Assessment of prescription completeness and antibiotic consumption at a rural health and training centre, Delhi

Background: The prescription audit is a useful method to assess the doctors’ contribution to the rational use of drugs in a country. A prescription is considered complete when it covers all the parts of the prescription. The polypharmacy increased the risk of drug interaction, dispensing errors and confused the patients for dosage schedules. A prescription with the minimum number of drugs per prescription helps in rational pharmacotherapeutics. The objectives of this study were to describe the pattern and completeness of prescription at rural health and training center and to estimate antibiotic consumption at rural health and training center.Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted to determine the current prescribing practice at RHTC. Data were collected in the two pharmacies of the rural hospital. A total of 612 prescriptions with the last refill were considered for the assessment.Results: The average number of drugs prescribed per prescription 3.53. The percentage of prescriptions in which an antibiotic was prescribed was 20%. The percentage of drugs prescribed by generic name and from an essential drug list was 71.5% and 98.7% respectively. The most commonly prescribed form of antibiotics was extended-spectrum penicillin.Conclusions: All the prescriptions were complete covered parts of prescriptions. The dosing errors were present in maximum prescriptions. The WHO prescribing indicators were within the limits, an average number of drugs per prescription suggests a practice of polypharmacy. The peak of the use of antibiotics was observed in September followed by January and November. The least use of antibiotics was in December followed by June.

The Forecasting of 3G Market in India Based on Revised Technology Acceptance Model

3G, processor of 2G services, is a family of standards for mobile telecommunications defined by the International Telecommunication Union [1]. 3G services include wide-area wireless voice telephone, video calls, and wireless data, all in a mobile environment. It allows simultaneous use of speech and data services and higher data rates.3G is defined to facilitate growth, increased bandwidth and support more diverse applications. The focus of this study is to examine the factors affecting the adoption of 3G services among Indian people. The study adopts the revised Technology Acceptance Model by adding five antecedents-perceived risks, cost of adoption, perceived service quality, subjective norms, and perceived lack of knowledge. Data have collected from more than 400 school/college/Institution students & employees of various Government/Private sectors using interviews & various convenience sampling procedures and analyzed using MS excel and MATLAB. Result shows that perceived usefulness has the most significant influence on attitude towards using 3G services, which is consistent with prior studies. Of the five antecedents, perceived risk and cost of adoption are found to be significantly influencing attitude towards use. The outcome of this study would be beneficial to private and public telecommunication organizations, various service providers, business community, banking services and people of India. Research findings and suggestions for future research are also discussed.Comment: 8 Page

An effective method for extraction and polymerase chain reaction (PCR) amplification of DNA from formalin preserved tissue samples of snow leopard

Formalin-preserved biological samples obtained from endangered species are valuable in assessing genetic diversity. To make use of snow leopard samples preserved in formalin over a period of two to seven years, we optimized the method of extracting DNA from these samples. We used (a) phenol chloroform : isoamyl alcohol, (b) the Qiagen DNeasy Blood and Tissue Kit (Qiagen, Germany), (c) the Qiagen DNeasy Blood and Tissue Kit after treating the samples with NaOH for three days and (d) the Qiagen DNeasy Blood and Tissue Kit after treating the samples with phosphate buffered saline (PBS) for three days. The usefulness of the extracted DNA was assessed on the basis of mitochondrial (150 to 550 bp) and nuclear (95 to 229 bp) markers. There was no PCR amplification with the first two methods. The PCR amplification with the NaOH and PBS treatment had a success rate of 30 to 100% for both mitochondrial and nuclear markers. The PBS method is the best method for extraction of DNA from formalin-preserved samples of longer period (two to seven years) because of higher success rate in amplifying mitochondrial gene of ca. 550 bp (60%) than the NaOH method (28%). The overall amplification of microsatellite markers in such samples was also higher in samples treated with PBS (43 to 100%) than NaOH (0 to 100%). The PCR products obtained were confirmed through DNA sequencing to be of snow leopard origin. The optimized protocol will enable genetic studies to be conducted on tissue samples of other species that have been preserved in formalin. The protocol will be particularly useful for species that are elusive and from which it is difficult to collect fresh tissue samples.Keywords: Formalin, polymerase chain reaction (PCR), mtDNA, microsatellites, snow leopardAfrican Journal of Biotechnology Vol. 12(22), pp. 3399-340

Antimicrobial Profiling of three Famous Indian Spices on S. aureus & S. epidermidis

Abstract: In order to study the antimicrobial activity of Cold Water, Hot Water, Methanol, Acetone, Chloroform, Diethyl ether, Xylene and Petroleum ether extract of three Indian spices such as Piper nigrum L., was tested against infectious disease causing bacterial pathogens Staphylococcus aureus and Staphylococcus epidermidis using the Agar Well diffusion method. It was observed that hot water, cold water, Methanol, Acetone, Chloroform, xylene, Diethyl ether and Petroleum ether showed activity against both Bacteria. The extract of Pimenta dioicas in different solvents showed maximum activity against Staphylococcus aureus. The results confirmed presence of antibacterial activity in the selected Indian spices against the human pathogenic organisms

Effect of Multiple Rounds of Mass Drug Administration under Lymphatic Filariasis Elimination Program on Prevalence of Soil-Transmitted Helminthiasis in One of the Co-endemic Districts of India

Both soil-transmitted helminthiasis and lymphatic filariasis are co-endemic in some districts of India. The study was aimed at comparing the prevalence of soil-transmitted helminthiasis (STH) infection before and after mass drug administration (MDA) given for lymphatic filariasis at Alappuzha.We examined stool samples of 219 children aged between 9 and 10 years from nine schools at Alappuzha, Kerala, in June 2015. The current STH situation was compared with that in the year 1999 (before the institution of MDA) in the same age group in the same district. WHO-recommended Kato-Katz technique was used for STH prevalence estimation. Information regarding socio-demographic variables, sanitation, personal hygiene practices was also recorded. Chi-square test was used to study association of risk factors with STH infection.A total of 79 (36.07%) children were found to be positive for STH infection. Out of all samples positive for Ascaris lumbricoides, 4 (5%) were found co-infected with Trichuris trichiura and none with hookworm. Factors like absence of household latrine, lack of hand washing before meals and practice of consumingunwashed fruits were found to be significantly associated with occurrence of STH infection.Over the years, consecutive rounds of MDA for LF have led to a decline in intestinal worm burden but with little effect on the overall prevalence of STH. Thus, STH control activities working synergistically with the Filarial Elimination Strategy can yield better results in the co-endemic areas with optimum resourceutilization

Cellular interaction of folic acid conjugated superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles and its use as contrast agent for targeted magnetic imaging of tumor cells

The purpose of the study was to develop tumor specific, water dispersible superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles (SPIONs) and evaluate their efficacy as a contrast agent in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). We have developed SPIONs capped with citric acid/2-bromo-2-methylpropionic acid which are compact, water dispersible, biocompatible having narrow range of size dispersity (8–10 nm), and relatively high T2 relaxivity (R2 = 222L · mmol−1 · sec−l). The targeting efficacy of unconjugated and folic acid-conjugated SPIONs (FA-SPIONS) was evaluated in a folic acid receptor overexpressing and negative tumor cell lines. Folic acid receptor-positive cells incubated with FA-SPIONs showed much higher intracellular iron content without any cytotoxicity. Ultrastructurally, SPIONs were seen as clustered inside the various stages of endocytic pathways without damaging cellular organelles and possible mechanism for their entry is via receptor mediated endocytosis. In vitro MRI studies on tumor cells showed better T2-weighted images in FA-SPIONs. These findings indicate that FA-SPIONs possess high colloidal stability with excellent sensitivity of imaging and can be a useful MRI contrast agent for the detection of cancer

Inter-state cross border superspreading event of SARS-CoV2 in Central India, May 2020

Background: During the mid-weeks of May 2020, a superspreading event occurred in a town of Central India, where breaking bread together led to an outburst of COVID-19 cases. This led to a sudden increase of the daily average number of cases later on in the month.Methods: An epidemiological investigation was done to investigate the cause. Process of the epidemic investigation done has been described under three parts namely - Case finding, Contact tracing, Public health response.Results: Our epidemiological investigation and contact tracing of the index case confirmed a superspreading event of COVID-19 which occurred due to multiple social gatherings during mid weeks of May 2020. It was estimated that 118 cases belonged to G0 and 94 cases belonged to G1 generation of the index case.Conclusions: Most likely source of infection to the index case was from the guests who came for a social gathering on May 11, 2020 (lockdown 3) from a village across the border in Rajasthan, a high COVID-19 prevalent zone (Orange) to a low COVID-19 prevalent zone (Green)

Impact of comorbidity on patients with COVID-19 in India: A nationwide analysis

BackgroundThe emergence of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) as a global pandemic has resulted in the loss of many lives and a significant decline in global economic losses. Thus, for a large country like India, there is a need to comprehend the dynamics of COVID-19 in a clustered way.ObjectiveTo evaluate the clinical characteristics of patients with COVID-19 according to age, gender, and preexisting comorbidity. Patients with COVID-19 were categorized according to comorbidity, and the data over a 2-year period (1 January 2020 to 31 January 2022) were considered to analyze the impact of comorbidity on severe COVID-19 outcomes.MethodsFor different age/gender groups, the distribution of COVID-19 positive, hospitalized, and mortality cases was estimated. The impact of comorbidity was assessed by computing incidence rate (IR), odds ratio (OR), and proportion analysis.ResultsThe results indicated that COVID-19 caused an exponential growth in mortality. In patients over the age of 50, the mortality rate was found to be very high, ~80%. Moreover, based on the estimation of OR, it can be inferred that age and various preexisting comorbidities were found to be predictors of severe COVID-19 outcomes. The strongest risk factors for COVID-19 mortality were preexisting comorbidities like diabetes (OR: 2.39; 95% confidence interval (CI): 2.31–2.47; p < 0.0001), hypertension (OR: 2.31; 95% CI: 2.23–2.39; p < 0.0001), and heart disease (OR: 2.19; 95% CI: 2.08–2.30; p < 0.0001). The proportion of fatal cases among patients positive for COVID-19 increased with the number of comorbidities.ConclusionThis study concluded that elderly patients with preexisting comorbidities were at an increased risk of COVID-19 mortality. Patients in the elderly age group with underlying medical conditions are recommended for preventive medical care or medical resources and vaccination against COVID-19

Predicting the impact of climate change on range and genetic diversity patterns of the endangered endemic Nilgiri tahr (Nilgiritragus hylocrius) in the western Ghats, India

[Context] Climate change is considered an important factor affecting the distribution and genetic diversity of species. While many studies have described the influence of climate change on population structure at various scales, little is known about the genetic consequences of a changing climate on endemic species.[Objectives] To assess possible changes in the distribution and genetic structure of the endangered Nilgiri tahr (Nilgiritragus hylocrius), which is endemic to the Western Ghats in India, under climate change and human disturbances.[Methods] We integrated tahr occurrence and nuclear DNA data with environmental geo-datasets to project the response of tahr populations to future climate change with respect to its distribution, genetic diversity and population structure. We screened the environmental variables using MaxEnt to identify a manageable set of predictors to be used in an ensemble approach, based on ten species distribution modelling techniques, to quantify the current tahr distribution. We then projected the distribution and genetic structure under two climate change scenarios.[Results] We found that suitable habitat for tahr (9,605 km2) is determined predominantly by a combination of climatic, human disturbance and topographic factors that result in a highly fragmented habitat throughout its distribution range in the Western Ghats. Under the severe high emissions RCP8.5 scenario tahr populations may lose more than half of their available habitat (55.5%) by 2070. Application of spatial Bayesian clustering suggests that their current genetic structure comprise four genetic clusters, with three of them reflecting a clear geographic structure. However, under climate change, two of these clusters may be lost, and in the future a homogenization of the genetic background of the remaining populations may arise due to prevalence of one gene pool cluster in the remaining populations.[Conclusions] Our interdisciplinary approach that combines niche modelling and genetic data identified the climate refugia (i.e., the remaining stable habitats that overlap with the current suitable areas), where the tahr populations would be restricted to small, isolated and fragmented areas. Essential factors to avert local extinctions of vulnerable tahr populations are a reduction of human disturbances, dispersal of tahr between fragmented populations, and the availability of corridors.This research was supported by the Department of Biotechnology, Ministry of Science and Technology, Government of India, and by a German Research Foundation (DFG) fellowship awarded to RK (project number 273837911).Peer reviewe

Establishment of the mechanism of purification and levigation of green chemistry-assisted biocomposites of red ochre (Gairika): synthesis, characterization, and antibacterial, prebiotic, antioxidant, and antacid activities of the traditional Ayurvedic medicine Laghu Sutashekhara Rasa

Gairika (red ochre) has a long history of influencing human civilization. Gairika is a rich source of nutrients used for reproductive and brain health. Gairika is mentioned as an antacid drug in Indian Ayurvedic medicine under Laghu Sutashekhara Rasa (LSR). However, a detailed study on LSR has not been reported to date. In the present study, LSR was prepared, and a pharmaceutical SOP (standardization procedure) was reported to obtain batch-to-batch reproducibility. LSR was characterized using FTIR, XRD, SEM-EDX, and TGA analyses. LSR was tested in vitro for its antacid activity. Advanced instrumentation revealed that LSR formation produced symmetrical particles (5–8 µm) with kaolin, kaolinite, quartz, goethite, and hematite, along with the phytoconstituents of Goghrita (clarified cow’s butter), Shunthi, and Nagawalli, as confirmed by GC-MS/MS analysis. The FTIR study revealed the formation of a chelating complex of goethite and hematite along with their phytoconstituents. XRD analysis confirmed the presence of kaolin, kaolinite, quartz, goethite, and hematite. Using in vitro antacid experiments, LSR and Shunthi demonstrated significant antacid activity as compared to antacid drugs and standards in the market, such as CaCO3. The DPPH assay revealed IC50 values of 12.16 ± 1.23 mg/mL, which is 0.0029 of Trolox-equivalent antioxidant activity. The inhibition (18 ± 4 mm) against pathogens (S. aureus, E. coli, P. aeruginosa, and B. subtilis) and the prominent growth of gut microbiota-supported strains (S. boulardii, L. paracasei, and L. plantarum) observed on LSR formulation were indicative of LSR application as a prebiotic. Here, the mechanism of purification and levigation mentioned in the classical literature of LSR was established. Overall, purification of Gairika with cow ghee and levigation with Nagawalli may enhance the solubility, bioavailability, and shelf-life of LSR through hydration and co-crystallization mechanisms. This is the first comprehensive report on the pharmaceutical validation of LSR and its characterization. The results of the present study could contribute to the development and reliable reproduction of LSR and the utility of environmental red ochre as a medicine in combination with Shunthi (Zingiber officinale Roxb.), as prescribed under Indian Ayurvedic medicine