The Indian Express
September 25, 2020
Panacea Biotec completes Phase I/II study of DengiAll vaccine
DengiAll is a single-dose live-attenuated tetravalent vaccine
Drug firm Panacea Biotec on Thursday said it has successfully completed Phase I/II clinical study to evaluate the safety and immunogenicity of its DengiAll vaccine.
According to the World Health Organization, dengue represents one of the 10 biggest global health threats and it is critical to have access to a safe and effective vaccine candidate that can reduce the devastating impact of dengue fever in endemic regions, Panacea Biotec said in a BSE filing.
DengiAll is a single-dose live-attenuated tetravalent vaccine. “Lt induced robust, balanced neutralising antibody responses against all the four dengue virus serotypes”, it said.
“DengiAll’s Phase I/II study results are even more important in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. Co-infection of dengue and COVID-19 in a dengue-endemic India may complicate approach to treatment and strain health care infrastructure,” Panacea Biotec MD Rajesh Jain said.
The company has already approached the Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) to seek accelerated review of its data to bring DengiAll to market quickly and reduce burden on the country’s healthcare infrastructure, he added.
Shares of Panacea Biotec were trading at Rs 196.80 per scrip on BSE, up 4.99 percent from its previous close.
https://www.tribuneindia.com/news/health/panacea-biotec-completes-phase-i-ii-study-of-dengiall-vaccine-145904
September 24, 2020
September 22, 2020
Russian vaccine gets bookings and requests for 1.2 bn doses
https://epaper.hindustantimes.com/Home/ArticleView
September 21, 2020
September 16, 2020
September 15, 2020
September 14, 2020
September 08, 2020
September 07, 2020
Covid-19: What you need to know today
https://epaper.tribuneindia.com/2812433/Haryana-Edition/HR-07-September-2020#clip/54767278/abd67ee9-bb94-4f83-983a-0042cd2e5c7a/512:802.3322505800464
So far, so good
https://epaper.tribuneindia.com/2812433/Haryana-Edition/HR-07-September-2020#clip/54767278/abd67ee9-bb94-4f83-983a-0042cd2e5c7a/512:802.3322505800464
September 03, 2020
September 01, 2020
Covid-19: What you need to know today
This column has often mentioned the similarities between the spread of the coronavirus disease
in the US and India, both geographically large and populous countries. The US is larger than
India; and India is more populous than the US. But there is a big difference — one that points
to a mystery in the Indian numbers.
Across US states, there is a significant similarity in terms of the number of cases per 100,000
people. The vast difference between the absolute number of cases in the US and India makes
comparisons difficult, but it is possible to look for similarities within the countries.
The difference (per 100,000 people; and from here on, wherever this column refers to cases it
is per 100,000 of the population) between the state ranked first (Louisiana) and the state ranked
20th is a third of the number of cases in the first. And many of the states in the top 10 (excluding
Louisiana) are clustered within 20% of the cases in the state with the second highest number
of cases, Florida. The difference between Louisiana and the state ranked 40th is 43% of the
number of cases in the former.
In India, Delhi is the city-state with the most number of cases per 100,000 people (875; this
analysis has excluded smaller states and Union Territories). It is followed by Andhra Pradesh
(813), Maharashtra (640), Tamil Nadu (557), Karnataka (510), and Telangana (330). The
difference per 100,000 cases between Delhi and Telangana is around 62% of the number of
cases in the former. The numbers drop off sharply after that.
Indeed, some of India’s most populous states figure towards the bottom of the list — West
Bengal, with 165 cases per 100,000; Bihar with 113; and Uttar Pradesh (100). At the national
level, India has 271 cases per 100,000 of the population. All numbers are from HT’s dashboard
as of Sunday night.
Testing explains some of this. For instance, India had tested 31,741 people per million of its
population till Sunday night. But Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and West Bengal had tested only 24,404,
25913, and 19043 people per million respectively. In a country that is a laggard when it comes
to testing, these states are in the lower quartile in terms of tests per million. Among the 10
countries ranked by the most cases in the world, only Mexico tests fewer per million than India.
In the 20 countries ranked by the most cases, only four (Mexico, Argentina, Bangladesh and
Pakistan) test fewer people per million.
But testing doesn’t explain it all. On Sunday, for instance, Uttar Pradesh carried out the most
tests but its positivity rate was among the lowest—4.42%. Bihar’s was lower still (1.92%) and
it carried out the most tests after Uttar Pradesh. Even West Bengal’s, on a much lower base of
tests, was around 7%. In contrast, Tamil Nadu, which carried out the third highest number of
tests after Uttar Pradesh and Bihar on Sunday, saw a positivity rate of 7.8%. And Maharashtra,
which carried out the fourth highest number of tests, saw a positivity rate of 22%. Delhi saw a
positivity rate of 9.9%.
Among these states, Delhi has seen its positivity rate plunge (from highs in the early 30s to
lows in the 5-7% range) before it started climbing again. Tamil Nadu was an early convert to
the merits of aggressive testing, but while the positivity rate has come off its peaks, the state is
clearly on a long plateau. As for the rest, their positivity rates aren’t, in most part, seeing the
kind of trend that should be seen with more testing — a rise, a long plateau, and a fall.
Some of the disparity between Indian states can be explained by the first wave of infections
largely being restricted to the large urban centres. But this newspaper has written about how
that is changing with 55.3% of the cases in the third million (India ended Monday with 3.68
million cases) coming from rural districts. The mystery, then, is that large states such as Uttar
Pradesh, Bihar, and West Bengal are not seeing the kind of numbers they should.
SPREAD OF cases WITHIN COUNTRIES
The virus is relatively evenly spread in the US. The difference between Louisiana (the state
with most per-capita cases) and the state ranked 40th is 43% of the cases in the former. In India,
the gap in cases per 100,000 residents between Delhi, which has the most per-capita cases, and
Telangana is around 62%
WHO’S TESTING MORE?
India had tested 31,741 people per million till Sunday night. Among the 10 countries ranked
by the most cases in the world, only Mexico tests fewer per million than India
RURAL SHIFT
The disparity between India’s states can be explained by the first wave of infections largely
being restricted to urban centres. But that is changing as more than half the cases in the third
million have come from rural districts.
Antiviral drug for cats may help humans fight COVID-19
The drug is a protease inhibitor that interferes with the virus's ability to replicate, thus ending
an infection, the study published in the journal Nature Communications reported. iStock
Researchers are preparing to launch clinical trials of a drug used to cure a deadly disease caused
by coronavirus in cats that they expect will be effective as a treatment for humans against
Covid-19.
"In just two months, our results have shown that the drug is effective at inhibiting viral
replication in cells with SARS-CoV-2," said a study researcher Joanne Lemieux from the
University of Alberta (UA) in Canada." "This drug is likely to work in humans so we're
encouraged that it will be an effective antiviral treatment for Covid-19 patients," Lemieux
added.
The drug is a protease inhibitor that interferes with the virus's ability to replicate, thus ending
an infection, the study published in the journal Nature Communications reported.
Proteases were key to many body functions and were common targets for drugs to treat
everything from high blood pressure to cancer and HIV. First studied by UA's John Vederas
and Michael James following the 2003 outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS),
the protease inhibitor was further developed by veterinary researchers who showed it cured a
disease that is fatal in cats. The researchers explained that Vederas synthesized the compounds
and researcher Lorne Tyrrell tested them against the SARS-CoV-2 virus in test tubes and
human cell lines.
The research team then revealed the crystal structure of the drug as it binds with the protein.
"We determined the three-dimensional shape of the protease with the drug in the active site
pocket showing the mechanism of inhibition. This allows us to develop even more effective
drugs," Lemieux said.
She will continue to test modifications of the inhibitor to make it a better fit inside the virus,
Lemieux added. But she said the current drug shows enough antiviral action against SARSCoV-
2 to proceed immediately to clinical trials.
"Typically for a drug to go into clinical trials, it has to be confirmed in the lab and then tested
in animal models," Lemieux said.
"Because this drug has already been used to treat cats with coronavirus and it's effective with
little to no toxicity, it's already passed those stages and this allows us to move forward," she
added.
The researchers have established a collaboration with Anivive Life Sciences, a veterinary
medicine company that is developing the drug for cats to produce the quality and quantity of
drug needed for human clinical trials. The team said it will likely be tested in Alberta in
combination with other promising antivirals such as remdesivir.
https://www.tribuneindia.com/news/health/antiviral-drug-for-cats-may-help-humans-fightcovid-
19-132750
Selective abortion in India may lead to 6.8 million fewer girls being born by 2030
Selective abortion in India may lead to 6.8 million fewer girls being born by 2030
Photo for representational purpose only
An estimated 6.8 million fewer female births will be recorded across India by 2030 due to sex selective
abortions, according to a study that projects the highest deficits in the birth of girls
will occur in Uttar Pradesh.
Researchers from King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), Saudi
Arabia, and Universite de Paris, France, noted that there has been a reported imbalance in India
in the sex ratio at birth (SRB) since the 1970s due to the emergence of prenatal sex selection
and the cultural preference for male babies.
Unlike other countries affected by such imbalances, India is unique in its regional diversity of
sex ratio imbalance, they said.
Previous projections of sex ratio at birth in India have been constructed at the national level or
were based primarily on expert opinion rather than reproducible modelling.
In the latest study, published in the journal PLOS ONE, researchers projected the SRB in the
largest 29 Indian States and Union Territories (UTs), which covered 98.4 per cent of the total
population of India as of the year 2011.
Among the 21 Indian States or UTs with high quality birth data, 17 showed a positive effective
of son preference on the SRB, with the highest SRBs concentrated in the most northwestern
States or UTs, the resaerchers said.
The team found that, in particular, the effect of son preference is statistically significant in nine
States or UTs.
“We project that the highest deficits in female births will occur in Uttar Pradesh, with a
cumulative number of missing female births of 2 million from 2017 to 2030,” the researchers
said.
“For the whole of India, summing up the 29 state-level projections, the cumulative number of
missing female births during 2017 to 2030 is projected to be 6.8,” they wrote in the study.
The average annual number of missing female births between 2017 and 2025 is projected to be
469,000 per year and is projected to increase to 519,000 per year for the time period 2026 to
2030, according to the researchers.
The projects represent an essential input for population projection models in India, especially
at the sub-national level, they added.
In India, sex-selective abortions and prenatal sex discernment tests were banned in 1994 under
the Pre-conception and Prenatal Diagnostic Techniques (Prohibition of Sex Selection) Act.
https://www.tribuneindia.com/news/health/selective-abortion-in-india-may-lead-to-6-8-
million-fewer-girls-being-born-by-2030-134201
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