ObjectivesVaccine hesitancy remains a global issue, especially within poverty-stricken countries where there's an interplay of financial and non-financial barriers. This narrative review aims to understand attitudes and behaviors toward COVID-19 vaccination in four South Asian countries and make context-specific recommendations to vaccine program drivers and decision-makers.MethodsA search was conducted using PubMed and Science Direct, and CINHAL from January 2020 up to May 2022 restricted to the English language for terms: “Afghanistan” OR “Pakistan” OR “India” OR “Bangladesh” in combination with “COVID-19 vaccine” and other related terms. All articles were initially included, and those with relevance were included in the synthesis of this paper.ResultsA narrative review was performed for this study. Our narrative review included a total of eighteen studies with a sample size (n = 223–5,237) averaging about 1,325 participants per study conducted. The studies included revealed public hesitancy to receive the COVID-19 vaccine ranging from 6.3 to 56.2% with an average of 31.63% across all eighteen studies. Several reasons were linked to this observation in these four South Asian countries, and the predominant ones included: Insufficient information provided to the general public about the side effects of the vaccines, concerns regarding vaccine safety, and skepticism of vaccine efficacy.ConclusionVaccine hesitancy is a global problem within the context of COVID-19, and issues regarding equity, misinformation, and poverty in South Asian countries makes it difficult to meet goals for herd immunity. Policymakers and governments should aim toward financial and non-financial incentives to drive the public toward vaccination.

Spontaneous Brillouin scattering in bulk crystalline solids is governed by the intrinsic selection rules locking the relative polarization of the excitation laser and the Brillouin signal. In this work, we independently manipulate the polarization of the two by employing polarization-sensitive optical resonances in elliptical micropillars to induce a wavelength-dependent rotation of the polarization states. Consequently, a polarization-based filtering technique allows us to measure acoustic phonons with frequencies difficult to access with standard Brillouin and Raman spectroscopies. This technique can be extended to other polarization-sensitive optical systems, such as plasmonic, photonic, or birefringent nanostructures, and finds applications in optomechanical, optoelectronic, and quantum optics devices.

Analytical method development and validation is important in development of pharmaceutical preparations. In present study a spectroscopic method for determination of Amlodipine besylate in pharmaceutical dosage form has been developed and validated. The wavelength maxima of Amlodipine besylate was found to be 360nm. Ethanol was used as a solvent. Amlodipine besylate obeys beers law in the concentration range of 5-40μg/ml. The line equation obtained is y = 0.0136x + 0.001 with correlation coefficient (r2) of 0.998. Interday, intraday variations were studied to determine the precision of the proposed method and was found to be with good precision as the %RSD was less than 2%. The assay of 2 different marketed formulation (A and B) has been performed and the % assay of A and B was found to be 98.3% and 99.2% respectively. The sensitivity of the method was determined by LOD and LOQ was found to be 0.08123µg/ml and 0.2461µg/ml respectively. The method employed the parameters like linearity, accuracy, precision, sensitivity, robustness, ruggedness and all the procedures were as per ICH guidelines.