Publications by authors named "Nirajan Bhusal"
Background: Nepal piloted a multipronged supervision, performance assessment, and recognition strategy (SPARS), to improve medicines management (MM) in public health facilities. This paper describes the SPARS pilot intervention and reports on MM performance at baseline.
Methods: To build MM capacity at public sector health facilities, health workers were trained as MM supervisors to visit and supervise government health facilities, assess MM performance, and use the findings to provide support in MM practices.
Article Synopsis
- * This study analyzes the impact of coordinated sample transfers on laboratory efficiency and wait times during high demand in 2021.
- * Findings suggest that centralized coordination and strategic partnerships can significantly improve diagnostic network performance, providing important recommendations for future pandemic preparedness.
Assessment of geographical accessibility to COVID-19 testing facilities in Nepal (2021).
Lancet Reg Health Southeast Asia
August 2024
Background: Ensuring equitable physical access to SARS-CoV-2 testing has proven to be crucial for controlling the COVID-19 epidemic, especially in countries like Nepal with its challenging terrain. During the second wave of the pandemic in May 2021, there was immense pressure to expand the laboratory network in Nepal to ensure calibration of epidemic response. The expansion led to an increase in the number of testing facilities from 69 laboratories in May 2021 to 89 laboratories by November 2021.
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- A research study in Nepal aimed to measure the seroprevalence of COVID-19 and identify risk factors in the general population using two sampling rounds: one in October 2020 and another in July-August 2021.
- In the first round, seroprevalence was 14.4% nationally, with significant variation between provinces; in the second round, it surged to 70.7%, reflecting increased exposure, especially in Madhesh Province.
- Gender differences in seroprevalence were minimal, and there were notable disparities across different ecozones, with vaccination efforts starting in January 2021 as the country faced a substantial rise in infection rates.
Sensor-as-a-Service: Convergence of Sensor Analytic Point Solutions (SNAPS) and Pay-A-Penny-Per-Use (PAPPU) Paradigm as a Catalyst for Democratization of Healthcare in Underserved Communities.
Diagnostics (Basel)
January 2020
Article Synopsis
- The manuscript examines the socioeconomic factors involved in creating and implementing sensor analytic point solutions (SNAPS) aimed at aiding impoverished communities through technology.
- It highlights the various challenges, including economic, environmental, cultural, and ethical issues, that impact the effectiveness of these tools, particularly in regions facing significant health risks from environmental hazards.
- It also introduces a micropayment model (pay-a-penny-per-use-PAPPU) to enhance the affordability and accessibility of these solutions, while addressing the social and ethical implications of integrating SNAPS into marginalized communities.
Unlabelled: Access to community-based point-of-care, low-cost, and sensitive tuberculosis (TB) diagnostics remains an unmet need.
Objective: The objective of this study was to combine principles in nanotechnology, TB biology, glycochemistry, and engineering, for the development of a nanoparticle-based colorimetric biosensing assay (NCBA) to quickly and inexpensively detect acid-fast bacilli (AFB) in sputum samples.
Methods: In NCBA, the isolation of AFB from sputum samples was accomplished through glycan-coated magnetic nanoparticles (GMNP) interacting with AFB and then using a simple magnet to separate the GMNP-AFB complex.
Background: There have been very few reports of HIV-1 subtypes and drug resistance mutations (DRMs) from Nepal which is geographically located between two high-prevalence HIV-1 infection countries, China and India.
Objective: The aim of this study was to determine prevalence of acquired and transmitted DRMs and HIV-1 subtypes in Nepal.
Methods: Thirty-five HIV-1 seropositive samples from central region of Nepal were collected in 2011.