Understanding the perspectives of frontline health workers (ASHAs, Anganwadi workers & ANMs) in Bundelkhand region to improve COVID-19 containment efforts

Community health workers (CHWs) have been the backbone of the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic in India. CHWs (such as ASHA workers, Anganwadi workers, and ANMs) have played a key role in preparing the national health system for the hyperbolic rise in COVID-19 cases and containing the spread of the virus at the ground level. Owing to their embeddedness in their communities, these CHWs can offer unique insight into our community-based COVID-19 responses. Despite this, the voices of health workers have been largely ignored in policy prescriptions and initiatives. In this short-term study, SRIJAN (Self Reliant Initiatives through Joint Action) aims to address this research gap. It covers the experiences and perspectives of CHWs fighting the COVID-19 pandemic in Bundelkhand, one of the poorest regions in rural India. In capturing the ground-reality in Bundelkhand, Stutilina Pal and Devanik Saha attempt to document the lessons learnt from the past year and incorporate them into future responses to health crises

Understanding the perspectives of frontline health workers (ASHAs, Anganwadi workers & ANMs) in Bundelkhand region to improve COVID-19 containment efforts

Community health workers (CHWs) have been the backbone of the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic in India. CHWs (such as ASHA workers, Anganwadi workers, and ANMs) have played a key role in preparing the national health system for the hyperbolic rise in COVID-19 cases and containing the spread of the virus at the ground level. Owing to their embeddedness in their communities, these CHWs can offer unique insight into our community-based COVID-19 responses. Despite this, the voices of health workers have been largely ignored in policy prescriptions and initiatives. In this short-term study, SRIJAN (Self Reliant Initiatives through Joint Action) aims to address this research gap. It covers the experiences and perspectives of CHWs fighting the COVID-19 pandemic in Bundelkhand, one of the poorest regions in rural India. In capturing the ground-reality in Bundelkhand, Stutilina Pal and Devanik Saha attempt to document the lessons learnt from the past year and incorporate them into future responses to health crises

Understanding the perspectives of frontline health workers (ASHAs, Anganwadi workers & ANMs) in Bundelkhand region to improve COVID-19 containment efforts

Community health workers (CHWs) have been the backbone of the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic in India. CHWs (such as ASHA workers, Anganwadi workers, and ANMs) have played a key role in preparing the national health system for the hyperbolic rise in COVID-19 cases and containing the spread of the virus at the ground level. Owing to their embeddedness in their communities, these CHWs can offer unique insight into our community-based COVID-19 responses. Despite this, the voices of health workers have been largely ignored in policy prescriptions and initiatives. In this short-term study, SRIJAN (Self Reliant Initiatives through Joint Action) aims to address this research gap. It covers the experiences and perspectives of CHWs fighting the COVID-19 pandemic in Bundelkhand, one of the poorest regions in rural India. In capturing the ground-reality in Bundelkhand, Stutilina Pal and Devanik Saha attempt to document the lessons learnt from the past year and incorporate them into future responses to health crises

Guidelines for the use and interpretation of assays for monitoring autophagy (4th edition)

In 2008, we published the first set of guidelines for standardizing research in autophagy. Since then, this topic has received increasing attention, and many scientists have entered the field. Our knowledge base and relevant new technologies have also been expanding. Thus, it is important to formulate on a regular basis updated guidelines for monitoring autophagy in different organisms. Despite numerous reviews, there continues to be confusion regarding acceptable methods to evaluate autophagy, especially in multicellular eukaryotes. Here, we present a set of guidelines for investigators to select and interpret methods to examine autophagy and related processes, and for reviewers to provide realistic and reasonable critiques of reports that are focused on these processes. These guidelines are not meant to be a dogmatic set of rules, because the appropriateness of any assay largely depends on the question being asked and the system being used. Moreover, no individual assay is perfect for every situation, calling for the use of multiple techniques to properly monitor autophagy in each experimental setting. Finally, several core components of the autophagy machinery have been implicated in distinct autophagic processes (canonical and noncanonical autophagy), implying that genetic approaches to block autophagy should rely on targeting two or more autophagy-related genes that ideally participate in distinct steps of the pathway. Along similar lines, because multiple proteins involved in autophagy also regulate other cellular pathways including apoptosis, not all of them can be used as a specific marker for bona fide autophagic responses. Here, we critically discuss current methods of assessing autophagy and the information they can, or cannot, provide. Our ultimate goal is to encourage intellectual and technical innovation in the field