2020|Vol
.
3|I
ssueNo.
43
NEWS BULLETIN
Coronavirus: Here is why the early
intervention of testing and diagnosis is
important
Everything you need to know about the types of test-taking
place to diagnose coronavirus.
27 October 2020 | Vol.3 |#43
A weekly publication from NIRT Library
3 மாதங் க க் ப் ன்
கேரானா ெதாற்
40
ஆ ரத் க் ம் ழ் ைறந் த
ணமைடந் ேதார் 90
சத தமாக உயர்
:
By: Lifestyle Desk | New Delhi | Updated: October 26, 2020 10:25:02 am
The pandemic is in full force
and there seems to be no end
to it. Currently, the country has
the second-highest number of
cases with more than 71 lakh
confirmed cases. Dr Niranjan
Patil, Head of Molecular
Biology at Metropolis Healthcare points out “On October 12th,
India tested over 10,73, 014 samples. There are over 1927 labs
approved for testing (private and government) across the
country. “
கடந்த 3 மாதங் க
ேதா
ம் கணக்
தல்
சத
What are the different tests present for testing COVID-19?
The RT PCR test “remains the gold standard for testing and
confirmation of the diagnosis of COVID 19. A nasal or a throat
swab sample is collected, the viral RNA is extracted from this
sample and amplified to detect SARS-CoV-2″ shares Dr Patil.
இந்
தத்
என்
க்
மத்
40 ஆ
ேநரத்
ல்
ரத்
ய
ல்
சத
24
தாக 36 ஆ
கேரானா
ஆளா
ள் ளனர். இதன்
Continued in page no.3
.
90
ள் ள
ைற
ள் ள .
கடந்த
ேபர்
ம்
தம்
காதாரத்
த்
க்
ைறந்த
ம் ேமல் உயர்ந்
அைமச்சகம் ெதரி
யா
ன் நாள்
ம் கேரானா
ைறயாகக்
ணமைடந்ேதார்
In order to debunk a few myths and answer some questions, Dr
Patil explains the kind of different tests being done in the country
to diagnose COVID-19 and its accuracy. Take a look below.
ப்
டப் ப
ைவரஸ் ெதாற்
ழ்
க்
மணி
ரத்
ெதாற்
470
க்
லம் …..
Another test is the TrueNAT test which works just like
the RT PCR. Dr Patil shares it has been used
extensively for HIV and Tuberculosis testing. “A
confirmatory test is done if your TrueNAT test
comes positive. However, if TrueNAT is negative,
then no further tests are needed to rule out
infection: says Dr Patil.
Lastly, rapid antigen tests are also being used in
containment zones and at hospitals. “People
testing positive with a rapid antigen test are
immediately isolated. If the test is negative, a
follow-up RT PCR is done to rule out infection” says
Dr Patil.
Two clinical trials initiated to
assess
efficacy
of
short
treatments for MDR-TB
The trials will run in Pune and Mumbai; to enroll
220 patients by end of 2021
By: Express News Service | Pune | October 22,
2020 9:11:12 pm
Some important points to remember when getting
yourself tested for COVID-19
Dr Patil points out some of the things one needs to
remember if you show symptoms of COVID19.
Your test will come positive during the active
phase of infection when you get the RT PCR test
since it is a highly sensitive test. Not only that, “It is
not possible for someone to have a normal cold
and cough and be tested positive for COVID 19.
A person who has been exposed to the virus, if
tested during the infectious stage will test positive”
says Dr Patil.
Secondly. understand that testing goes beyond
diagnosing whether you have a virus or not if one
is exposed to this little-known virus, remember it is
a critical piece of health information for future
health and well-being of not only yourself but the
society.
Lastly, Dr Patil says, “remember if you test positive,
the lab will notify the concerned public health
department. Testing positive is not scary but will
help you take important steps for your own health
and well-being apart from keeping your family
safe especially if you have elders and members in
the family who may have other conditions that
put them at risk if they are exposed to COVID 19.”
The endTB trials will run at two sites in Maharashtra – Pune
and Mumbai.
Two major clinical trials have been initiated with
an aim to generate clinical evidence on the
safety and efficacy of novel, short and all-oral
regimens for strains of tuberculosis (TB) that are
most difficult to treat.
These trials have been initiated by the Indian
Council of Medical Research (ICMR) – National
AIDS Research Institute (NARI), Department of
Health Service, Government of Maharashtra, and
Doctors without Borders/Medecins Sans Frontieres
(MSF).
The trials are part of a UNITAID-funded
transformative (multi-country) project called
endTB, which aims to speed up and expand
access to better treatment for drug-resistant forms
of TB, said Dr Samiran Panda, head of
epidemiology and communicable diseases at
ICMR, and the coordinating principal investigator
of the endTB trials. The first patient in India (500th in
the multi-country trial) was enrolled at Aundh
Chest Hospital, Pune, on Wednesday.
The endTB trials will run at two sites in Maharashtra
– Pune and Mumbai. Aundh Chest Hospital is the
first trial site to be activated in the country.
Approximately 220 patients are expected to be
enrolled at both sites by the end of 2021, by a
team of over 30 medical and paramedical staff,
working under joint coordination of NARI and MSF.
At least 100 people will be enrolled at Aundh
Chest Hospital, said Dr Sandip Patil, NARI scientists
and principal investigator at the hospital.
India accounts for 27 per cent of the 10 million TB
cases globally, of which approximately 1,30,000
are multi-drug-resistant (MDR-TB). The current
treatment for this has a duration of 18-24 months
for most patients. During treatment, patients ingest
more than 14,000 pills and, in some cases, have to
endure painful injections every day for six to eight
months. These injections have side-effects
including acute psychosis and permanent
deafness.
Most Indian MDR-TB patients prefer private
practitioners, and often find the treatment
expensive, leading to interruptions in the same.
The two clinical trials, namely endTB and endTB-Q,
will use new generation TB drugs – bedaquiline
and delamanid – to find radically shorter (six to
nine months) ways of treatment, which are more
tolerable for patients and are injection-free.
“These drugs represent a unique opportunity to
improve MDR-TB treatment,” Dr Panda said.
“They’ve shown promising results when added to
the standard and long MDR-TB treatment.
However, we know little about how to optimise
their use in complex cases. Without further
research, we’re only scratching the surface, and
patients will continue to suffer.”
“Adding India, which has a high burden of TB
patients, to the multi-country trial was a crucial
step in helping build robust evidence about the
best therapeutic options for patients that are the
hardest to treat,” said Dr Stobdan Kalon, medical
coordinator, MSF, India. “With its support to public
healthcare, MSF remains committed to offer
better treatment to all MDR-TB patients, bringing
innovation through research and contributing to
India’s goal to eliminate TB by 2025.”
Continued from page no.1
…..ஒட்
ெமாத்த பா
429 ஆக அ
ன் நாள் ேதா
ஆளா
பவர்கள்
ல்
நம்
79 லட்சத்
எண்ணிக்ைக
தல்
ரத்
க்
ம்
ஆக உயர்ந்
கேரானா
அளிக்
சத
ைறந்
ம்
ேபர்
ரிழப்
அ
கரித்
சத
உ
ஒ
24
ேப
த
ம் ,
ழகத்
ேவார்
857 ஆகக்
பா
ப்
எண்ணிக்ைக
ல்
7.88
எண்ணிக்ைக
ைறந்
ல் கேரானா ைவரஸால்
ரிழந்தனர்.
லட்சத்
ைறந்
மணி
19 ஆ
ல் 32 ேப
சத் ஸ்கரில் 43 ேப
ஒட்
ெமாத்த
ரத்
502 ஆக
ல் உ
ரிழப்
1.50
ள் ள .
ேநரத்
ல் 84 ேப
ேமற்
7
ள் ள .
ள் ள . கேரானா
மகாராஷ் ரா
ரத்
ெமாத்த
ேவார்
ழ்
தமாகக்
கடந்த
70 ஆக
தம் 90.62
ள் ள .
கடந்த 24 மணி ேநரத்
உ
ரத்
நாளாக கேரானா ைவரஸால்
ெப
க்
25 ஆ
ேவார்
5-வ
ச்ைச
488
ஆ
ச்ைச ெப
ஒட்
ெப
தமாகக்
லட்சத்
ல்
ள் ள .
ள் ள .
ெதாடர்ந்
வைக
ணமைடந்ேதார் சத
ல் தற் ேபா
ச்ைச
ம்
ள் ள .
ணமைடந்ேதார்
எண்ணிக்ைக 6 லட்சத்
ைறந்
ழ் சரிந்
ந்
ள் ள .
ப்
க்
எண்ணிக்ைக 72 லட்சத்
உயர்ந்
க்
தாக ேநாய் த்ெதாற்
க்ைக
கேரானா
ரத்
46ஆ
ள் ள . 3 மாதங் க
ம்
ைறயாக 40 ஆ
இ
ப்
கரித்
ல்
வங் கத்
ம் , ெடல்
ம் உ
அ
கபட்சமாக
ம் , கர்நாடகா
ல்
ல் 42
ேப
ம் ,
ல் 54 ேப
ம் ,
59
ரிழந்தனர்.
NIRT Library News Bulletin
3
ஐ
எம் ஆர்
அ
க்ைக
ன்ப ,
நாட் ல் 10 ேகா ேய 44 லட்சத்
மா
ரிகள் பரிேசா
மட்
ம் 9 லட்சத்
க்கப்பட்டன. இ
58 ஆ
பரிேசா
க்கப் பட்டன.
இவ் வா
மத்
ெதரி
த்
ய
20 ஆ
ரத்
காதாரத்
இ
வைர
ரத்
894
ல் ேநற்
116 மா
ரிகள்
ைற அைமச்சகம்
ள் ள .
Vaccine storage issues could
leave three billion people
without access
Poor people around the world who were among
the hardest hit by the virus pandemic are also
likely to be the last to recover from it.
By: AP | Burkina Faso | October 19, 2020 2:38:12
pm
The press release did not specify as to how long the human
trials are likely to take and by when the vaccine would be
ready for use. (AP/Representational)
The chain breaks here, in a tiny medical clinic in
safe. But despite enormous strides in equipping
developing countries to maintain the vaccine
“cold chain,” nearly 3 billion of the world’s 7.8
billion people live where temperature-controlled
storage is insufficient for an immunization
campaign to bring COVID-19 under control.
The result: Poor people around the world who
were among the hardest hit by the
virus pandemic are also likely to be the last to
recover from it.
The vaccine cold chain hurdle is just the latest
disparity of the pandemic weighted against the
poor, who more often live and work in crowded
conditions that allow the virus to spread, have little
access to medical oxygen that is vital to COVID19 treatment, and whose health systems lack labs,
supplies or technicians to carry out large-scale
testing.
Maintaining the cold chain for coronavirus
vaccines won’t be easy even in the richest of
countries, especially when it comes to those that
require ultracold temperatures of around minus 70
degrees Celsius (minus 94 F). Investment in
infrastructure and cooling technology lags behind
the high-speed leap that vaccine development
has taken this year due to the virus.
With the pandemic now in its eighth month,
logistics experts warn that vast parts of the world
lack the refrigeration to administer an effective
vaccination program. This includes most of
Central Asia, much of India and southeast Asia,
Latin America except for the largest countries,
and all but a tiny corner of Africa.
Burkina Faso that went nearly a year without a
working refrigerator.
The medical clinic outside Burkina Faso’s capital,
a dirt-streaked building that serves a population of
11,000, is a microcosm of the obstacles.
From factory to syringe, the world’s most
promising coronavirus vaccine candidates need
non-stop sterile refrigeration to stay potent and
After its refrigerator broke last fall, the clinic could
no longer keep vaccines against tetanus, yellow
fever, tuberculosis and other common diseases on
NIRT Library News Bulletin
4
site, nurse Julienne Zoungrana said. Staff instead
used motorbikes to fetch vials in insulated carriers
from a hospital in Ouagadougou, making a 40minute round-trip drive on a narrow road that
varies between dirt, gravel and pavement.
A mother of two who visits the Gampela clinic says
she thinks a coronavirus inoculation programme
will be challenging in her part of the world. Adama
Tapsoba, 24, walks four hours under scorching sun
to get her baby his routine immunizations and
often waits hours more to see a doctor. A week
earlier, her 5-month-old son had missed a
scheduled shot because Tapsoba’s daughter was
sick and she could only bring one child on foot.
“It will be hard to get a (COIVD-19) vaccine,”
Tapsoba said, bouncing her 5-month-old son on
her lap outside the clinic. “People will have to wait
at the hospital, and they might leave without
getting it.” To uphold the cold chain in developing
nations, international organisations have overseen
the installation of tens of thousands of solarpowered vaccine refrigerators.
Keeping vaccines at stable temperatures from the
time they are made until they are given to patients
also requires mobile refrigeration, reliable
electricity, sound roads and, above all, advance
planning.
For poor countries like Burkina Faso, the best
chance of receiving a coronavirus vaccine is
through the Covax initiative, led by the World
Health Organization and the Gavi vaccine
alliance. The goal of Covax is to place orders for
multiple promising vaccine candidates and to
allocate the successful ones equitably.
tarmacs or stolen and traded on the black
market.
Currently, 42 coronavirus vaccine candidates are
in clinical trials and another 151 are in pre-clinical
evaluation, according to WHO. The ones most
likely to end up in the Covax mix must be stored at
2 to 8 degrees Celsius (25-46 F).
A Pfizer candidate is among the ones in
advanced testing requiring storage at ultracold
temperatures. The company, which has designed
a special carrying case for its vaccine, has
expressed interest in Covax and signed contracts
with the United States, Europe and Japan.
Medical freezers that go down to minus 70
degrees Celsius are rare even in U.S. and
European hospitals. Many experts believe the
West African countries that suffered through a
2014-16 Ebola outbreak may be the best
positioned, because a vaccine against that virus
also requires ultracold storage.
For more than two-thirds of the world, however,
the advanced technology is nowhere on the
horizon, according to a study by German logistics
company DHL. Meanwhile, billions of people are
in countries that don’t have the necessary
infrastructure to maintain the cold chain for either
existing
vaccines
or
more
conventional
coronavirus candidates, the study said.
Opportunities for vaccines to be lost expand the
farther a vaccine travels. DHL estimated that
15,000 cargo flights would be required to
vaccinate the entire planet against COVID-19,
stretching global capacity for aircraft and
potentially supplies of materials such as dry ice.
The United Nations’ children’s agency, UNICEF,
began laying the global distribution groundwork
months ago, in Copenhagen. At the world’s
largest humanitarian aid warehouse, logistics staff
are trying to foresee shortages by learning from
the past, especially the spring chaos surrounding
global shortages of masks and other protective
gear that were commandeered off airport
NIRT Library News Bulletin
5
Covid-19 testing is free. Here’s a look at how much
the tests cost in states across India:
How much do Covid-19 tests
cost in India? A state-wise
breakup
The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR)
has left it to state governments to decide the
cost of Covid-19 tests. In most government
facilities, Covid-19 testing is free. Here's a look
at how much the tests cost in states across India
By: Express Web Desk | New Delhi | October 27, 2020
1:25:43 pm
A medical worker collects a sample to test for Covid-19 in
New Delhi. (Express Photo: Abhinav Saha)
The Maharashtra government has further slashed
the prices of Covid-19 tests, which will now cost
less than Rs 1,000. For the fourth time, the Uddhav
Thackeray-led government Monday reduced
rates, which have now seen a four-fold decrease
since March when tests were priced at around Rs
4,500.
The real-time polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR)
test now costs Rs 980 for anyone who walks into a
laboratory, Rs 1,400 for samples collected
from Covid-19 care
centres,
hospitals,
or
dispensaries, and Rs 1,800 if the swab is collected
from home.
The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR)
has left it to state governments to decide the cost
of Covid-19 tests. In most government facilities,
In an order dated October 16, the Karnataka
government fixed the rates for Covid-19 tests at Rs
800 for a government referred RT-PCR sample to a
private lab; Rs 1,200 for privately given samples to
private labs; and Rs 1,600 for samples collected at
home and given to private labs. The government
said the ceiling rates fixed included screening and
confirmatory tests, as well as the cost of personal
protective equipment (PPE) kits.
Kerala
The Kerala government has reduced rates of RTPCR (open) tests to Rs 2,100. It was earlier Rs 2,750.
The GeneXpert tests have been revised to Rs 2,500
from the previous Rs 3,000. Tru-nat, which used to
be Rs 3,000, is now Rs 2,100. Antigen tests remain
the same at Rs 625.
Andhra Pradesh
In July, the Andhra Pradesh government fixed the
price of Covid-19 tests for samples tested at both
government and private clinics. The rapid antigen
test at private labs costs not more than Rs 750,
including the kit, PPR and manpower costs.
The sample of patients who test negative but are
symptomatic have to be sent to tied-up VRDL
Labs for retesting by a RT-PCR machine. In such a
case, the patient should not be charged more
than Rs 2,800 per sample.
Telangana
The Telangana government has capped RT-PCR
tests for private centres at Rs 2,200 for samples
collected at labs or hospitals. Samples collected
from home are Rs 2,800.
West Bengal
The West Bengal government, in a “puja gift” in
early October, reduced the price of Covid-19 tests
in the private sector from Rs 2,250 to Rs 1,500.
Assam
NIRT Library News Bulletin
6
Covid-19 testing in all government facilities is free.
However, since September, the government has
introduced an option of paid RT-PCR tests in
Sarusajai Stadium in Guwahati and certain
government medical colleges for those who want
their test results on an urgent basis i.e., within the
time-frame of 24 hours. The rate is fixed at Rs 2,200
per test, but authorities said it is likely to go down.
For those who prefer results on a non-urgent basis,
testing remains free.
Meghalaya
The Meghalaya government withdrew free testing
facilities from October 16. Currently, the Rapid
Antigen Test costs Rs 500 and RT-PCR and Tru-NAT
tests are pegged at Rs 3,200. However, the fees
are applicable only on case to case basis — BPL
families are exempt as are high-risk contacts of
those who tested positive and those in
containment zones.
Gujarat
The Gujarat government in September slashed
the rates of RT-PCR tests conducted by private
laboratories by Rs. 1,000. The charges currently are
Rs 1,500, down from Rs 2,500. Similarly, the charges
for getting the samples for the test collected at
home by laboratory technicians have been fixed
at Rs 2,000 which were Rs 3,000 till date.
The government is encouraging people to take
the Rapid Antigen Test (RAT) free of cost at stations
set up across the state.
Rajasthan
In June, the Rajasthan government had fixed limits
to the extent to which private laboratories and
hospitals in the state could charge patients for
Covid-19 tests along with treatment for the
disease. According to that notification, the limit at
private laboratories was Rs 2,200.
Tamil Nadu
The cost of an RT-PCR test in Tamil Nadu is Rs 1,500
for the beneficiaries of the Chief Minister’s
Comprehensive Health Insurance Scheme. It is Rs
2,000 for non-beneficiaries, and an additional
amount of Rs 500 will be charged for both the
beneficiaries and non-beneficiaries for sample
collection at doorstep.
Mask sampling can help detect
tuberculosis in kids: Study
Sumitra Debroy TNN | Oct 26, 2020, 07.49 AM IST
MUMBAI: In an interesting finding that could pave
the way for simpler and non-invasive ways of
detecting tuberculosis (TB) in children, a citybased research organisation has found that the
bacteria can be detected from the respiratory
aerosols collected on masks. Through mask
sampling, experts from the Foundation for Medical
Research (FMR) could pick up tuberculosis bacilli
in nine of the ten studied samples.
The study, presented at the virtually held 51st
Union World Conference on Thursday, garnered
much interest as sampling remains one of the
major challenges in detecting paediatric
tuberculosis. Obtaining sputum samples from
children is often difficult due to which doctors
have to rely on more invasive ways like collecting
gastric lavage or bronchoalveolar lavage, which
involves inserting a tube to collect contents from
the stomach and lungs respectively.
The pilot study by FMR was carried out on 10
children who were made to wear N-95 masks
containing a gelatin membrane (used to capture
airborne microbes) for 10 minutes during which
they were asked to read, recite, talk, cough and
take tidal breaths 20 times to collect exhaled
aerosols in the mask. The researchers then took out
the membrane attached to the mask and
processed it for isolation of TB RNA and looked for
TB specific genes through the quantitative
polymerase chain reaction (QT-PCR) test. Children
NIRT Library News Bulletin
7
who already had a microbiologically confirmed
diagnosis of TB were selected for the study.
"Through mask sampling, we could pick up TB in
nine out of 10 samples, hence showing that it
could be developed as a reliable approach," said
Kalpana Sriraman, researcher from FMR. Children
account for 10% of TB burden, but less than 7% are
notified. "There is a huge detection gap owing to
limitations in diagnosis," she added.
Infectious disease expert Dr Tanu Singhal, who
treats paediatric tuberculosis cases, said that
there was a need for simpler, reliable tests for
children that will work in real world settings.
"Among newer techniques, stool detection is
coming up, but the sensitivity is not as good as
gastric lavage or nasopharyngeal. Many centres
also rely on induced sputum tests but that needs
a negative pressure room," Dr Singhal said.
However, FMR researchers also found that the
Genexpert test that is widely used for TB detection
didn't have much success in picking up the
bacteria from mask samples. It could only detect
one of the 10 cases, whereas RT-PCR could find TB
in nine samples. "But RT-PCR is resource intensive
and has scalability issues unlike Genexpert," said
Dr Nerges Mistry, director of FMR, adding that the
institute will now work towards making mask
sampling more viable for TB detection.
Clinical trials of new antituberculosis drugs start in Pune;
Mumbai soon
TNN | Oct 22, 2020, 04.59 AM IST
MUMBAI: A clinical trial testing combination of
latest anti-tuberculosis drugs Bedaquiline and
Delmanid for drug-resistant forms of TB started with
recruitment of a patient in Aundh, Pune, on
Wednesday. Mumbai’s leg may start soon.
Bedaquiline and Delmanid are only available
through the government TB control programme.
The trial is important for India, which accounts for
27% of 10 million TB cases globally, of which an
estimated 1.3 lakh are multidrug-resistant (MDRTB). In 2012, the emergence in Mumbai of TB
resistant to known medication set off a global
alarm, leading to development of these
medications.
The trial is being organized by Indian Council for
Medical Research’s National AIDS Research
Institute, Maharashtra public health department
and international NGO Médecins Sans Frontières
(MSF). Around 220 patients are expected to be
enrolled in trials at two sites by 2021-end by over
30 medical and paramedical staff, working under
joint coordination of NARI and MSF, MSF said. MSF
India medical coordinator Dr Stobdan Kalon said
adding India to multi-country trials was crucial to
gather evidence about “best therapeutic options
for hardest-to-treat TB patients from a high TB
burden country’’.
Meanwhile, in a research paper presented at the
ongoing 51st Union World Conference on Lung
Health on Wednesday, a doctor from MSF India’s
Mumbai office spoke about “encouraging’’
results of the Bedaquiline-Delamanid combination
of a group of 17 drug-resistant extra-pulmonary TB
patients at its Govandi treatment centre. Dr
Himani Mongia said the combination’s efficacy
and safety was tested between April 2016 and
October 2019. Of 17 patients, 41% had extremely
drugresistant TB, while 47% were in pre-XDR stage.
“Out of them, 70.5% have successfully completed
treatment and 11% continue,’’ she said. MSF will
be part of another trial too. Both trials are part of
a UNITAID-funded transformative (multi-country)
project, endTB, to speed up and expand access
to better treatment for drug-resistant forms of TB.
At present, MDR-TB treatment extends from 18 to
NIRT Library News Bulletin
8
24 months and patients have to ingest over 14,000
pills and take painful daily injections for six-eight
months, which have side effects such as acute
psychosis and permanent deafness. The clinical
trials, (i) endTB & (ii) endTB-Q, will use Bedaquiline
and Delamanid to find radically shorter (6 or 9
months), more tolerable, injection-free treatments
for MDR-TB. The endTB trial, with 750 patients, will
test an oral, nine-month regimen.
Wadhwani Institute of AI testing
tool to detect Covid-19 through
cough patterns
Anandi Chandrashekhar | 27 October, 2020, 03:16 PM
IST
Synopsis The idea behind the initiative is to help health
care and civic authorities speed up testing by filtering out
patients with Covid-19-like symptoms but without the
infection.
Mumbai: Wadhwani Institute for Artificial
Intelligence has built a tool to detect Covid-19
among people through analysis of cough sound
patterns, which it says could potentially be a low
cost solution to mass screening in remote corners
of the country.
The tool could also be tweaked to analyse
through cough the severity or progress made by
patients of diseases such as tuberculosis.
The organisation backed by the Bill and Melinda
Gates Foundation has been testing the articial
intelligence based tool in Bihar and Odisha to
detect whether individuals are COVID positive by
studying their cough.
Individuals at clinics cough into a phone with an
app that studies the sound signals of the cough
and determines whether the person is potentially
COVID positive.
The larger motivation behind the use of AI for
detection is to make it easier and accessible for
larger sects of people, said said Padmanabhan
Anandan, the Chief Executive Oicer of Wadhwani
Institute for Articial Intelligence.
“The primary healthcare system in India is severely
stretched…we realised that this is a place where
AI can help,” he said.
The organisation said on Wednesday that it had
secured a provisional US patent for its AI tool. Its
usage is currently only focussed on clinics and not
in homes because of the need of specic
conditions to be followed while conducting the
test and to avoid false positives.
“the long-term plan (is to extend to other
diseases)…. One of the reasons we did this is we
thought it would be useful for other infectious
diseases and TB. The algorithm will be dierent, but
the experience of trying to do this with cough will
I think set us up in trying to do this for TB and other
issues,”
The idea behind the initiative is to help health care
and civic authorities speed up testing by ltering
out patients with Covid-19-like symptoms but
without the infection. The organisation partnered
with Norway India Partnership Initiative (NIPI),
Doctors for you (DFY), AIIMS Jodhpur, Municipal
Corporation of Greater Mumbai (MCGM) to
collect data from 3,621 individuals across 4 states
including
Bihar,
Odisha,
Rajasthan
and
Maharashtra to create a large dataset of cough
sounds.
It also used open-source non-Covid cough
datasets to collect 31,909 sound segments. Of
these 27,116 sounds were noncough respiratory
sounds such as wheezes, crackles, breathing or
human speech, and the remaining 4,793 were
cough sounds.
NIRT Library News Bulletin
9
phase of Covid in March, but health oicials said
the services are now inching back to normalcy.
Masks for Covid-19 pandemic
may
end
up
eliminating
tuberculosis by 2025 target
27 October, 2020, 03:32 PM IST
Synopsis “If masks become routine in India, just like they
are in Japan, then we could well meet our target of
eliminating TB by 2025,” said pulmonologist Dr Sanjeev
Mehta.
(This story originally appeared in on Aug 27, 2020)
MUMBAI: The simple face mask — mandatory in
the ght against the Covid-19 pandemic — may
just help India’s ght against one of the oldest
pestilence: tuberculosis.
“If masks become routine in India, just like they are
in Japan, then we could well meet our target of
eliminating TB by 2025,” said pulmonologist Dr
Sanjeev Mehta.
The World Health Organisation has set a deadline
of 2030 to eliminate TB, but the Indian government
announced an earlier deadline of 2025.
A private sector doctor said there are fewer new
cases because of the lower risk of transmission.
“People are staying home or moving out with
masks, resulting in a lower risk of transmission.
Moreover, families are now likely to pay attention
to a cough that lasts more than two weeks and
seek tests and scans that will detect TB early,” he
said.
A senior Brihan mumbai Municipal Corporation
official associated with the TB programme refused
to comment on Covid’s impact on TB detection
and treatment. The oicial said that as both the
diseases spread via droplets, the use of masks
should benet the TB drive as well. “But we haven’t
had time to study Covid’s impact on TB,” the oicial
added.
Compared to the Covid-spreading coronavirus,
the tuberculosis mycobacterium is big. “The TB
bacillus spreads through droplet released when a
person coughs or sneezes. The microbe travels at
the speed of a Ferrari across the room, but even a
handkerchief (as against face masks that have
tinier pores and have two- to three-ply material)
can stop it instantly,” said Dr Lalit Anande, medical
supervisor of a BMC-run TB hospital.
As India is home to 25% of all TB patients in the
world, public health experts felt the 2025 deadline
was ambitious. “But if we continue using masks
and remember to follow cough etiquette, the
deadline no longer seems ambitious,” added Dr.
Mehta.
TB has been one of the most discussed topics
during the pandemic because of the “protection”
provided by the TB vaccine (BCG) against the
novel coronavirus. TB patients, though, have
suered due to lack of medicines and the diiculty
in travelling to treatment centres during the
lockdown. TB detection rates dropped in the early
NIRT Library News Bulletin
10
the high-speed leap that vaccine development
has taken this year due to the virus.
Vaccine storage issues could
leave 3 billion people without
access
27 October, 2020, 03:41 PM IST
Synopsis From factory to syringe, the world's most
promising coronavirus vaccine candidates need non-stop
sterile refrigeration to stay potent and safe.
GAMPELA, BURKINA FASO: The chain breaks here,
in a tiny medical clinic in Burkina Faso that went
nearly a year without a working refrigerator.
From factory to syringe, the world's most promising
coronavirus vaccine candidates need non-stop
sterile refrigeration to stay potent and safe. But
despite enormous strides in equipping developing
countries to maintain the vaccine ``cold chain,''
nearly 3 billion of the world's 7.8 billion people live
where temperature controlled storage is
insufficient for an immunization campaign to bring
COVID19 under control.
The result: Poor people around the world who
were among the hardest hit by the virus pandemic
are also likely to be the last to recover from it.
The vaccine cold chain hurdle is just the latest
disparity of the pandemic weighted against the
poor, who more often live and work in crowded
conditions that allow the virus to spread, have little
access to medical oxygen that is vital to COVID19 treatment, and whose health systems lack labs,
supplies or technicians to carry out large-scale
testing.
Maintaining the cold chain for coronavirus
vaccines won't be easy even in the richest of
countries, especially when it comes to those that
require ultracold temperatures of around minus 70
degrees Celsius (minus 94 F). Investment in
infrastructure and cooling technology lags behind
With the pandemic now in its eighth month,
logistics experts warn that vast parts of the world
lack the refrigeration to administer an eective
vaccination program. This includes most of
Central Asia, much of India and southeast Asia,
Latin America except for the largest countries,
and all but a tiny corner of Africa.
The medical clinic outside Burkina Faso's capital, a
dirt-streaked building that serves a population of
11,000, is a microcosm of the obstacles.
After its refrigerator broke last fall, the clinic could
no longer keep vaccines against tetanus, yellow
fever, tuberculosis and other common diseases on
site, nurse Julienne Zoungrana said. Staff instead
used motorbikes to fetch vials in insulated carriers
from a hospital in Ouagadougou, making a 40minute round-trip drive on a narrow road that
varies between dirt, gravel and pavement.
A mother of two who visits the Gampela clinic says
she thinks a coronavirus inoculation program will
be challenging in her part of the world. Adama
Tapsoba, 24, walks four hours under scorching sun
to get her baby his routine immunizations and
often waits hours more to see a doctor. A week
earlier, her 5-month-old son had missed a
scheduled shot because Tapsoba's daughter was
sick and she could only bring one child on foot.
``It will be hard to get a (COIVD-19) vaccine,''
Tapsoba said, bouncing her 5-month-old son on
her lap outside the clinic. ``People will have to
wait at the hospital, and they might leave without
getting it.''
To uphold the cold chain in developing nations,
international organizations have overseen the
installation of tens of thousands of solar-powered
vaccine refrigerators. Keeping vaccines at stable
temperatures from the time they are made until
they are given to patients also requires mobile
NIRT Library News Bulletin
11
refrigeration, reliable electricity, sound roads and,
above all, advance planning.
For poor countries like Burkina Faso, the best
chance of receiving a coronavirus vaccine is
through the Covax initiative, led by the World
Health Organization and the Gavi vaccine
alliance. The goal of Covax is to place orders for
multiple promising vaccine candidates and to
allocate the successful ones equitably.
The United Nations' children's agency, UNICEF,
began laying the global distribution groundwork
months ago, in Copenhagen. At the world's
largest humanitarian aid warehouse, logistics sta
are trying to foresee shortages by learning from
the past, especially the spring chaos surrounding
global shortages of masks and other protective
gear that were commandeered o airport tarmacs
or stolen and traded on the black market.
Currently, 42 coronavirus vaccine candidates are
in clinical trials and another 151 are in pre-clinical
evaluation, according to WHO. The ones most
likely to end up in the Covax mix must be stored at
2 to 8 degrees Celsius (25-46 F).
A Pfizer candidate is among the ones in
advanced testing requiring storage at ultracold
temperatures. The company, which has designed
a special carrying case for its vaccine, has
expressed interest in Covax and signed contracts
with the United States, Europe and Japan.
Medical freezers that go down to minus 70
degrees Celsius are rare even in U.S. and
European hospitals. Many experts believe the
West African countries that suered through a 201416 Ebola outbreak may be the best positioned,
because a vaccine against that virus also requires
ultracold storage.
For more than two-thirds of the world, however,
the advanced technology is nowhere on the
horizon, according to a study by German logistics
company DHL. Meanwhile, billions of people are
in countries that don't have the necessary
infrastructure to maintain the cold chain for either
existing
vaccines
or
more
conventional
coronavirus candidates, the study said.
Opportunities for vaccines to be lost expand the
farther a vaccine travels. DHL estimated that
15,000 cargo ights would be required to
vaccinate the entire planet against COVID-19,
stretching global capacity for aircraft and
potentially supplies of materials such as dry ice.
``We need to find a bridge'' for every gap in the
cold chain, DHL chief commercial officer Katja
Busch said. ``We're talking about investments ... as
a society, this is something we have to do.''
Gavi and UNICEF worked before the pandemic to
supply much of Africa and Asia with refrigeration
for vaccines, fitting out 40,000 facilities since 2017.
UNICEF is now offering governments a checklist of
what they will need to maintain a vaccine supply
chain and asking them to develop a plan.
``The governments are in charge of what needs to
happen in the end,'' said Benjamin Schreiber, who
is among the directors of UNICEF's vaccination
program.
Cracks in the global cold chain start once
vaccines leave the factory. Container ships are
not equipped to refrigerate pharmaceutical
products with a limited shelf life. Shipping vaccines
by air costs a lot more, and air cargo traffic is only
now rebounding from pandemic-related border
closures.
Even when flights are cold and frequent enough,
air freight carries other potential hazards. WHO
estimates that as much as half of vaccines
globally are lost to wastage, sometimes due to
heat exposure or vials breaking while in transit.
With coronavirus vaccines, which will be one of
the world's most sought-after products, theft is also
a danger.
``They can't be left on a tarmac and fought over
because they would actually be spoiled and they
NIRT Library News Bulletin
12
would have no value _?or worse still, people
would still be trying to distribute them,'' said Glyn
Hughes, the global head of cargo for the
International Air Transport Association.
In countries such as India and Burkina Faso, a lack
of public transportation presents another obstacle
to getting citizens inoculated before vaccines go
bad.
Tinglong Dai, a Johns Hopkins University researcher
who specializes in health care logistics, said
creativity will be needed to keep the cold chain
intact while coronavirus vaccines are distributed
on a global scale. Gavi and UNICEF have
experimented with delivering vaccines by drone.
Indian officials have floated the idea of setting
aside part of the country's vast food storage
network for the coronavirus vaccines.
Dr. Aquinas Edassery, who runs two clinics in one
of India's poorest and least developed regions,
said patients must walk for hours to receive health
care. The trip on a single road that winds 86
kilometers (53 miles) over steep hills and washes
out for months at a time will pose an
insurmountable barrier for many residents of the
eastern district of Rayagada, Edassery said.
``If people can figure out how to transport ice
cream, they can transport vaccines,'' Dai said.
Temperature-sensitive labels that change color
when a vaccine is exposed to heat too long and
no longer safe to use, and live delivery tracking to
ensure vaccines reach their destinations as
intended also have allowed for progress in
delivering safe shots.
Yet chances for something to go wrong multiply
on the ground as vaccines are prepped to leave
national depots. Since the cold chain is so fragile,
logistics planning is crucial; syringes and disposal
boxes must be available as soon as vaccine
shipments arrive.
By the end of the year, UNICEF expects to have
520 million syringes pre-positioned for coronavirus
vaccines in the developing world and maps of
where the refrigeration needs are greatest ``to
ensure that these supplies arrive in countries by the
time the vaccines do,'' Executive Director
Henrietta Fore said.
The last vaccine requiring cold storage that India's
national program adopted was for rotavirus, a
stomach bug that typically affects babies and
young children. Dr. Gagandeep Kang, who led
the research for that vaccine, estimated that
India has about 30% less storage capacity than it
would need for a coronavirus vaccine.
As with most logistics, the last kilometer (mile) is the
hardest part of delivering a coronavirus vaccine
to the people who need it. In Latin America,
perhaps nowhere more than Venezuela provides
a glimpse into how the vaccine cold chain could
go dramatically o course.
When a blackout last year left much of the nation
in the dark for a week, doctors in several parts of
Venezuela reported losing stocks of vaccines. The
country's largest children's hospital had to discard
thousands of doses of vaccines for illnesses like
diphtheria, according to Dr. Huniades Urbina,
head of the Venezuelan Society of Childcare and
Pediatrics.
``We won't be able to halt either the coronavirus
or measles,'' Urbina said.
Preserving the cold chain has only grown more
difficult since then. Gas shortages limit the ability
to move vaccines quickly from one part of
Venezuela to another. Dry ice to keep vaccines
cool during transport is harder to find. And after
years of economic decline, there also are fewer
doctors and other professionals trained to keep
the chain intact.
``I'm not optimistic on how the vaccine would be
distributed in the inner states because there is no
infrastructure of any kind to guarantee delivery _
or if it gets delivered, guarantees the adequate
NIRT Library News Bulletin
13
preservation under cold conditions,'' Dr. Alberto
Paniz-Mondol, a Venezuelan pathologist, said.
Venezuela presents an extreme example, but a
coronavirus vaccine also is likely to test parts of
Latin America with more robust health care
systems. In Peru, private businesses that typically
transport sh and beef have offered their trucks,
though it remains unclear whether the Health
Ministry will accept.
Back in Burkina Faso, vaccination days became
an ordeal at the Gampela clinic when the
refrigerator went out, said Zoungrana, the nurse.
Sta members on hospital courier runs must buy fuel
they often can't aord and make a second trip to
and from the capital to return any unused doses.
For now, UNICEF is betting on 20-dose vials of
coronavirus vaccine and hoping that the amount
wasted will stay below 3% for closed vials and 15%
for open multi-dose vials that do not get used up,
according to Michelle Siedel, one of the U.N.
agency's cold chain experts.
If Burkina Faso were given 1 million doses of a
coronavirus vaccine today, the country wouldn't
be able to handle it, Jean-Claude Mubalama,
UNICEF's head of health and nutrition for the
African nation. ``If we had to vaccinate against
the coronavirus now, at this moment, it would be
impossible,'' he said.
``We're suffering,'' said Zoungrana, who was run o
the road on her motorbike just a few weeks ago.
Days after journalists from The Associated Press
visited the clinic this month, a long-awaited solar
refrigerator arrived. With technicians in short
supply, the clinic was waiting to be sure the
appliance would function properly before
stocking it with vaccines.
Nationwide, Burkina Faso is about 1,000 clinical
refrigerators short, and less than 40% of the health
facilities that conduct vaccinations have reliable
fridges, national vaccination director Issa
Ouedraogo said.
India achieves milestone of 10
crores COVID-19 sample testing
By eHealth Network | Posted on October 23, 2020
Multi-dose vials _ the equivalent of bulk storage for
vaccines _ can drastically reduce global
transportation costs. But once a vial is opened, its
shelf life counts down even faster; if too few
people show up for their jabs in time, whatever
remains in the larger vials must be discarded.
``It's really upsetting to have wastage like that. It'll
result in loss of lives and pain and suffering. It's a
waste of resources, '' said University of
Massachusetts at Amherst professor Anna
Nagurney, who studies supply chain logistics.
Indian Council of Medical Research [ICMR], the
apex body at the forefront of formulating COVID19 testing strategy in India has achieved the
NIRT Library News Bulletin
14
milestone of conducting 10 crores testing on 22nd
October 2020.
With average testing of more than 10 lakhs per
day in the last 17 days.Till now, 74000 tests per
million population have been conducted. India
has conducted the last five crores sample testing
in only 45 days. As on 8th September, 2020 India
had tested 5 Crores COVID-19 samples, and in less
than 50 days it has reached 10 crores mark on 23rd
October, 2020.This has been enabled by rapidly
increasing testing infrastructure and capacity
across the country.
ICMR has been enhancing COVID-19 testing
capability across the country by expanding and
diversifying testing capacity by leveraging
technology and facilitating innovation in
affordable diagnostic kits. Prof (Dr.) Balram
Bhargava, Director General, ICMR said, “We have
effectively responded to the evolving epidemic
through focused and collaborative efforts of the
Centre, State/UTs government. Exponential
increase in testing has led to early identification,
prompt isolation & effective treatment of Covid19 cases along with effective contact tracing.
dedicated government laboratories are 1122 and
private laboratories number stands at 867.
IIT Kharagpur’s low-cost COVID19 testing device gets ICMR
certification
By eHealth Network | Posted on October 22, 2020
The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR)
has approved a low-cost portable COVID-19
testing device designed by the Indian Institute of
Technology (IIT)-Kharagpur.
The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR)
has approved a low-cost portable COVID-19
testing device designed by the Indian Institute of
Technology (IIT)-Kharagpur.
These have eventually resulted in a sustained low
fatality rate.This testing milestone is testimony to
the fact that India has been successful in
implementing strategy of 5T approach “Test, Track,
Trace, Treat and use of Technology” efficiently,
which will enable us to contain the spread of the
pandemic.’’ Ramping up of testing facility across
India was at the core of increased testing per day.
Through our ardent efforts, it was ensured that a
specific testing platform is made available
addressing general testing (RT-PCR), Highthroughput testing (COBAS), testing at remotest
places
and
PHCs
(TrueNAT,
CBNAAT),in
containment areas (rapid antigen testing) and for
large number & migrant population testing
(pooled sample testing). The total number of
diagnostic laboratory has reach 1989. Of which
According to IIT-Kharagpur officials, ”COVIRAP” is
a cuboid-shaped portable testing device that
can deliver results in an hour, making it an
effective tool to scale up coronavirus screening in
peripheral and rural areas.
NIRT Library News Bulletin
15
“This innovation has made high-quality and
accurate COVID testing affordable for the
common people with a testing cost of around Rs
500 which can further be reduced through
government intervention. This machine can be
developed at a cost of less than Rs 10,000 with
minimal infrastructural requirement making the
technology affordable to common people. The
testing process in this new machine is completed
within one hour,” Union Education Minister
Ramesh Pokhriyal ‘Nishank’ was quoted saying by
PTI report.
He said the device would go on impacting the
lives of many in rural India as the device is portable
and can be operated on a very low energy
supply. Minimally trained rural youth can operate
this device.
According to VK Tewari, Director, IIT-Kharagpur,
“the innovation is set to replace PCR-based tests
to a large extent. While the Institute can produce
the testing kit up to a certain scale, patent
licensing
will
facilitate
commercialisation
opportunities for medical technology companies.
Any corporate or start-up can approach the
institute for technology licensing and commercial
scale of production”. According to the research
team, the number of tests per one-hour batch in a
single machine unit can be further increased to
much higher limits, for the purpose of testing on a
mass scale.
“The patented machine unit has not only been
proven to be robust during patient sample testing
but also extremely flexible and generic. This means
that other than COVID-19 testing, many other
tests, falling under the category of isothermal
nucleic acid-based tests (INAT), can be
performed in the same machine,” Suman
Chakraborty,
professor,
Department
of
Mechanical
Engineering
Department,
IITKharagpur said.
“This implies influenza, malaria, dengue, Japanese
encephalitis, tuberculosis and many other
infectious, as well as vector-borne diseases, can
be tested using the same machine. This will
virtually minimise the need for thermal cyclers or
real-time PCR machines, without sacrificing the
expected high standards of a molecular
diagnostic test,” Chakraborty said.
A shot at life: How India plans to
immunise all its children
India’s infant mortality rate is 39, which
means that an estimated 9.9 lakh babies die
within one year of birth, mostly from
preventable causes.
Sanchita Sharma | Updated: Dec 09, 2016, 13:55 IST
More than one in five deaths of children under five
in the world happen in India. More than half these
deaths are due to vaccine-preventable and
treatable infections, such as pneumonia,
diarrhoea and sepsis. If all children are
vaccinated, lakhs of lives would be saved each
year.
“India’s infant mortality rate is 39, which means
that an estimated 9.9 lakh babies die within one
year of birth, mostly from preventable causes,”
said Union Health Minister JP Nadda. “This is
unacceptable. We have to save these
newborns.”
To overcome its high child mortality rate, India has
added four new vaccines to its flagship universal
immunisation programme (UIP) and has
committed to providing free vaccines against 10
life-threatening diseases to 27 million children,
through more than 9 million immunisation sessions
each year.
NIRT Library News Bulletin
16
“India’s infant mortality rate is 39, which means
that an estimated 9.9 lakh babies die within one
year of birth, mostly from preventable causes.”
Unvaccinated children are three to six times at risk
of dying before their fifth birthday, which makes
vaccines the most cost-effective public health
intervention to prevent disease and death.
Immunisation has helped bring down the annual
mortality of children under five, from 3.3 million a
generation ago, to 1.3 million deaths –which is
17,000 deaths each day. The solution is obvious,
but gaps exist. India has the highest number of
unvaccinated children in the world, with 89 lakh
children not receiving all vaccines and 17 lakh not
getting vaccinated at all. Till 2014, only 65%
children were fully immunised, measured as
having been given three doses of the DPT or
pantavalent vaccine (against diphtheria, tetanus,
whooping cough, hepatitis B and haemophilus
influenza type b), till the age of 2.
Mission mode
Making immunisation a public health priority, the
NDA launched ‘Mission Indradhanush’ in
December 2014, in order to fully immunise 90% of
India’s 26 million children born each year, till the
age of five. Four new vaccines have been added,
including PCV vaccine, a vaccine against polio,
rotavirus vaccine against diarrhoea (rolled out in
Andhra, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and Odisha),
rubella against measles, and the pneumococcal
vaccine against pneumonia, which will be rolled
out in February 2017.
“Reaching children is not impossible. India did it for
polio and was certified polio free. India also
reached its maternal and neonatal tetanus
elimination targets in May 2015, well before the
target date of December, 2015.This is a target we
can reach ahead of deadline too,” Nadda said.
Centre asks 14 states to increase RTPCR tests, bring positivity rate below
5
The Centre stressed on the need to increase
the number of RT-PCR (reverse transcriptionpolymerase chain reaction) tests to identify
Covid patients in a bid to reduce TPR and
fatality rates.
Ranjan | Updated: Oct 27, 2020, 16:13 IST
The Union health ministry has asked 14 states to
control the Covid-19 pandemic by reducing the
test positivity rate (TPR) below 5% and keep a
close watch on ‘evolving situation’ in view of the
festive season.
Healthcare workers during a Covid-19 screening and swab
test of Film city staffs at Goregaon (E) in
Mumba.(Satyabrata Tripathy/HT Photo)
In a communication to these states having high
Covid numbers, the Centre stressed on the need
to increase the number of RT-PCR (reverse
transcription- polymerase chain reaction) tests to
identify Covid patients in a bid to reduce TPR and
fatality rates.
The Centre’s directive came during a review
meeting held with representatives of various states
through a video conferencing earlier this month.
NIRT Library News Bulletin
17
The Centre’s report containing challenges and
action plan for 14 states say , “The high caseload
districts including Hyderabad (Telangana),
Chennai & Salem (Tamil Nadu), Alwar & Kota
(Rajasthan),
Nagpur
(Maharashtra),
East
Godavari & Chittoor (Andhra Pradesh) and
Kamrup district (Assam) need high degree of
alertness to be maintained.”
which is a matter of concern. The testing has gone
down and the positivity rate has gone up.”
All the states were asked to have an intensive IEC
(information, education and communication)
campaign under a Jan-Andolan to create mass
awareness among people against Covid-19 and
plan, install and operationalize PSA (pressure
swing adsorption) oxygen generation plants in
government hospitals.
About Telangana, the report says, “As compared
to mid-September there is a reversal of testing
strategy from RT-PCR (90% in mid-September) to
RAT (rapid antigen test) (89% in October). If this is
due to data discrepancy the same needs to be
corrected with ICMR.”
“Delhi has seen a drop in number of tests. The split
of tests is heavily skewed towards antigen tests.
Delhi should follow the ICMR protocol and ramp
up testing by RT-PCR. Despite a decrease in
absolute number of deaths, Delhi needs to ensure
decline in fatality rate. It also needs to restart
monitoring of hospital wise fatalities,” the report
said.
In regard with Maharashtra which has the highest
Covid numbers, it said, “Though the average daily
new cases are showing a declining trend,
Maharashtra’s week on week average number of
tests done is declining. The state is also witnessing
a high positivity rate. The week on week case
fatality rate is also increasing which is an area of
concern.”
The report further says, “The death in the first 48
hours is very high among hospitalised patients. The
state needs to ensure effective surveillance for
early case detection and an ambulance system
that would promptly shift the patients to hospital.”
On Kerala which was once hailed as a role model
for its fight against the pandemic the report states,
“The weekly new cases have increased manifold
Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Chhattisgarh, Karnataka,
Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Rajasthan,
Telangana, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal were
asked to ramp up testing particularly through RTPCR.
The report warns Tamil Nadu stating that the state
is witnessing a migration in hotspot areas to newer
districts.
On infection and deaths among health care
workers (HCWs) the centre asked Chhattisgarh,
Karnataka, Odisha to work on it by training and retraining HCWs on infection, prevention and
control practices.
The report also said high death rate in the first 24
to 72 hours in the states like Madhya Pradesh (26%
of Covid deaths in first 24 hours), West Bengal (20%
of Covid deaths in first 24 hours) and Rajasthan
(25.6% of Covid deaths in first 24 hours) was an
issue of concern.
The report said these states with Andhra Pradesh
and Karnataka have a positivity rate of 12% or
more. Besides these states, Assam, Chhattisgarh,
Delhi, Odisha and Uttar Pradesh too were asked
to reduce the fatality rate among Covid patients.
Madhya Pradesh Health Commissioner Dr Sanjay
Goyal said, “We are working on the action plan
including PSA oxygen generation plants. The
situation is much under control in the state which
is far better than that in many other states. We are
NIRT Library News Bulletin
18
constantly working on strengthening our health
system.”
Principal secretary, department of Medical and
Health, Rajasthan Akhil Arora said, “Concerns
raised by GoI were suitably addressed. However,
the kind of information available with them had
certain gaps. We apprised them with the action
plan and steps taken by the state, the union
secretary and DG ICMR, appreciated five things
Rajasthan is practicing – pre-Covid suspect
treatment;
post-Covid
treatment;
overall
arrangement of oxygen; testing strategy and Jan
Andolan for awareness, which we started prior to
GoI.”
He said, “Rajasthan and Tamil Nadu are the only
two states, which are conducting 100% RT-PCR
tests. Our confirmation percentage is around 5%
as compared to the national average, which is
over 7%. Less than 10% of patients are dying within
24 hours due to Covid-19.”
Odisha health secretary Pradipta Mohapatra said,
“Currently Odisha has less than 3,000 patients in
hospitals and oxygen supply is not an issue.
Besides, since last 8 days Odisha has continued to
report less than 2,000 new Covid-19 cases bringing
down the daily positivity rate to 4%.”
Managing director of National Health Mission,
Odisha, Shalini Pandit, who is looking after the
Covid tests, however, did not comment on the
declining number of tests as well as RT-PCR tests.
As per Kerala health officials the test positivity rate
(TPR) is almost triple the national average (14.19%
against 5%) and in active caseload it is on third
spot. Officials said a Union health ministry expert
team that visited Kerala two weeks back was
satisfied with the state government’s initiatives.
(With inputs from Rajasthan, Odisha and Kerala
bureaux)
Covid-19:
MHA
extends
guidelines for re-opening till
November 30, most remain
unchanged
The latest guidelines also ask people to
exercise extreme caution and follow Prime
Minister Narendra Modi’s Jan Aandolan and
to fight the coronavirus pandemic.
Updated: Oct 27, 2020, 16:26 IST
Edited by Meenakshi Ray
A health worker takes a nasal swab sample at a Covid-19
testing center in Hyderabad, India. (AP)
The Union ministry of home affairs (MHA) on
Tuesday extended the guidelines for re-opening
the country, which were issued last month, till
November 30. There are no fresh changes and all
major activities have already been allowed but
strict lockdown will continue in containment
zones, it has said.
The latest guidelines also asked people to exercise
extreme caution and follow Prime Minister
Narendra Modi’s Jan Aandolan launched earlier
this month and to fight the coronavirus pandemic.
Here is a look at the re-opening guidelines:
NIRT Library News Bulletin
19
Re-opening of activities outside containment
zones
Almost all activities have been gradually opened
up in areas outside containment zones since the
first order on lockdown measures by the MHA on
March 24. While most activities have been
permitted, some involving large gatherings have
been allowed with some restrictions and subject
to the standard operating procedures (SOPs)
regarding health and safety precautions being
followed. These activities include Metro rail,
shopping malls, hotels, restaurants and hospitality
services, religious places, yoga and training
institutes, gymnasiums, cinemas, entertainment
park etc.
State governments and administrations of Union
territories have been permitted to make decisions
for their re-opening, based on the assessment of
the situation and subject to SOPs. These include
schools and coaching institutes and state and
private universities for research scholars allowing
gatherings above the limit of 100 etc.
Activities permitted but with certain restrictions
The MHA said that further decision regarding these
activities will be taken based on the assessment of
the situation.
International air travel of passengers as permitted
by MHA
Swimming pools being used for training of
sportspersons
Exhibitions halls for business to business (B2B)
purposes
Cinemas, theatres and multiplexes up to 50% of
their seating capacity
Social, academic, sports, entertainment, cultural,
religious,
political
functions
and
other
congregations, in closed spaces with a maximum
of 50% of the hall capacity and subject to a ceiling
of 200 people
Covid-19 appropriate behaviour
The MHA has already advised chief secretaries
and administrators of all states and Union territories
that they should endeavour to promote Covid-19
appropriate behaviour “extensively at the grassroot level and take measures to enforce the
wearing of masks, hand hygiene and social
distancing.”
“The essence behind graded re-opening and
progressive resumption of activities is to move
ahead. However, it does not mean the end of the
pandemic. There is a need to exercise abundant
caution by adopting COVID-19 appropriate
behaviour by every citizen in their daily routine,”
the MHA said in its guidelines.
“A ‘Jan Andolan’ was launched by the Prime
Minister, Shri Narendra Modi on 8th October 2020
on COVID-19 appropriate behaviour to follow
three mantras, namely: wear your mask properly;
wash your hands frequently; and maintain a safe
distance of 6 feet,” it added.
Directives for Covid-19 management
The national directives for Covid-19 management,
the MHA said, will continue to be followed
throughout the country, so as to enforce Covid-19
appropriate behaviour.
Strict enforcement of lockdown in containment
zones till November 30
Lockdown shall continue to be implemented
strictly in the containment zones till November 30
Containment zones shall be demarcated by
district authorities after taking into consideration
the guidelines of the Union health ministry with the
objective of effectively breaking the chain of
transmission. Strict containment measures will be
enforced in these containment zones and only
essential activities will be allowed.
NIRT Library News Bulletin
20
Within the containment zones, strict perimeter
control shall be maintained and only essential
activities allowed.
These containment zones will be notified on the
websites of the respective District Collectors and
by the States/ UTs and information will also be
shared with the health ministry.
States will not impose any local lockdown outside
containment zones. They will not impose any local
lockdown on the state, district, sub-division, city or
village level outside the containment zones
without prior consultation with the central
government.
No restriction on inter- and intra-state movement
There shall be no restriction on inter-state and
intra-state movement of persons and goods.
There is no separate permission, approval or epermit need for such movements.
Protection of vulnerable people
Vulnerable people or those above 65 years of
age, with co-morbidities, pregnant women, and
children below the age of 10 years, are advised to
stay at home, except for meeting essential
requirements and for health purposes.
Aarogya Setu
The use of Aarogya Setu mobile application will
continue to be encouraged, the MHA said.
In 2019 alone, an estimated 10 million people
worldwide got tuberculosis, a deadly bacterial
disease that usually affects the lungs. An
estimated quarter of the world’s population has a
TB infection. Most aren’t actively sick — yet.
People with TB have about a 5 to 15 percent risk
of getting ill. Still, the highly contagious disease
was one of the top 10 causes of death worldwide
last year and is the leading infectious killer
worldwide, according to the World Health
Organization, the United Nations’ public health
agency.
In a new report, WHO provides a global update
on the state of TB and the fight against the
disease, which is both preventable and curable.
The report paints a dire picture of a disease that
remains a public health crisis. Just eight countries
— India, Indonesia, China, the Philippines,
Pakistan, Nigeria, Bangladesh and South Africa —
account for two-thirds of the world’s TB cases. And
because many carriers of the disease are not yet
ill, it can go untreated until it’s too late.
Tuberculosis incidences are falling, the agency
says — between 2015 and 2019, cases were
reduced by about 9 percent. But that still falls short
of WHO’s targets.
The coronavirus pandemic is expected to make
things worse.
Large drops occurred in TB diagnoses between
January and June. Due to the economic effects
of the pandemic, WHO models predict that cases
could annually increase by more than 1 million in
the next five years if resources continue to be
diverted to covid-19, the disease caused by the
coronavirus.
Tuberculosis is a major worldwide threat and
the pandemic could make it worse, WHO says
By Erin Blakemore
Oct. 24, 2020 at 5:30 p.m. GMT+5:30
The stark report has positive news however.
Funding for TB prevention, diagnosis and
treatment has doubled since 2006, and seven
high-burden countries reached their death
reduction milestone. And people living with HIV
NIRT Library News Bulletin
21
are more likely than ever to be given preventive
treatment for tuberculosis, which is the leading
killer of people with HIV worldwide.
this tendency will be met with in the papers in this
issue.
So:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/tuberculosiscov
idstatisticswho/2020/10/22/fa3ea884-1475-11eb-bc1040b25382f1be_story.html
There are yet many points to be cleared up in
regard to tuberculosis, and it may be that some of
our present views as to its mode of infection may
have to be modified in some respects, but it can
safely be said that the papers in this issue fairly
represent the present consensus of opinion in
regard to it. The more hopeful views of the disease
are gaining ground and it is possible that in the
future more stress will be laid on constitutional and
environmental and less on the bacteriologic
factors in its etiology. If we are to accept the
statements and views of some modern writers as
to the prevalence of cured and latent or
quiescent phthisis we must admit that the bacillus
tuberculosis is not as dangerous an organism as it
has come to be believed by the public, and our
efforts directed to strengthen resistance must be
generally considered as of more importance than
those aimed at merely restricting the infection.
One thing seems reasonably certain; pulmonary
consumption is, at least locally, on the decrease.
This is shown by Dr. Hinsdale’s paper in this number,
in which he reports a decrease of the percentage
of deaths from pulmonary tuberculosis to all
deaths in the city of Philadelphia from 14 to 10 per
cent. in fifteen years. Other cities, such as Berlin,
where statistics are reliable, show a similar
decrease, and in spite of possible criticisms, it must
be admitted that the registrar-general’s statistics
for Great Britain give similar testimony. It should be
remembered in this connection that with a
decrease in the general death-rate there might
very easily be a proportionate increase in that
from consumption, with an actual decrease. But
both the actual and the relative mortality are
reduced.
JAMA Revisited
Tuberculosis
October 20, 2020
Article Information
JAMA. 2020;324(15):1575. doi:10.1001/jama.2019.13664
Originally Published
1900;35(16):1030.
October
20,
1900
| JAMA.
The present issue of THE JOURNAL is devoted mainly
to the subject of pulmonary tuberculosis, the one
disease that is just now foremost among subjects
of medical discussion. Probably nothing has stirred
up the medical profession at any time during the
past century as has Koch’s discovery of the
tubercle bacillus. The disease we have had always
with us and the suspicion of its communicability
was not new, but this scientific confirmation of the
facts and the practical deductions therefrom
have amply warranted enthusiasm. We know now
that tuberculosis, which is responsible for so large
a proportion of human mortality, is an infectious
disorder, and what is still more valuable
knowledge, that it can be recognized in its early
stages while still curable and that it is to a certain
extent preventable. It is natural that, under these
circumstances, enthusiasm should be aroused
and sometimes extravagance be indulged in
even by medical men in their estimation of the
dangers of infection. Very little, however, if any, of
There is much yet to do before consumption
ceases to be the “great white plague,” the one
pre-eminent scourge, but the outlook is now more
hopeful than ever before. The public has already
received rudimentary education on the subject—
a little one-sided perhaps in some regards, but
NIRT Library News Bulletin
22
nevertheless one on which to build a more
complete and perfect body of information. The
occasional,
somewhat
too
hysterical
manifestations of some of the antituberculosis
agitation are only a temporary phase of the
progress toward the desired end—the restriction if
not the eradication of the disease among men.
Section Editor: Jennifer Reiling, Assistant Editor.
Editor’s Note: JAMA Revisited is transcribed
verbatim from articles published previously, unless
otherwise noted
MACHINE LEARNING DISCOVERS
POTENTIAL NEW TUBERCULOSIS DRUGS
LATEST NEWS MACHINE LEARNING
by Puja Das October 25, 2020 0 comments
How is Machine Learning helping to develop TB
drugs?
Many biologists use machine learning (ML) as a
computational tool to analyze a massive amount
of data, helping them to recognise potential new
drugs. MIT researchers have now integrated a new
feature into these types of machine learning
algorithms, enhancing their prediction-making
ability.
Using this new tool allows computer models to
account for uncertainty in the data they are
testing, MIT researchers detected several
promising components that target a protein
required by the bacteria that cause tuberculosis
(TB).
Although computer scientists previously used this
technique, they have not taken off in biology. “It
could also prove useful in protein design and
many other fields of biology,” says the Simons
Professor of Mathematics and head of the
Computation and Biology group in MIT’s
Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence
Laboratory (CSAIL) Bonnie Berger.
“This method is part of a known subfield of
machine learning, but people have not brought it
to biology,” states Berger. “It is a paradigm shift
and is absolutely how biological exploration
should be done.”
Assistant Professor of biological engineering at MIT
and a member of the Ragon Institute of MGH, MIT,
and Harvard, Bryan Bryson and Berger are the
senior authors of the study that appears today in
Cell Systems. Brian Hie, an MIT graduate student, is
the paper’s lead author.
Better Predictions
ML is a type of computer modeling in which an
algorithm learns to predict based on data that it
has already seen. In the past few years, biologists
have begun machine learning to scour vast
databases of potential drug compounds to find
molecules that interact with specific targets.
The only limitation of this technique is that the
algorithms perform well when the data they’re
examining is similar to their training. Algorithms are
not significantly superior at evaluating molecules
that are very different from those they have
already seen.
The researchers applied a method called the
Gaussian process to assign uncertainty values to
the data that the algorithms are trained on to
overcome the obstacle. When the models are
analyzing the training data that way, they also
consider how reliable those predictions are.
For instance, if the data go into the model, it
predicts how strongly a particular molecule binds
to a target protein and the uncertainty of those
predictions. The model can use that information to
predict protein-target interactions that it hasn’t
seen before. This model also forecasts the
NIRT Library News Bulletin
23
certainty of its predictions. While analyzing new
data, the model’s predictions may have lower
certainty for molecules different from the training
data. This information can help researchers to
decide
which
molecules
to
analyse
experimentally.
Bryson says this study is the first to propose new
molecules that can target PknB and provide drug
developers with a good starting point to develop
drugs that target the kinase. “We’ve provided
them with some new leads beyond what has
been already published.”
Another advantage of this method is that
algorithm requires only a tiny amount of training
data. In the study, the MIT team trained the model
with a dataset of 72 small molecules and their
interactions with over 400 proteins called protein
kinases. After that, they could use this algorithm to
analyze roughly 11,000 small molecules which
they took from the ZINC database. It’s a publicly
available repository that consists of millions of
chemical compounds. Many of these molecules
were different from those in the training data.
MIT researchers also showed that they could use
this same type of machine learning to stimulate a
green fluorescent protein’s fluorescent output. It is
commonly used to label molecules inside living
cells. Berger is now using it to analyze mutations
that drive tumor development. “It could also be
used for other types of biological studies,” he says.
The researchers identified molecules using this
approach with powerful predicted binding
affinities for the protein kinases they put into the
model. These included three human kinases and
one kinase called PknB found in Mycobacterium
tuberculosis. This kinase is critical for the bacteria
to survive, but any frontline TB antibiotics do not
target it.
Pyrazinamide resistance and pncA mutations in
drug resistant Mycobacterium tuberculosis clinical
isolates from Myanmar
The researchers also used the same training data
to train a traditional ML algorithm that does not
integrate uncertainty and test the same 11,000
molecule library. Hie says, “The model gets horribly
confused without uncertainty, and it proposes
peculiar chemical structures as interacting with
the kinases.”
A Good Starting Point
Another significant element of this method is that
once the researchers get additional experimental
data, they can add it to the model and retain it,
further enhancing the predictions. Even a tiny
amount of data can help the model get better.
Hie says, “You don’t really need enormous
datasets on iteration. You can retrain the model
with maybe ten new examples, which a biologist
can quickly generate.”
Recent TB Articles
Available online 27 October 2020
Phyu Win Ei | Aye Su Mon | Mi Mi Htwe | Su Mon
Win | Kaythi Aye | Lai Lai San | Ni Ni Zaw | Wint
Wint Nyunt | Zaw Myint | Jong Seok Lee | Wah
Wah Aung
Investigating extradomiciliary transmission of
tuberculosis: An exploratory approach using social
network patterns of TB cases and controls and the
genotyping of Mycobacterium tuberculosis
Available online 24 October 2020
Suani T.R. Pinho | Susan M. Pereira | José G.V.
Miranda | Tonya A. Duarte | Joilda S. Nery | Maeli
G. de Oliveira | M. Yana G.S. Freitas | Naila A. De
Almeida | Fabio B. Moreira | Raoni B.C. Gomes |
Ligia Kerr | Carl Kendall | M. Gabriela M. Gomes
| Theolis C.B. Bessa | Roberto F.S. Andrade |
Mauricio L. Barreto
NIRT Library News Bulletin
24
Performance of GeneXpert ultra in the diagnosis
of Tuberculous Cervical lymphadenitis in formalin
fixed paraffin embedded tissues
Population
structure
of
multidrug-resistant
Mycobacterium tuberculosis clinical isolates in
Colombia
Available online 24 October 2020
Available online 17 October 2020
Emna Romdhane | Amira Arfaoui | Chaouki
Benabdessalem | Meriam Ksentini | Asma Ferjani
| Neira Dekhil | Rim Lahiani | Soumaya Bchiri |
Helmi Mardassi | Mohamed-Ridha Barbouche |
Ilhem Boutiba Ben Boubaker | Mamia Ben Salah |
Soumaya Rammeh
Juan Germán Rodríguez-Castillo | Claudia
Llerena | Lorena Argoty-Chamorro | Julio Guerra
| David Couvin | Nalin Rastogi | Martha Isabel
Murcia
Evaluation of genotype MTBDRplus V2 and
genotype MTBDRsl V2 for the diagnosis of
extrapulmonary tuberculosis in India
Available online 23 October 2020
Binit Kumar Singh | Rohini Sharma | Jigyasa
Chaubey | Nitin Gupta | Manish Soneja | Pankaj
Jorwal | Neeraj Nischal | Ashutosh Biswas |
Naveet Wig | Sanjay Sarin | Ranjani
Ramachandran
The immunological architecture of granulomatous
inflammation
in
central
nervous
system
tuberculosis
Available online 22 October 2020
S. Dan Zaharie | Daniel J. Franken | Martijn van
der Kuip | Sabine van Elsland | Bernadette S. de
Bakker | Jaco Hagoort | Sanna L. Roest | Carmen
S. van Dam | Carlie Timmers | Regan Solomons |
Ronald van Toorn | Mariana Kruger | A. Marceline
van Furth
Three promising antimycobacterial medicinal
plants reviewed as potential sources of drug hit
candidates
against
multidrug-resistant
tuberculosis
September 2020
Naasson Tuyiringire | Serawit Deyno | Anke
Weisheit | Casim Umba Tolo | Deusdedit Tusubira
| Jean-Pierre Munyampundu | Patrick Engeu
Ogwang | Claude Mambo Muvunyi | Yvan
Vander Heyden
A novel mycobacterial growth inhibition assay
employing live-cell imaging of virulent M.
tuberculosis and monitoring of host cell viability
September 2020
Blanka Andersson | Michaela Jonsson Nordvall |
Amanda Welin | Maria Lerm | Thomas Schön
Efficient
genome
editing
in
pathogenic
mycobacteria using Streptococcus thermophilus
CRISPR1-Cas9 - Open access
September 2020
Aniek S. Meijers | Ran Troost | Roy Ummels |
Janneke Maaskant | Alexander Speer | Sergey
Nejentsev | Wilbert Bitter | Coenraad P. Kuijl
NIRT Library News Bulletin
25
Alternative biomarkers for classification of latent
tuberculosis infection status in pregnant women
with borderline Quantiferon plus results - Open
access
September 2020
Fregenet Tesfaye | Erik Sturegård | John Walles |
Niclas Winqvist | Taye Tolera Balcha | Sara Karlson
| Daba Mulleta | Per-Erik Isberg | Marianne
Jansson | Per Björkman
QuantiFERON-TB Gold Plus combined with HBHAInduced IFN-γ release assay improves the
accuracy of identifying tuberculosis disease status
September 2020
Jinhua Tang | Yuan Huang | Shen Jiang | Fang
Huang | Tingting Ma | Yun Qi | Yueyun Ma
Mycobacterium tuberculosis-specific plasmablast
levels are differentially modulated in tuberculosis
infection and disease - Open access
Recent advances in the synthesis of Quinazoline
analogues as Anti-TB agents
September 2020
September 2020
Awa Gindeh | Olumuyiwa Owolabi | Simon
Donkor | Jayne S. Sutherland
Apurba Dutta | Diganta Sarma
NOTCH1 and DLL4 are involved in the human
tuberculosis progression and immune response
activation
September 2020
Ricardo C. Castro | Fabiana A. Zambuzi |
Caroline Fontanari | Fabiana R. de Morais |
Valdes R. Bollela | Steven L. Kunkel | Matthew A.
Schaller | Fabiani G. Frantz
A
population
approach
of
rifampicin
pharmacogenetics and pharmacokinetics in
Mexican patients with tuberculosis
September 2020
Susanna Edith Medellin-Garibay | Ana Patricia
Huerta-García | Ana Socorro Rodríguez-Báez |
Martín Magaña-Aquino | Arturo Ortiz-Álvarez |
Diana Patricia Portales-Pérez | Rosa del Carmen
Milán-Segovia | Silvia Romano-Moreno
Genetic screening for the protective antigenic
targets of BCG vaccination
September 2020
Alex A. Smith | Bernardo Villarreal-Ramos | Tom A.
Mendum | Kerstin J. Williams | Gareth J. Jones |
Huihai Wu | Johnjoe McFadden | H. Martin
Vordermeier | Graham R. Stewart
Designing fusion molecules from antigens of
Mycobacterium tuberculosis for detection of
multiple antibodies in plasma of TB patients
September 2020
Mohsina Akhter | Shaista Arif | Aasia Khaliq | Zaib
un Nisa | Imran H. Khan | Muhammad Waheed
Akhtar
NIRT Library News Bulletin
26
Pathogenesis of ocular tuberculosis:
observations and future directions
New
September 2020
Soumyava Basu | Paul Elkington | Narsing A. Rao
Ocular tuberculosis epidemiology, clinic features
and diagnosis: A brief review
September 2020
Akmaljon Abdisamadov | Obid Tursunov
Is targeting dysregulation in apoptosis splice
variants in Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB) host
interactions and splicing factors resulting in
immune evasion by MTB strategies a possibility?
September 2020
Zodwa Dlamini | Mohammed Alaouna | Moloko
C. Cholo | Rodney Hull
Performance of Xpert MTB/RIF in diagnosis of
lymphatic
tuberculosis
from
fresh
and
formaldehyde-fixed and paraffin embedded
lymph nodes
September 2020
Shaojun Huang | Ming Qin | Yuanyuan Shang |
Yuhong Fu | Zichen Liu | Yujie Dong | Nanying
Che | Yi Han | Zhanlin Guo | Yu Pang
High-throughput screening of compounds library
to identify novel inhibitors against latent
Mycobacterium tuberculosis using streptomycindependent Mycobacterium tuberculosis 18b
strain as a model
September 2020
Smriti Sharma | Rahul Bhat | Rohit Singh | Sumit
Sharma | Priya wazir | Parvinder Pal Singh | Ram
A. Vishwakarma | Inshad Ali Khan
Microbial biodiversity in the throats of pulmonary
tuberculosis patients and tuberculin skin test (TST)
positive and negative healthy individuals in
Malaysia
September 2020
Noreafifah Semail | Siti Suraiya | Romel Calero |
Mayelin Mirabal | Humberto Carrillo | Mohamed
Hashim Ezzeddin Kamil | Maria E. Sarmiento |
Armando Acosta | Mohd Nor Norazmi
Differentially
culturable
tubercle
bacteria
dynamics during standard anti-tuberculosis
treatment: A prospective cohort study
September 2020
Pedro Sousa Almeida Júnior | Luiz Guilherme
Schmidt Castellani | Renata Lyrio Peres | Jaime
Combadao | Taline Canto Tristão | Reynaldo
Dietze | David Jamil Hadad | Moisés Palaci
Serological biomarkers for monitoring response to
treatment of pulmonary and extrapulmonary
tuberculosis in children and adolescents
July 2020
Danielle C.M. dos Santos | Kathryn L. Lovero |
Christiane M. Schmidt | Ana Cláudia M.W. Barros
| Ana Paula Quintanilha | Ana Paula Barbosa |
Marcos V.S. Pone | Sheila M. Pone | Julienne
Martins Araujo | Camila de Paula Martins | Estela
Magalhães Cosme | Thais Raquelly Dourado de
Oliveira | Ana Lúcia Miceli | Maria Luíza Vieira |
NIRT Library News Bulletin
27
Adriano Queiroz | Luis Guillermo Coca Velarde |
Afranio Kritski | Maria de Fátima Pombo March |
Selma Maria de Azevedo Sias | Clemax C.
SantÀAnna | Lee W. Riley | Claudete A. Araújo
Cardoso
Whole-genome sequencing and Mycobacterium
tuberculosis: Challenges in sample preparation
and sequencing data analysis
July 2020
Matúš Dohál | Igor Porvazník | Kristián Pršo | Erik
Michael Rasmussen | Ivan Solovič | Juraj Mokrý
A machine learning-based framework for
Predicting Treatment Failure in tuberculosis: A
case study of six countries
July 2020
Muhammad Asad
Muhammad Usman
|
Azhar
Mahmood
|
Epigenetic regulation of apoptosis via the PARK7
interactome in peripheral blood mononuclear
cells donated by tuberculosis patients vs. healthy
controls and the response to treatment: A systems
biology approach
July 2020
From the past, a long way to future challenges for
a greater control of tuberculosis
July 2020
Simone Villa | Niccolò Riccardi | Diana Canetti |
Riccardo Alagna | Paola Castellotti | Maurizio
Ferrarese | Daniela Cirillo | Ilaria Barberis | Nicola
Luigi Bragazzi | Valentina Gazzaniga | Valentina
Ricucci | Luigi Ruffo Codecasa | Giorgio Besozzi
| Mariano Martini
Pulmonary mucosal immunity mediated through
CpG provides adequate protection against
pulmonary Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection
in the mouse model. A role for type I interferon
George D. Vavougios | Sotirios G. Zarogiannis |
Karen A. Krogfelt | George Stamoulis |
Konstantinos I. Gourgoulianis
Comparison of biochemical parameters and
chemokine levels in pleural fluid between patients
with anergic and non-anergic tuberculous pleural
effusion
July 2020
Ha-Jeong Kim | Suyeon Ryu | Sun Ha Choi |
Hyewon Seo | Seung Soo Yoo | Shin Yup Lee |
Seung Ick Cha | Jae Yong Park | Chang Ho Kim
| Jaehee Lee
July 2020
Amber Troy | Sandra C. Esparza-Gonzalez | Alicia
Bartek | Elizabeth Creissen | Linda Izzo | Angelo
A. Izzo
NIRT Library News Bulletin
28
This month TB
Richard
Makurumidze, Jozefien
Articles in
Decroo, Lutgarde Lynen, Madelon de Rooij, Trevor
Mataranyika, Ngwarai

Buyze, Tom
Sithole, Kudakwashe
Patient-perceived treatment burden of tuberculosis
Takarinda, Tsitsi
treatment
Damme, Simbarashe Rusakaniko
Natasha C. H. Ting, Nicole El-Turk, Michael S. H.
published 19 Oct 2020
Apollo, James
Hakim, Wim
C.
Van
Chou, Claudia C. Dobler
published 22 Oct 2020

Comparison of censoring assumptions to reduce
bias in tuberculosis treatment cohort analyses

Does peer-navigated linkage to care work? A cross-
Meredith
sectional study of active linkage to care within an
Manjourides
integrated non-communicable...
published 19 Oct 2020
B.
Brooks, Carole
D.
Mitnick, Justin
Kathryn L. Hopkins, Khuthadzo E. Hlongwane, Kennedy
Otwombe, Janan
Dietrich, Maya
Jaffer, Mireille

“They come and knock at the gate until the
Cheyip, Jacobus Olivier, Heidi van Rooyen, Alisha N.
neighbours see”. Perceived barriers and benefits of
Wade, Tanya Doherty, Glenda E. Gray
implementing HIV care at the community...
published 22 Oct 2020
Sanele Ngcobo, Theresa Rossouw
published 15 Oct 2020

Barriers and facilitators of tuberculosis infection
prevention and control in low- and middle-income

countries from the perspective of...
Charlene
Tan, Idriss
I.
Tuberculosis screening in household contacts of
pulmonary tuberculosis patients in an urban setting
Kallon, Christopher
J.
Banurekha
Velayutham, Lavanya
Jayabal, Basilea
Colvin, Alison D. Grant
Watson, Saraswathy
published 21 Oct 2020
Angamuthu, Priscilla Rebecca, Bella Devaleenal, Dina
Jagadeesan, Dhanalakshmi
Nair, Srikanth Tripathy, Sriram Selvaraju

Replication of influential studies on biomedical,
published 15 Oct 2020
social, behavioural and structural interventions for
HIV prevention and treatment

Whole transcriptomic network analysis using Co-
Eric W. Djimeu, Anna Heard
expression Differential Network Analysis (CoDiNA)
published 20 Oct 2020
Deisy
Morselli
Gysi, Tiago
de
Fragoso, Fatemeh Zebardast, Wesley

Small-area level socio-economic deprivation and
Busskamp, Eivind Almaas, Katja Nowick
tuberculosis rates in England: An ecological analysis
published 15 Oct 2020
Miranda
Bertoli, Volker
of tuberculosis notifications between...
Patrick Nguipdop-Djomo, Laura C. Rodrigues, Ibrahim

Burden of stigma among tuberculosis patients in a
Abubakar, Punam Mangtani
pastoralist community in Kenya: A mixed methods
published 19 Oct 2020
study
Grace

Patient-mix,
programmatic
characteristics,
retention and predictors of attrition among
patients
starting
Wambura
Mbuthia, Henry
D.
N.
Nyamogoba, Silvia S. Chiang, Stephen T. McGarvey
published 15 Oct 2020
antiretroviral therapy (ART)
before...
NIRT Library News Bulletin
29

Treatment interruption and associated factors
among
patients
registered
on

drug-resistant
performance in public health facilities in Tigray
tuberculosis treatment in Amhara...
Mehari
Woldemariam
Blinded rechecking of sputum smear microscopy
region, Northern Ethiopia:...
Merid, Atalay
Goshu
Letebrhan
Weldemhret, Ataklti
Muluneh, Melaku Kindie Yenit, Getahun Molla Kassa
Gebremedhn, Hadish
Bekuretsion, Gebreselassie
published 14 Oct 2020
Alemseged, Gebremicheal Gebreegziabher, Gebrhiwot
Tesfahuney, Tesfaye

Hailu, Goyitom
Berhe, Lemlem
Multicenter analysis of sputum microbiota in
Kalayu, Mesfin Tesfay, Kibrti Mehari
tuberculosis patients
published 07 Oct 2020
Claudia
Sala, Andrej
Benjak, Delia
Legesse, Kelali
Goletti, Sayera
Banu, Jesica
Mazza-Stadler, Katia
Jaton, Philippe
Busso, Sille
Remm, Marion
Leleu, Jacques
sensitivity
Cuzzi, Ornella
tuberculosis strains isolated from tuberculous...
Rougemont, Fabrizio
Palmieri, Gilda

Molecular diagnosis, genetic diversity and drug
patterns
of Mycobacterium
Butera, Valentina Vanini, Senjuti Kabir, S. M. Mazidur
Krishnapriya
Krishnakumariamma, Kalaiarasan
Rahman, Laurent Nicod, Stewart T. Cole
Ellappan, Muthaiah
published 12 Oct 2020
Tamilarasu, Saka Vinod Kumar, Noyal Mariya Joseph
Muthuraj, Kadhiravan
published 05 Oct 2020

Active household contact screening for tuberculosis
Low pectoralis muscle index, cavitary nodule or
and provision of isoniazid preventive therapy to
mass and segmental to lobar consolidation as
under-five children in Afghanistan
predictors of primary multidrug-resistant...
Said


Mirza
Sayedi, Mohammad
Khaled
Hwa Seon Shin, Dae Seob Choi, Jae Boem Na, Hye
Seddiq, Mohammad K. Rashidi, Ghulam Qader, Naser
Young Choi, Ji-Eun Kim, Ho Cheol Choi, Jung Ho
Ikram, Muluken Melese, Pedro G. Suarez
Won, Seung Jun Lee, Mi Jung Park
published 09 Oct 2020
published 05 Oct 2020
Factors associated with death in patients with

Implementing active surveillance for TB—The views
tuberculosis in Brazil: Competing risks analysis
of managers in a resource limited setting, South
Paulo
Africa
Victor
de
Sousa
Viana, Natalia
Santana
Paiva, Daniel Antunes Maciel Villela, Leonardo Soares
Bastos, Ana Luiza de Souza Bierrenbach, Paulo Cesar
Basta
Febisola I. Ajudua, Robert J. Mash
published 02 Oct 2020
published 08 Oct 2020

Voices from the front lines: A qualitative study of
integration of HIV, tuberculosis, and primary
healthcare services in Johannesburg...
Naomi
Lince-Deroche, Rahma
Kgowedi, Aneesa
Leuner, Sharon
Moolla, Sinethemba
Madlala, Pertunia Manganye, Barbara Xhosa, Caroline
Govathson, Takiyah White Ndwanya, Lawrence Long
published 08 Oct 2020
NIRT Library News Bulletin
30