Sickle cell disease (SCD) is a complex genetic blood disorder characterized by abnormal haemoglobin, resulting in sickle-shaped red blood cells. While extensive research has concentrated on the genetic and physiological aspects of SCD, recent studies suggest a potential role of the human microbiome in SCD pathophysiology, adding new dimensions to its understanding. This review synthesizes current knowledge on the microbiome's involvement in SCD, focusing on alterations in the gut microbiome composition and diversity compared to healthy individuals, and their implications for disease pathogenesis.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Dog bites pose a significant public health concern in India, necessitating an understanding of their epidemiological profile and spatial distribution. Adopting the One Health approach, which considers the interconnection of human, animal, and environmental health, is vital for developing effective interventions.
Objectives: The study aimed to assess the epidemiological profile and geospatial trends of dog bite cases in an urban area, focusing on the age and gender distribution of victims, severity of bites, and spatial distribution of cases to inform prevention strategies.
Background: The global temperature has significantly risen in the past century. Studies have indicated that higher temperature intensifies malaria transmission in tropical and temperate countries. Temperature fluctuations will have a potential impact on parasite development in the vector Anopheles mosquito.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAfr Health Sci
June 2023
Background: HIV prevalence among men who have sex with men (MSM) is 16.5 times higher than adult HIV prevalence. With a socio-cultural context that demands marriage, a considerable proportion of MSM in India have female sexual partners and act as a bridge population.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMonkeypox (MPX) is a zoonotic infection caused by the monkeypox virus (MPXV) and is primarily characterized by rash or pox marks and lymph node enlargement. The recent MPX has quickly spread across the globe and is now declared a global public health emergency. Being a contact illness, sexual encounters have been identified as the most common mode of transmission in the 2022 multicountry MPX outbreak.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMedicine (Baltimore)
December 2022
People who inject drugs (PWID) are India's third-largest vulnerable population to human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection. PWID in India are confined to certain geographic locations and exhibit varying injecting and sexual risk behaviors, contributing considerably to increasing HIV trends in specific regions. Spatial heterogeneity in risk factors among vulnerable PWID influences HIV prevalence, transmission dynamics, and disease management.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground & Objectives: Female sex workers (FSWs) who inject drugs (FSW-IDs) have a higher risk of HIV infection and transmission. Understanding the socio-demographic characteristics and other risk behaviours among FSW-IDs will help in strengthening targeted interventions for HIV prevention and management. In the present study, the HIV prevalence, associated socio-demographic characteristics and risk behaviours among FSWs who injected drugs (FSW-IDs) and those who did not ID (FSW-NIDs) was determined in India.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntroduction: The analyses of local risks at sub-national levels and tailored interventions are being emphasized for effective HIV management. Andhra Pradesh (AP) is a high HIV prevalence state in India, with the second-highest number of People with HIV (PWH) and a consistent decline in HIV prevalence at the state level. Probing further into the region and district-wise levels and trends of HIV prevalence will provide critical insights into sub-regional epidemic patterns.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBluetongue (BT) disease poses a constant risk to the livestock population around the world. A better understanding of the risk factors will enable a more accurate prediction of the place and time of high-risk events. Mapping the disease epizootics over a period in a particular geographic area will identify the spatial distribution of disease occurrence.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground & Objectives: Japanese encephalitis (JE) is a major public health problem in many states of India. Uttar Pradesh state contributes 75% of the total cases reported. A longitudinal study was undertaken to find out the seasonal abundance, infection in the JE vectors in Gorakhpur region of Uttar Pradesh, and intervention strategies like indoor residual spraying and long-lasting insecticidal nets were adopted.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThis review was focused on global data analysis and risk factors associated with morbidity and mortality of coronavirus disease 2019 from different countries, including Bangladesh, Brazil, China, Central Eastern Europe, Egypt, India, Iran, Pakistan, and South Asia, Africa, Turkey and UAE. Male showed higher confirmed and death cases compared to females in most of the countries. In addition, the case fatality ratio (CFR) for males was higher than for females.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground And Objective: Periodic tracking of the trends and the levels of HIV prevalence at regional and district levels helps to strengthen a state's HIV/AIDS response. HIV prevalence among pregnant women is crucial for the HIV prevalence estimation of the general population. Karnataka is one of the high HIV prevalence states in India.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Stone quarrying activities generate dust and fine particulate matters of silica and heavy metals. The prolonged exposure to suspended particulates leads to fatal respiratory complications. Occupational pulmonary complications are poorly characterized among quarry workers in Tamil Nadu.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCoronavirus disease (COVID-19) caused by SARS-CoV-2 was notified from Wuhan city, Hubei province, China in the mid of December 2019. The disease is showing dynamic change in the pattern of confirmed cases and death toll in these low and middle-income countries (LMICs). In this study, exponential growth (EG) method was used to calculate the real-time reproductive number (R) for initial and later stage of epidemic in South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) member countries (April 2020 - December 2020).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIndian J Community Med
March 2021
Background: The HIV sentinel surveillance (HSS) serves to estimate the levels and trend of HIV prevalence among high-risk, bridge, and general population and monitors HIV management at national, state, and district levels. Data from HSS are valuable in understanding the risk factors associated with HIV transmission with particular demographic characteristics.
Objectives: The objective was to analyze the sociodemographic profile of the pregnant mothers attending the antenatal care (ANC) clinics in Karnataka, in order to understand the dynamics of HIV within the general population in Karnataka.
Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome-Coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) is the causative etiology of 'Corona Virus Disease-2019' (COVID-19); formerly referred as 'novel-Coronavirus-2019'. It was originated in Wuhan city, Hubei province, China in early December 2019. The World Health Organization (WHO) declared it as 'Public Health Emergency of International Concern' due to their rapid transmission and causing public and health-care-related casualties worldwide.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThis study describes the spatial and temporal patterns of bluetongue (BT) outbreaks with environmental factors in undivided Andhra Pradesh, India. Descriptive analysis of the reported BT outbreaks (n = 2,697) in the study period (2000-2017) revealed a higher frequency of outbreaks during monsoon and post-monsoon months. Correlation analysis of Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), Normalized Difference Water Index (NDWI), rainfall and relative humidity (RH) displayed a significant positive correlation with BT outbreaks (p < .
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground And Objectives: The purpose of this study was to analyze trends in HIV prevalence and risk factors associated with HIV infection among pregnant women attending antenatal clinics in Odisha State, India.
Methods: Data were from the HIV Sentinel Surveillance (HSS) among pregnant women, a descriptive cross-sectional study using consecutive sampling method and conducted in India. Data and samples were collected from pregnant women attending select antenatal clinics that act as designated sentinel sites in Odisha State, India, during the three months surveillance period and in three surveillance years: 2013, 2015, and 2017.
HIV prevalence is higher among Men who have Sex with Men (MSM), owing to their unsafe sexual behavior. Further, MSM indulge in behaviors such as consumption of alcohol/oral drugs and/or injecting during/before sex that poses the risk of unsafe behaviors, thereby increasing their vulnerability to HIV. The study aims to analyze the factors associated with HIV infection among the multi-risk MSM using any substances with those MSM who do not use substances.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: HIV/AIDS is a global public health issue and its transmission in a defined geographic region is influenced by the interplay of sociodemographic and behavioral factors. Better understanding of sociodemographic characteristics of HIV-positive individuals is required to prevent the spread of HIV among the general population.
Objectives: The objective of the study was to find the association between HIV prevalence and sociodemographic characteristics of pregnant women aged 15-49 years attending the antenatal clinics (ANCs) in six Southern states of India.
Purpose: To quantify corneal backscattering by densitometry analysis after pre-Descemet endothelial keratoplasty (PDEK).
Design: This is a prospective observational case series.
Methods: Setting: Tertiary care hospital.
Purpose: To evaluate the results of pinhole pupilloplasty in cases with high astigmatism and higher-order aberrations (HOAs).
Setting: Dr. Agarwal's Eye Hospital & Research Centre, Chennai.
Purpose: To analyze the morphological changes in the iris-knot complex configuration using spectral-domain optical coherence tomography (SD-OCT) following the single pass four throw (SFT) pupilloplasty.
Methods: In this retrospective case series, eyes with SFT pupilloplasty were examined by SD-OCT (Optovue). Iris morphology compared to the normal iris, presence of specific patterns (single hump, double humps, peaks and valleys, tethering), prolene suture, knot complex (length and orientation), and intraocular lens (IOL) vault were evaluated.