Amphibian diversity in the Western Ghats-Sri Lanka biodiversity hotspot is extremely high, especially for such a geo-graphically restricted area. Frogs in particular dominate these assemblages, and the family Rhacophoridae is chief among these, with hundreds of endemic species. These taxa continue to be described at a rapid pace, and several groups have recently been found to represent unique evolutionary clades at the genus level. Here, we report DNA sequences, larval and breeding data for two species of rhacophorid treefrog (Polypedates bijui and a new, hitherto undescribed species). Re-markably, they represent unique, independent clades which form successive sister groups to the Pseudophilautus (Sri Lan-ka) + Raorchestes (India, China & Indochina) clades. We place these species into two new genera (Beddomixalus gen. nov. and Mercurana gen. nov.). Both of these genera exhibit a distinct reproductive mode among Rhacophoridae of pen-insular India and Sri Lanka, with explosive breeding and semiterrestrial, unprotected, non-pigmented eggs oviposited in seasonal swamp pools, which hatch into exotrophic, free-living aquatic tadpoles. Relationships and representation of re-productive modes in sister taxa within the larger clade into which these novel genera are placed, is also discussed. These results suggest that more undescribed taxa may remain to be discovered in South Asia, and the crucial importance of con-serving remaining viable habitats.

Bats are reservoirs for several zoonotic pathogens, including filoviruses. Recent work highlights the diversity of bat borne filoviruses in Asia. High risk activities at the bat-human interface pose the threat of zoonotic virus transmission. We present evidence for prior exposure of bat harvesters and two resident fruit bat species to filovirus surface glycoproteins by screening sera in a multiplexed serological assay. Antibodies reactive to two antigenically distinct filoviruses were detected in human sera and to three individual filoviruses in bats in remote Northeast India. Sera obtained from Eonycteris spelaea bats showed similar patterns of cross-reactivity as human samples, suggesting them as the species responsible for the spillover. In contrast, sera from Rousettus leschenaultii bats reacted to two different virus glycoproteins. Our results indicate circulation of several filoviruses in bats and the possibility for filovirus transmission from bats to humans.

Bartonella species are recognized globally as emerging zoonotic pathogens. Small mammals such as rodents and shrews are implicated as major natural reservoirs for these microbial agents. Nevertheless, in several tropical countries, like India, the diversity of Bartonella in small mammals remain unexplored and limited information exists on the natural transmission cycles (reservoirs and vectors) of these bacteria. Using a multi-locus sequencing approach, we investigated the prevalence, haplotype diversity, and phylogenetic affinities of Bartonella in small mammals and their associated mites in a mixed-use landscape in the biodiverse Western Ghats in southern India. We sampled 141 individual small mammals belonging to eight species. Bartonella was detected in five of the eight species, including three previously unknown hosts. We observed high interspecies variability of Bartonella prevalence in the host community. However, the overall prevalence (52.5%) and haplotype diversity (0.9) was high for the individuals tested. Of the seven lineages of Bartonella identified in our samples, five lineages were phylogenetically related to putative zoonotic species–B. tribocorum, B. queenslandensis, and B. elizabethae. Haplotypes identified from mites were identical to those identified from their host species. This indicates that these Bartonella species may be zoonotic, but further work is necessary to confirm whether these are pathogenic and pose a threat to humans. Taken together, these results emphasize the presence of hitherto unexplored diversity of Bartonella in wild and synanthropic small mammals in mixed-use landscapes. The study also highlights the necessity to assess the risk of spillover to humans and other incidental hosts.

Introduction and Importance of Open Data in Health Open data is a movement that is gaining momentum all over the world. It not only advances science and scientific communications as open science 1 , but it also has the power of transforming societies and the process of informed decisionmaking. The availability of open data in different scientific and social spheres contributes to enabling and establishing transparency and accountability, essential pillars of a democratic society. It supports informed discussions and debates among citizens, scientists and governments and drives evidence-driven policy planning 2. Nobel laureate Elinor Ostrom viewed open data as a public good to be shared with citizens and the community as commons 3. Open data is driven by four foundational principles-Findability, Accessibility, Interoperability, and Reusability, (FAIR) that should guide all producers and publishers of data 4. The large-scale availability of open data will help build synergies and collaborations across institutions and disciplines. In the domain of health, the value of open data for research as well as for public health delivery systems is significantly enhanced by combining datasets on public health with other environmental, social and geographical data 5. Effectively combining environmental and landuse datasets with health data has helped in building risk landscapes for infectious diseases and for predicting the progress and spread of diseases 6. The ability to plan and provide health infrastructure for communities can be helped by a spatial study of health infrastructure and the social and economic distribution of communities and

Purpose: Compared to nasopharyngeal/oropharyngeal swabs, non-invasive saliva samples have enormous potential for scalability and routine population screening of SARS-CoV-2. In this study, we are investigating the efficacy of saliva samples relative to nasopharyngeal/oropharyngeal swabs for use as a direct source for the RT-PCR based SARS-CoV-2 detection. Methods: Paired nasopharyngeal/oropharyngeal swabs and saliva samples were collected from suspected positive SARS-CoV-2 patients and tested using RT-PCR. Generalised linear models were used to investigate factors that explain result agreement. Further, we used simulations to evaluate the effectiveness of saliva-based screening in restricting the spread of infection in a large campus such as an educational institution. Results: We observed 75.4% overall result agreement. Prospective positive samples stored for three or more days showed a drastic reduction in the probability of result agreement. We observed 83% result agreement and 74.5% test sensitivity in samples processed and tested within two days of collection. Our simulations suggest that a test with 75% sensitivity, but high daily capacity can be very effective in limiting the size of infection clusters in a workspace. Guided by these results, we successfully implemented a saliva-based screening in the Bangalore Life Sciences Cluster (BLiSC) campus. Conclusion: These results suggest that saliva may be a viable sample source for SARS-CoV-2 surveillance if samples are processed immediately. We strongly recommend the implementation of saliva-based screening strategies for large workplaces and in schools, as well as for population-level screening and routine surveillance as we learn to live with the SARS-CoV-2 virus.

Health Heatmap of India is an open data platform built for bringing together data from diverse sources and facilitating visualization, analysis, and insight building from such data. In this paper, we describe the context and need for such an open data platform and describe the technical aspects of building it. The beta site of the portal is available at http://healthheatmapindia.org

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