Resistance Status of the Malaria Vector Mosquitoes, Anopheles stephensi and Anopheles subpictus Towards Adulticides and Larvicides in Arid and Semi-Arid Areas of India

Susceptibility studies of malaria vectors Anopheles stephensi Liston (Diptera: Culicidae) and An. subpictus Grassi collected during 2004–2007 from various locations of Arid and Semi-Arid Zone of India were conducted by adulticide bioassay of DDT, malathion, deltamethrin and larvicide bioassay of fenthion, temephos, chlorpyriphos and malathion using diagnostic doses. Both species from all locations exhibited variable resistance to DDT and malathion from majority of location. Adults of both the species were susceptible to Deltamethrin. Larvae of both the Anopheline species showed some evidence of resistance to chlorpyriphos followed by fenthion whereas susceptible to temephos and malathion

Global Oral Health Policies and Guidelines: Using Silver Diamine Fluoride for Caries Control

Silver diamine fluoride (SDF) was developed in Japan in the 1960s. It is a clear solution containing silver and fluoride ions. Because of its anti-bacterial and remineralizing effect, silver diamine fluoride has been used in managing dental caries for decades worldwide. This paper aims to summarize and discuss the global policies, guidelines, and relevant information on utilizing SDF for caries management. SDF can be used for treating dental caries in most countries. However, it is not permitted to be used in mainland China. Several manufacturers, mainly in Australia, Brazil, India, Japan, and the United States, produce SDF at different concentrations that are commercially available around the world. The prices differ between contents and brands. Different government organizations and dental associations have developed guidelines for clinical use of SDF. Dental professionals can refer to the specific guidelines in their own countries or territories. Training for using SDF is part of undergraduate and/or postgraduate curriculums in almost all countries. However, real utilization of SDF of dentists, especially in the private sector, remains unclear in most places because little research has been conducted. There are at least two ongoing regional-wide large-scale oral health programs, using SDF as one of the components to manage dental caries in young children (one in Hong Kong and one in Mongolia). Because SDF treatment does not require caries removal, and it is simple, non-invasive, and inexpensive, SDF is a valuable strategy for caries management in young children, elderly people, and patients with special needs. In addition, to reduce the risk of bacteria or virus transmission in dental settings, using SDF as a non-aerosol producing procedure should be emphasized under the COVID-19 outbreak.</p

Global burden of 288 causes of death and life expectancy decomposition in 204 countries and territories and 811 subnational locations, 1990–2021: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2021

BACKGROUND Regular, detailed reporting on population health by underlying cause of death is fundamental for public health decision making. Cause-specific estimates of mortality and the subsequent effects on life expectancy worldwide are valuable metrics to gauge progress in reducing mortality rates. These estimates are particularly important following large-scale mortality spikes, such as the COVID-19 pandemic. When systematically analysed, mortality rates and life expectancy allow comparisons of the consequences of causes of death globally and over time, providing a nuanced understanding of the effect of these causes on global populations. METHODS The Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study (GBD) 2021 cause-of-death analysis estimated mortality and years of life lost (YLLs) from 288 causes of death by age-sex-location-year in 204 countries and territories and 811 subnational locations for each year from 1990 until 2021. The analysis used 56 604 data sources, including data from vital registration and verbal autopsy as well as surveys, censuses, surveillance systems, and cancer registries, among others. As with previous GBD rounds, cause-specific death rates for most causes were estimated using the Cause of Death Ensemble model-a modelling tool developed for GBD to assess the out-of-sample predictive validity of different statistical models and covariate permutations and combine those results to produce cause-specific mortality estimates-with alternative strategies adapted to model causes with insufficient data, substantial changes in reporting over the study period, or unusual epidemiology. YLLs were computed as the product of the number of deaths for each cause-age-sex-location-year and the standard life expectancy at each age. As part of the modelling process, uncertainty intervals (UIs) were generated using the 2·5th and 97·5th percentiles from a 1000-draw distribution for each metric. We decomposed life expectancy by cause of death, location, and year to show cause-specific effects on life expectancy from 1990 to 2021. We also used the coefficient of variation and the fraction of population affected by 90% of deaths to highlight concentrations of mortality. Findings are reported in counts and age-standardised rates. Methodological improvements for cause-of-death estimates in GBD 2021 include the expansion of under-5-years age group to include four new age groups, enhanced methods to account for stochastic variation of sparse data, and the inclusion of COVID-19 and other pandemic-related mortality-which includes excess mortality associated with the pandemic, excluding COVID-19, lower respiratory infections, measles, malaria, and pertussis. For this analysis, 199 new country-years of vital registration cause-of-death data, 5 country-years of surveillance data, 21 country-years of verbal autopsy data, and 94 country-years of other data types were added to those used in previous GBD rounds. FINDINGS The leading causes of age-standardised deaths globally were the same in 2019 as they were in 1990; in descending order, these were, ischaemic heart disease, stroke, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and lower respiratory infections. In 2021, however, COVID-19 replaced stroke as the second-leading age-standardised cause of death, with 94·0 deaths (95% UI 89·2-100·0) per 100 000 population. The COVID-19 pandemic shifted the rankings of the leading five causes, lowering stroke to the third-leading and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease to the fourth-leading position. In 2021, the highest age-standardised death rates from COVID-19 occurred in sub-Saharan Africa (271·0 deaths [250·1-290·7] per 100 000 population) and Latin America and the Caribbean (195·4 deaths [182·1-211·4] per 100 000 population). The lowest age-standardised death rates from COVID-19 were in the high-income super-region (48·1 deaths [47·4-48·8] per 100 000 population) and southeast Asia, east Asia, and Oceania (23·2 deaths [16·3-37·2] per 100 000 population). Globally, life expectancy steadily improved between 1990 and 2019 for 18 of the 22 investigated causes. Decomposition of global and regional life expectancy showed the positive effect that reductions in deaths from enteric infections, lower respiratory infections, stroke, and neonatal deaths, among others have contributed to improved survival over the study period. However, a net reduction of 1·6 years occurred in global life expectancy between 2019 and 2021, primarily due to increased death rates from COVID-19 and other pandemic-related mortality. Life expectancy was highly variable between super-regions over the study period, with southeast Asia, east Asia, and Oceania gaining 8·3 years (6·7-9·9) overall, while having the smallest reduction in life expectancy due to COVID-19 (0·4 years). The largest reduction in life expectancy due to COVID-19 occurred in Latin America and the Caribbean (3·6 years). Additionally, 53 of the 288 causes of death were highly concentrated in locations with less than 50% of the global population as of 2021, and these causes of death became progressively more concentrated since 1990, when only 44 causes showed this pattern. The concentration phenomenon is discussed heuristically with respect to enteric and lower respiratory infections, malaria, HIV/AIDS, neonatal disorders, tuberculosis, and measles. INTERPRETATION Long-standing gains in life expectancy and reductions in many of the leading causes of death have been disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic, the adverse effects of which were spread unevenly among populations. Despite the pandemic, there has been continued progress in combatting several notable causes of death, leading to improved global life expectancy over the study period. Each of the seven GBD super-regions showed an overall improvement from 1990 and 2021, obscuring the negative effect in the years of the pandemic. Additionally, our findings regarding regional variation in causes of death driving increases in life expectancy hold clear policy utility. Analyses of shifting mortality trends reveal that several causes, once widespread globally, are now increasingly concentrated geographically. These changes in mortality concentration, alongside further investigation of changing risks, interventions, and relevant policy, present an important opportunity to deepen our understanding of mortality-reduction strategies. Examining patterns in mortality concentration might reveal areas where successful public health interventions have been implemented. Translating these successes to locations where certain causes of death remain entrenched can inform policies that work to improve life expectancy for people everywhere. FUNDING Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

Reducing the environmental impact of surgery on a global scale: systematic review and co-prioritization with healthcare workers in 132 countries

Abstract Background Healthcare cannot achieve net-zero carbon without addressing operating theatres. The aim of this study was to prioritize feasible interventions to reduce the environmental impact of operating theatres. Methods This study adopted a four-phase Delphi consensus co-prioritization methodology. In phase 1, a systematic review of published interventions and global consultation of perioperative healthcare professionals were used to longlist interventions. In phase 2, iterative thematic analysis consolidated comparable interventions into a shortlist. In phase 3, the shortlist was co-prioritized based on patient and clinician views on acceptability, feasibility, and safety. In phase 4, ranked lists of interventions were presented by their relevance to high-income countries and low–middle-income countries. Results In phase 1, 43 interventions were identified, which had low uptake in practice according to 3042 professionals globally. In phase 2, a shortlist of 15 intervention domains was generated. In phase 3, interventions were deemed acceptable for more than 90 per cent of patients except for reducing general anaesthesia (84 per cent) and re-sterilization of ‘single-use’ consumables (86 per cent). In phase 4, the top three shortlisted interventions for high-income countries were: introducing recycling; reducing use of anaesthetic gases; and appropriate clinical waste processing. In phase 4, the top three shortlisted interventions for low–middle-income countries were: introducing reusable surgical devices; reducing use of consumables; and reducing the use of general anaesthesia. Conclusion This is a step toward environmentally sustainable operating environments with actionable interventions applicable to both high– and low–middle–income countries

Discovery of a Novel Induced Polymorphism in SD1 Gene Governing Semi-Dwarfism in Rice and Development of a Functional Marker for Marker-Assisted Selection

The semi-dwarfing allele, sd1-d, has been widely utilized in developing high-yielding rice cultivars across the world. Originally identified from the rice cultivar Dee-Geo-Woo-Gen (DGWG), sd1-d, derived from a spontaneous mutation, has a 383-bp deletion in the SD1 gene. To date, as many as seven alleles of the SD1 gene have been identified and used in rice improvement, either with a functional single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP), with insertion&ndash;deletions (InDels), or both. Here, we report discovery of a novel SNP in the SD1 gene from the rice genotype, Pusa 1652. Genetic analysis revealed that the inheritance of the semi-dwarfism in Pusa 1652 is monogenic and recessive, but it did not carry the sd1-d allele. However, response to exogenous gibberellic acid (GA3) application and the subsequent bulked segregant and linkage analyses confirmed that the SD1 gene is involved in the plant height reduction in Pusa 1652. Sequencing of the SD1 gene from Pusa 1652 revealed a novel transition in exon 3 (T/A) causing a nonsense mutation at the 300th codon. The stop codon leads to premature termination, resulting in a truncated protein of OsGA20ox2 obstructing the GA3 biosynthesis pathway. This novel recessive allele, named sd1-bm, is derived from Bindli Mutant 34 (BM34), a &gamma;-ray induced mutant of a short-grain aromatic landrace, Bindli. BM34 is the parent of an aromatic semi-dwarf cultivar, Pusa 1176, from which Pusa 1652 is derived. The semi-dwarfing allele, sd1-bm, was further validated by developing a derived cleaved amplified polymorphic sequence (dCAPS) marker, AKS-sd1. This allele provides an alternative to the most widely used sd1-d in rice improvement programs and the functional dCAPS marker will facilitate marker-assisted introgression of the semi-dwarf trait into tall genotypes

Not Available

Not AvailableRice is sensitive to heat stress at gametogenesis and anthesis stages. For sustaining rice yields under the predicted threat of reproductive stage heat stress (RSHS), identification of tolerant donors as well as mapping of genes governing tolerance is crucial. Recently a NERICA (NEwRIce for AfriCA) rice genotype, NL44 has been reported tolerant to RSHS. The present study aims to survey a recombinant inbred line (RIL) population developed from the cross, Pusa Basmati 1 (PB1)/NL44 using markers linked to 54 RSHS quantitative trait loci (QTLs) through phenotypic and genotypic characterization. When exposed to RSHS, the susceptible parent PB1 and several RILs showed significant reduction for spikelet fertility and grain yield plant−1 relative to NL44. Both these traits and the estimated stress tolerance index (STI) showed a quantitative pattern of inheritance. Out of the 116 SSR markers surveyed, 31 markers were polymorphic between PB1 and NL44. No discernible associations could be found through a preliminary bulked segregant analysis with these markers. A subsequent single marker analysis revealed five minor QTLs, four for spikelet fertility under heat stress and two for STI-spikelet fertility, of which one QTL was mapped for both the traits. These QTLs, however, could explain a very low level of total phenotypic variation. Additionally, the cumulative additive effect of these QTLs could account only for a possible 30% of the contrast between PB1 and NL44. Thus, the study clearly establishes that NL44 has novel genomic regions for RSHS tolerance.Not Availabl

Global Oral Health Policies and Guidelines: Using Silver Diamine Fluoride for Caries Control

Silver diamine fluoride (SDF) was developed in Japan in the 1960s. It is a clear solution containing silver and fluoride ions. Because of its anti-bacterial and remineralizing effect, silver diamine fluoride has been used in managing dental caries for decades worldwide. This paper aims to summarize and discuss the global policies, guidelines, and relevant information on utilizing SDF for caries management. SDF can be used for treating dental caries in most countries. However, it is not permitted to be used in mainland China. Several manufacturers, mainly in Australia, Brazil, India, Japan, and the United States, produce SDF at different concentrations that are commercially available around the world. The prices differ between contents and brands. Different government organizations and dental associations have developed guidelines for clinical use of SDF. Dental professionals can refer to the specific guidelines in their own countries or territories. Training for using SDF is part of undergraduate and/or postgraduate curriculums in almost all countries. However, real utilization of SDF of dentists, especially in the private sector, remains unclear in most places because little research has been conducted. There are at least two ongoing regional-wide large-scale oral health programs, using SDF as one of the components to manage dental caries in young children (one in Hong Kong and one in Mongolia). Because SDF treatment does not require caries removal, and it is simple, non-invasive, and inexpensive, SDF is a valuable strategy for caries management in young children, elderly people, and patients with special needs. In addition, to reduce the risk of bacteria or virus transmission in dental settings, using SDF as a non-aerosol producing procedure should be emphasized under the COVID-19 outbreak