Journal of Communicable Diseases

Worldwide, large proportion i.e., 37% of deaths due to diarrhea in young children is attributed to rotavirus. A monovalent P1A[8] G1 vaccine and a pentavalent bovine-human reassortant vaccine human rotavirus vaccine had shown good clinical efficacy without any increase in intussusception among vaccine recipients. WHO recommends that the first dose of rotavirus vaccine should be administered to infants up to age of 6-15 weeks irrespective of the prior history of rotavirus infection and the maximum age for administering the last dose of the vaccine should be 32 weeks...

A 20 year old young male was admitted to our hospital with complaints of pain in upper abdomen right side, anorexia and loss of weight. Ultrasonography of the upper abdomen revealed a hypoechoic area in the left lobe of liver. Entertaining the possibility of pyogenic or amoebic lesion, the patient was started on ofloxacin and metronidazole. Failing to get any response to the therapeutic intervention, ultrasound guided aspiration was undertaken. The aspirated pus did not grow any organism in pyogenic or fungal culture but showed acid fast bacilli in Z...

Enteric fever caused mainly by Salmonella typhi (S. typhi), has a high incidence in India. We report a case of enteric fever in a ten year old patient presenting with clinical history of less than one week. Although blood culture, the most important diagnostic modality in early stage of enteric fever was sterile, S. typhi was isolated from culture of urine sample. Serum antibody titres against S. typhi were unusually raised considering that the infection was still in its early stage. Intravenous ceftriaxone therapy was given leading to complete recovery...

The study was carried out for evaluation of various activities of malaria control programme in five different tribal and malaria endemic Primary Health Centres of Dumka district (Jharkhand) during 2007-08. A total of 321 houses of 18 villages were surveyed on use of indoor residual spray (IRS) and insecticide-treated bed nets (ITN) and other activities as tool for vector control and interrupting the transmission of malaria. Out of 690 living rooms and 343 verandahs examined, IRS with Dichlorodiphenyl-trichloro-ethane (DDT) was done only in 16...

Dengue infection is endemic in India with frequent epidemics of Dengue Fever/Dengue Hemorrhagic Fever. The outbreaks vary in the commonest serotype in circulation during that period, predominant laboratory findings and clinical manifestations. This study was carried during the outbreak of dengue in Delhi in 2009. Clinical assessment and laboratory investigations were performed and severity of the disease with clinical, haematological parameters and serotypes were correlated. Of 107 patients included in the study, 64 (59...

Japanese Encephalitis (JE) is an acute viral zoonotic infection of the central nervous system. A confirmed case of JE was reported in the MVH, Pooth Khurd, following which the epidemiological investigation was carried out in the study area. Clinical/Syndromic surveillance started in the hospital. The local practitioners and anganwadi workers were contacted and requested to report similar cases in their areas. Serosurveillance to delineate high risk population, animal and vector survey done by taking transect walks through the colony to look for presence of amplifying hosts like pigs, ducks etc...

Multidrug resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) is one worrisome element in this era of pandemic antibiotic resistance. This demands a need for diagnosis, and incidence of primary and acquired resistance to help in better management. Smear positive respiratory samples collected over a period of one year were processed for detection of M. tuberculosis, using biochemical methods and susceptibility to p-nitro benzoic acid. Finally, strains detected by the above method were subjected to susceptibility for 2 drugs--Isoniazid and Rifampicin by Absolute concentration method to detect multidrug resistant strains and mono-resistant strains...

Resurgence of kala azar in India has posed many problems. Apart from endemic areas, cases are being reported from non-endemic area. Other than diagnostic difficulties, resistance to stibogluconate & relapses are common problem in sporadic visceral leishmaniasis (VL). We present one case in detail & give brief description of nine other cases, hailing from non-endemic area, Uttarakhand, during the period from December 2005 to September 2011, diagnosed in our teaching hospital. The patients in our study were diagnosed as VL by clinical findings and confirmed by demonstration of LD bodies in splenic or bone marrow smears...

Nosocomial food outbreaks due to infected food handlers is primarily due to inadequate knowledge and faulty practices of food handlers during diarrhoeal episodes. The aim of this study was to assess: 1) prevalence of enteropathogen infection among food handlers working in our hospital during 2007 to 2011 and 2) adequacy of precautions taken by them during gastroenteritis episodes. Stool samples submitted by food handlers during 2007 to 2011 were examined for the presence of enteropathogens by standard methodology...

Tuberculosis is a wide spread infectious disease all over the world as well as in India. Other than tuberculosis complex, more than 30 different non-tuberculous mycobacteria (NTM) are responsible for various diseases, i.e. cervical lymphadelopathy, cutaneous abscess, pulmonary diseases, post-operative infections, etc. These NTMs are resistant to commonly used antimicrobial and anti-tubercular agents, jeopardizing the DOTS and DOTS PLUS program in the country. The accurate diagnosis of mycobacteria upto species level is an urgent need to check/control the increasing incidence of tuberculosis in community...

Tuberculosis (TB) is a global health problem. Multi Drug Resistant TB (MDR-TB) and Extensively Drug Resistant TB (XDR-TB) cause high mortality. There are obstacles to the diagnosis of TB due to lack of accurate, cost effective and rapid diagnostic tools. The delay in diagnostic process is an unresolved bottleneck impeding access to treatment. Presently available diagnostic tools for TB except some liquid culture and molecular tests take long time. TB culture and drug susceptibility test (DST) need specialized laboratory setup and are also very expensive...

No abstract text is available yet for this article.

No abstract text is available yet for this article.

A total of 70 drinking water sources including piped water supply (n = 36), ground water sources (n = 24, hand pumps and bore wells) and natural water sources (n = 10, springs/step-wells) from various parts of district Kangra, Himachal Pradesh were investigated for their suitability for drinking purpose by presumptive coliform test. Three samples were collected from each source during different parts of the year. Piped water sources (91.7%) were most contaminated followed by natural water sources (90%) and ground water sources (62...

The increase in incidence of variety of infections due to Staphylococcus aureus and especially methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus has highlighted on the need for better agents to treat such infections. Also the resistance to antimicrobial agents among staphylococci is an increasing problem. The macrolide-lincosamide-streptogramin B (MLS(B)) groups of antibiotics are commonly used in the treatment of staphylococcal infections with clindamycin being the preferred agent. This study demonstrates a simple phenotypic method (D-test) for detecting inducible clindamycin resistance in erythromycin resistant strains of staphylococcus aureus & coagulase negative Staphylococcus...

The chief objective of respective study was to investigate the seroprevalence of brucellosis among occupationally exposed human beings in Himachal Pradesh. A total of 165 serum samples that were obtained from human beings from various regions of the state were screened through a battery of serological tests which included RBPT, STAT, 2-MET, dot-ELISA and indirect-ELISA. 165 of human sera samples included 42 from veterinarians, 40 shepherds, 35 livestock owners, 20 workers at veterinary hospitals/clinics, 16 abattoir workers and 12 veterinary pharmacists...

Mosquito control by phytochemicals is an alternative method to synthetic insecticides, as it is biodegradable and non resistant to vector mosquito. Polianthes tuberosa is a perennial plant distributed in many parts of India. The present study was undertaken to scientifically evaluate the larvicide and biting deterrency activity of bud of Polianthes tuberosa against Culex quinquefasciatus and Anopheles stephensi. Crude and solvent extract [ethyl acetate, chloroform: methanol (1:1, v/v), acetone] of fresh, mature, bud of P...

In the present study, a total of 85 ready to eat meat and meat products were collected from 11 tourist's places of Himachal Pradesh to examine the prevalence of Salmonella spp. and Escherichia coli during May 2010 till April 2011. Out of 33 samples, meat curry and 25 samples of non-veg momo, 4(12.12%) and 1(4.0%) were found to be positive for Escherichia coli. respectively. All the 5 E. coli isolates obtained were belonged to four different serotypes (O8, O89, O60 and O Rough). 40% of the E. coli isolates were found to be multi drug resistant (MDR) and maximum resistance was showed to Ampicilin...

Rabies, though a disease of low public health priority, still continues to be a major public health problem in India. In humans, rabies is almost invariably fatal once clinical symptoms have developed. WHO reports around 50 000 rabies deaths every year, out of which 20 000 are estimated to occur in India alone. There is often gross under-reporting of human rabies deaths in India. Despite potent anti-rabies vaccines and immunoglobulins available, rabies is far from control and elimination. An effective strategy for control of rabies takes into account the epidemiology of animal bites, rabies and factors influencing post exposure treatment...

No abstract text is available yet for this article.