8578/13) was established as the "1st International Reference Panel (IRP) for all HEV genotypes for NAT-based assays" by the WHO Expert Committee on Biological Standardization. This IRP will be important for assay validation and ensuring adequate detection of different genotypes and clinically important sub-genotypes of HEV

Prevalence of hepatitis C virus infection among human immunodeficiency virus-1-infected pregnant women in Malawi: The BAN study

In Sub-Saharan Africa, prevalence estimates of hepatitis C virus (HCV) vary widely

Hepatitis B virus infection among HIV-infected pregnant women in Malawi and transmission to infants

The extent of HBV infection to infants of HBV/HIV-coinfected pregnant women in sub-Saharan Africa is unknown. The aim of this study was to assess prevalence of HBV infection among antiretroviral-naïve, HIV-infected pregnant women in Malawi and examine HBV transmission to their infants

Hepatitis E

Hepatitis E, previously known as enterically transmitted non-A, non-B hepatitis, is an infectious viral disease with clinical and morphologic features of acute hepatitis. The disease was recognized first as a distinct clinical entity in the 1980s, when sera from persons affected during a large waterborne epidemic of viral hepatitis during 1955-1956 in Delhi, India116 and another epidemic in Kashmir were found to lack serologic markers of acute hepatitis A and B.56 and 119 The first proof of the existence of a new viral hepatitis agent was obtained in 1983, when viruslike particles were detected by immune electron microscopy in feces collected from a volunteer infected with fecal material from patients who had suspected enterically transmitted non-A, non-B hepatitis.12 The disease was transmitted successfully to cynomolgus monkeys that excreted similar viruslike particles in their feces.12 The genome of this virus, known as hepatitis E virus (HEV),90 was cloned in 199093 and fully sequenced shortly thereafter.99 and 104 The occurrence of the first recorded epidemic of hepatitis E as late as 1955 and the infrequency of this disease in developed countries suggest that hepatitis E is a new, emerging infectious disease. However, several epidemics of enterically transmitted hepatitis with epidemiologic features similar to those of hepatitis E outbreaks occurred in Europe and the United States in the 18th and 19th centuries.17 and 28 It can be postulated, therefore, that HEV infection may have occurred in various parts of the world and only recently has become restricted to certain geographic areas, mostly underdeveloped with poor environmental sanitation

Subacute liver failure due to autochthonous hepatitis E virus infection in an elderly man in the United States

Hepatitis E virus (HEV) infection in immunocompetent individuals is uncommon in the United States. We report a case of elderly man who presented with jaundice, cholestatic hepatitis, and subacute liver failure with fatal outcome. The patient was started on steroids based on ANA positivity. Liver biopsy showed panlobular hepatitis with cholestasis. The histologic differential diagnosis included drug/toxic injury, biliary obstruction, and acute hepatitis C or hepatitis E. Drug/toxic injury was favored initially. However, subsequent serology was positive for anti-HEV IgM and IgG, and HEV RNA genotype 3 was detected in both serum and liver tissue. Awareness of autochthonous hepatitis E and its inclusion in the differential diagnosis is needed for early diagnosis and appropriate management

Experimental studies on subclinical hepatitis E virus infection in cynomolgus macaques

Serial subclinical transmission among susceptible humans may serve as a reservoir of hepatitis E virus (HEV) in areas in which HEV is endemic. This hypothesis was investigated in an experimental primate model. Four groups of 4 cynomolgus macaques each were inoculated intravenously with 104–105 (group 1), 10–100 (group 2), and 1–10 (group 3) cynomolgus macaque HEV infectious doses. All 4 animals in group 1 had clinical disease marked by alanine aminotransferase (ALT) elevation, fecal virus excretion, viremia, and seroconversion. Of the animals in groups 2 and 3, only 1 had evidence of biochemical hepatitis, although most had virus excretion and viremia (3 animals each in groups 2 and 3), and evidence of seroconversion (1 animal in group 2 and 3 animals in group 3). Viral genomic titers in stool specimens of animalswith or without ALT elevation were similar. Infectivity studies confirmed the viability and transmission potential of the virus excreted by animals without ALT elevation. These data suggest that subclinical HEV infection may represent an HEV reservoi

Distinguishing Acute from Chronic Hepatitis C Virus (HCV) Infection Based on Antibody Reactivities to Specific HCV Structural and Nonstructural Proteins▿

Currently available serological assays for detection of antibodies to hepatitis C virus (HCV) cannot reliably discriminate acute from chronic HCV infection. We developed a multiplexed, flow-cytometric microsphere immunoassay to measure anti-HCV-IgG reactivities to the core, NS3, NS4, and NS5 HCV recombinant proteins and applied it to 99 serum samples from 24 anti-HCV seroconverters and 141 anti-HCV-IgG and HCV RNA-positive plasma specimens from chronically infected people. Differences in the geometric means or means of signal/cutoff ratios between the two sample sets were statistically significant for all the antigens tested. A multivariate logistic regression model correctly classified the samples in two groups, with a cross-validation accuracy of 90.8% for the acute group and 97.2% for the chronic group. The immunoassay described has the potential to distinguish acute from chronic HCV infection