COVID-19 classified under emerging infectious diseases has spread across the world resulting in many casualties. India reported its first case on 30th January 2020 and has completed 100 days in this pandemic period. The government of India has issued stringent guidelines and imposed a lockdown for long periods to ensure the practising of social distancing. This paper reviews and discusses the current trends in the confirmed cases of India in comparison with the other prominent countries around the globe. A novel approach using a sigmoid function to predict and forecast the trends for cases in India are also presented in this work. By placing the current time on the sigmoid curve, forecasting the total number of confirmed cases by the end of the pandemic is made. If proper measures and stringent guidelines are not followed, India may have to endure a total confirmed case of up to 4.4 lakh. The prediction also suggests that 99.9% of the pandemic may end in India by 27th July 2020. The best possible approach is to undertake preventive measures by strictly adhering to the guidelines and policies set by the government. Performing hand hygiene, practicing social distancing, surveillance and isolation is the only means to break the chain of transmission and control the pandemic.
Dengue viral infection is the most widely spread arbo-viral disease in Indian subcontinent. High index of clinical suspicion especially during its peak season can be rewarding in diagnosing as well as early case management of anticipated DHF and DSS cases. To estimate the magnitude, seasonal-variation, serological as well as hematological aspects of dengue cases. This was a prospective observational study held in Microbiology and Hematology laboratories of our hospital for duration of one year from July-2019 to June-2020. All the suspected dengue cases were subjected to NS1-antigen, IgM and IgG antibody detection. The samples were also tested for platelet count, total count, haematocrit as well as hemoglobin estimation. All 1,550 dengue suspected cases were subjected to serological testing, among which 157 (10.1%) were positive. The most affected populations were the adult male. As the study was conducted for one year, we could observe the seasonal trend which peaked during post-monsoon. Out of 157 cases, 81.5%, 0.6% and 17.8% were determined as primary, secondary and old dengue cases respectively. There was a significant association between NS1 antigen and fever of </= 5 days duration with ‘p’ value< 0.00001. Thrombocytopenia, leucopenia and increased haematocrit were witnessed in 15.9%, 28.6% and 35% respectively. Our study shows that we had a high magnitude of primary cases that are prone to secondary dengue infection which might have a catastrophic effect giving rise to DHF, DSS or SD.
Access to safe drinking water is the key to promoting good health. At Karwar, the primary source of drinking water is well, but heavy rain, and deficiencies in underground drainage systems result in well water contamination. However, water handling practices followed at the point of consumption act as a better predictor of water contamination. To assess and compare the bacteriological quality of household water at the source and point of consumption. A prospective cross-sectional study was conducted at Karwar. Households owning private wells were selected by Simple Random Sampling. Semi-structured questionnaires were used to interview the households regarding socioeconomic status (SES), chlorination of well, purification method, and water handling practices. Presumptive coliform count and the differential coliform count were determined. Data thus obtained were analyzed using a Microsoft Excel. c2-test was used to see the association between variables. The present study included 30 households. All the samples taken from the well revealed contamination with E. coli. 80% of samples from the point of consumption revealed coliforms, among which 47% were confirmed with E. coli. RO/RO+UV were found to be relatively better performing than the filtration and boiling methods. Contamination of water at the point of consumption had a significant association with both purification and water retrieval methods. The samples taken from the point of consumption reflect better quality of water sampling than source water. The present study revealed post-collection contamination as major reason for compromising water quality despite improved water cleaning and purification techniques.
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