Nipah virus outbreak exposes the chinks in Kerala’s health-care armour
If Kerala was taken by surprise last year by the first outbreak of Nipah virus infection, its recurrence this year strongly suggests that the virus is in circulation in fruit…
Category: Communicable disease
Singapore’s brush with monkeypox
To limit the spread of monkeypox disease, Singapore had identified 23 persons who were in close contact with the patient and offered smallpox vaccination. This is the first time Singapore…
Majority of MDR-TB cases in India due to direct transmission: Lancet
While India has set a highly ambitious target of “eliminating TB by 2025”, modelling studies published today say incidence and mortality will reduce by just 57% and 72% respectively by…
Siddha drug nilavembu kudineer kills dengue virus, protects from chikungunya
ICGEB researchers have found that the Siddha medicine nilavembu kudineer provides protection against chikungunya virus and treats dengue infection. The nilavembu kudineer formulation was found t be safe for use in…
Malarial drug effective for Zika virus treatment, IIT Mandi finds
IIT Mandi team has found that the FDA-approved drug for malaria (hydroxychloroquine or HCQ) binds to the protease enzyme of the Zika virus and stops the virus from replicating and…
India eradicated wild polio virus but at what cost
Despite oral polio vaccine causing vaccine-derived poliovirus (VDPV) and vaccine-associated paralytic poliomyelitis (VAPP) cases, India did not switch over from OPV to inactivated polio vaccine (IPV). While circulating VDPV strains…
IIT Roorkee team uses tamarind seed protein to treat chikungunya
IIT Roorkee researchers have found that a protein (TCLL) in tamarind seeds binds to NAG sugar molecule on chikungunya virus and reduces infectivity by 64% and RNA levels inside infected cells…
Can Congo again swiftly control Ebola spread, death?
Days after the WHO declared the end of the May 8 Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, a fresh outbreak was reported on August 1 in North Kivu. If…
