How long does SARS-CoV-2 survive on different surfaces?
One question which has been doing the rounds is if one can catch COVID-19 from fomites. I summarize the findings from a piece published in NEJM a few weeks back.
Category: Infectious Diseases
Was the SARS-CoV-2 a laboratory generated virus?
Summary information from some recent publications which indicate that the SARS-CoV-2 most likely emerged in nature, through natural selection, and was not a laboratory generated virus which escaped from the lab, either accidentally or due to malicious intent, and resulted in the pandemic which has thrown the whole world off-balance. However, the debate still remains, and a clear, fool proof evidence in favor of either side is yet to be identified.
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Where did SARS-CoV-2 come from?
Some thoughts on the origin of the SARS-COV-2 virus. I understand that this field of knowledge is changing continuously and if anything in here is outdated or if there have been any new breakthroughs, please leave a comment and share with me!
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Some Thoughts on COVID-19 Infection Mortality Rate
Some thoughts on the COVID-19 mortality, which seems to be on the decline in India as of the last six weeks or so.
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Research Notes: Transmission Heterogeneity in COVID-19
Some of my thoughts on an interesting pre-print which discusses the heterogeneity of infection transmission efficiency across different groups of people.
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Convalescent Plasma in COVID-19: The Dutch ConCOVID Randomized Controlled Trial Halted for Re-design
The Dutch CONCOVID Trial intended to look at the effect of convalescent plasma therapy on mortality in COVID-19 patients. It has recently been halted after recruiting only about a fifth of its calculated sample size after some very unexpected results were observed. These are my quick thoughts on the matter!
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COVID-19 in Africa: Slow Epidemic or Low Detection?
COVID-19 has had a slow growth in various African countries. I look at the reported numbers and it seems that although the epidemiological proportions are in agreement with the global numbers, the low rate of testing is perhaps contributing to the lower number of reported cases.
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COVID-19 and Testing Times
India enters a small group of nations which have tested over 1 million samples for COVID-19. Some reflections on the scale of the success and what it entails.
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COVID-19 and Modeling the Lock Down: Some Thoughts on a Viral Paper
A modeling paper discussing the impact of lock down has been virally transmitted on WhatsApp. In this post, I outline why I disagree with the core findings and assumptions of the model.
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The COVID-19 War Will be Lost in our Hospitals
My reflections on why we need to mount a community-owned action plan to combat COVID-19 and how it will be detrimental to depend on our secondary and tertiary care hospitals to fight the COVID-19 battle.
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Lessons from International Efforts to Control COVID-19
A quick summary of the policy steps taken by various countries to contain or mitigate the transmission of COVID-19.
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Infectious Disease Outbreaks in Kerala: May 2018 – May 2019
A brief summary of the infectious disease outbreaks reported from the state of Kerala between May 2018 and May 2019 by the Integrated Disease Surveillance Program of India. Despite the perception that the Infectious Disease challenge has been adequately met in India, the threat of outbreaks remain.
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PLOS NTD Launches New Focus Area on Enteric Infections and Enteric Dysfunction
A recent editorial in PLOS NTDs has declared that the journal will launch a specially focussed section on enteric infectionsContinue Reading
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AMR Goes Global: Detection of Allochthonous Anthropogenic AMR Genes in High Arctic Regions
This study has been popping up all over the AMR radar for me for the past week; so, when IContinue Reading
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Addressing Cholera Under-Reporting Key to Mounting Proportionate Public Health Response
A short argument for developing appropriate, sensitive, nation-wide surveillance networks to address the problem of under-reporting of cholera.
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Ending Cholera by 2030: Case Management Remains a Key Priority
My reflections on the proceedings of the 3rd meeting of the case management work group of the Global Task Force for Cholera Control, which met in Veyrier du Lac, France, in November, 2018. I spoke about the state of community based management of cholera in India.
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Study from Private Hospital Chain Reveals High Mortality in Patients with Multi Drug Resistant Infections
My thoughts on a recently published study that looks at the
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The Ills of Rattlesnake Pills
In the weird news section of the day, comes this one: child falls sick with lethal salmonella infection after consumingContinue Reading
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Leptospirosis Hits Puerto Rico in the Aftermath of Hurricane Maria
As expected, the news of rising numbers of leptospirosis cases are trickling in from Puerto Rico. Since Hurricane Maria hitContinue Reading
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Clinical Research in Times of Ebola… and other Epidemics
As the news trickles in about the raging cholera outbreak in Yemen, and an emerging outbreak is being dealt withContinue Reading
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#VisualAbstracts: Humans, Bats, Trees, Culture and Nipah Virus Transmission
A recent publication in the CDC’s Emerging Infectious Diseases journal talks about the factors related to the emergence of zoonoticContinue Reading
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Comparing the Rotavirus Vaccines in India
Comparisons of different rotavirus vaccines are difficult to make with a lot of precision because of the differing populations, protocols,Continue Reading
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Prevention and Control of Water Borne Diseases in Indian Monsoons
This post discusses some of the safeguards put in place to ensure the adequate prevention, control and treatment of water-borne diseases in India.
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Turning to the “Infected Jelly” to Treat Ebola
The NEJM has come out with a very interesting paper: Evaluation of Convalescent Plasma for Ebola Virus Disease in Guinea. TheContinue Reading
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If Carbapenems Go, Can Colistin be Far Behind?
I wrote about the disaster-in-the-making discovery of transmissible resistance to colistin, a last resort antibiotic, when the Lancet Infectious DiseasesContinue Reading
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Dengue Vaccines: A Quick Overview
The rising tide of dengue has slowed down in Delhi as the temperatures have started to dip. In the meanContinue Reading
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PHFI to Provide Research Grants for Zoonoses-Related Research
I have recently started working for the Roadmap to Control Zoonoses in India Initiative at the Public Health Foundation ofContinue Reading
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The Apocalypse is HERE: Transmissible Resistance to Last Resort Antibiotic (Colistin)
Polymyxins are a group of bacterial origin cyclic polypeptides with antibacterial properties. It was isolated by a Japanese researcher inContinue Reading
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Anthelminthic Drug Donation in the Epoch of Drug Resistance
The Journal of Global Antimicrobial Resistance has published an interesting review article discussing the impact of scale up of drugContinue Reading
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Derry City Football Team Hit by Mumps: Points to A Deeper Problem
The Derry Journal has reported that several players in the Derry City football team has come down with Mumps. TheContinue Reading
