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Introduction The effects of COVID-19 infection persist beyond the active phase. Comprehensive description and analysis of the post COVID sequelae in various population groups are critical to minimise the long-term morbidity and mortality associated with COVID-19. This analysis was conducted with an objective to estimate the frequency of post COVID sequelae and subsequently, design a framework for holistic management of post COVID morbidities.Methods Follow-up data collected as part of a registry-based observational study in 31 hospitals across India since September 2020–October 2022 were used for analysis. All consenting hospitalised patients with COVID-19 are telephonically followed up for up to 1 year post-discharge, using a prestructured form focused on symptom reporting.Results Dyspnoea, fatigue and mental health issues were reported among 18.6%, 10.5% and 9.3% of the 8042 participants at first follow-up of 30–60 days post-discharge, respectively, which reduced to 11.9%, 6.6% and 9%, respectively, at 1-year follow-up in 2192 participants. Patients who died within 90 days post-discharge were significantly older (adjusted OR (aOR): 1.02, 95% CI: 1.01, 1.03), with at least one comorbidity (aOR: 1.76, 95% CI: 1.31, 2.35), and a higher proportion had required intensive care unit admission during the initial hospitalisation due to COVID-19 (aOR: 1.49, 95% CI: 1.08, 2.06) and were discharged at WHO ordinal scale 6–7 (aOR: 49.13 95% CI: 25.43, 94.92). Anti-SARS-CoV-2 vaccination (at least one dose) was protective against such post-discharge mortality (aOR: 0.19, 95% CI: 0.01, 0.03).Conclusion Hospitalised patients with COVID-19 experience a variety of long-term sequelae after discharge from hospitals which persists although in reduced proportions until 12 months post-discharge. Developing a holistic management framework with engagement of care outreach workers as well as teleconsultation is a way forward in effective management of post COVID morbidities as well as reducing mortality.

Background and Aims: Direct laryngoscopy and tracheal intubation cause an increase in heart rate (HR) and blood pressure, called as pressor response. This study aimed to compare nebulised forms of fentanyl, dexmedetomidine and magnesium sulphate to attenuate the haemodynamic response to laryngoscopy and tracheal intubation. Methods: This double-blinded, randomised study was conducted on 90 patients undergoing elective surgery requiring endotracheal intubation. Nebulisation was done with fentanyl 1 μg/kg (Group A), dexmedetomidine 1 μg/kg (Group B) and magnesium sulphate (MgSO4) (40 mg/kg) (Group C). Systolic blood pressure (SBP), diastolic blood pressure (DBP), mean arterial pressure (MAP) and HR were recorded before nebulisation (T0), post-nebulisation (T1) and at 2, 5 and 10 min after intubation (T2, T3, T4). The statistical analysis for comparing continuous variables between the groups was performed using analysis of variance (ANOVA), and a P value

Background: Hypertension is known as the silent killer. It comprehends the top rank in non-infectious disease amongst adults; accountable for the deaths every year across the world. It is essential to consider the individual impact of risk factors and their impact on hypertension. This study thus elicited the socio-demographic characteristics, the prevalence of hypertension and associated risk factors, and its impact on adults with hypertension. To estimate the hypertension prevalence and its associated risk factors among adult tribal populations aged 25–60 years residing in Lohandiguda block of Bastar district of Chhattisgarh. Material and Methods: A community-based cross-sectional analytical study was used and the setting was done at the field practice area under the three primary health centers of Lohandiguda block, Bastar district of Chhattisgarh. It was carried out among 330 adult tribes residing for ≥1 year in the present locality. Data was collected by door-to-door visits through pre-designed, pretested, semi-structured questionnaire via face-to-face interview method and anthropometric measurement was done by using standard guidelines. The sampling method was multistage sampling. IBM SPSS STATISTICS-20.0 (IBM Corp., Armonk, NY, USA) software. Results: The overall prevalence of pre-hypertension and hypertension among tribal subjects was 34.9% and 47.3%, respectively. Of total hypertensive 27.3% were having stage-1 hypertension, 13.9% were having stage-2 hypertension and 6.0% were already diagnosed cases. Risk factors found in multivariate analysis are occupation (unemployed 0.012), frequency of smokeless tobacco used per day (0.,017) and central obesity (0.000). Conclusions: As hypertension is a multi-factorial disease the study found strong predictors like occupation, frequency of smokeless tobacco per day and having central obesity with significant difference.

Abstract Aim: Exploitation of nano-based materials has increased the disposal of nanoparticles into the environment. Toxic nanomaterials pose their adverse effects and severely impact the human and environmental health. The aim of this study was to explore the toxic effects of chemically-synthesized copper oxide nanoparticles (CuO-NPs) on Chlorella vulgaris using an algal growth inhibition assay. Materials and Methods: Nanoparticles were synthesized using cupric sulfate and sodium hydroxide. Synthesized nanoparticles were characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), ultraviolet-visible (UV-vis) spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction (XRD), and transmission electron microscopy. C. vulgaris culture was exposed to various concentrations of CuO-NPs at intervals of 3, 6, 12, and 24 h. Growth inhibition assay of algal culture was estimated via the spectroscopic method and cell enumeration was done by Neubauer hemocytometry. Results: The average diameter of CuO-NPs was ~35.85 nm. UV-Vis spectroscopy was used to confirm the configuration of CuO-NPs. Therefore, FTIR results has indicated high purity of synthesized CuO-NPs. Size of the CuO-NPs was determined by XRD. Results showed that growth of C. vulgaris microalgae was notably affected by the exposure of 2 mg/L CuO-NPs concentration exposure for 6 h. Conclusion: The current work showed that CuO-NPs have significant toxic to Chlorella sp. Data analysis showed NPs have broad effects on growth of C. vulgaris and there is a correlation between nanoparticles concentration as well as their toxicity on the microalgae.

The infrastructure development involves the demolition of non-functional establishments and the construction of the desired infrastructure needs, which generates construction and demolition (C&D) waste in enormous volumes. The demolished concrete and brick wastes are found mixed together, if not separated before crushing. Therefore, the geotechnical behavior of blends of recycled concrete aggregate (RCA) and recycled brick aggregates (RBA) with different proportions should be identified in order to find their suitability in geotechnical applications. This paper presents the geotechnical and geo-environmental characterization of RCA, RBA, and their blends (75RCA-25RBA, 50RCA-50RBA, 25RCA-75RBA). The recycled waste aggregates and their blends under this study have excellent shear strength, hydraulic conductivity, and compaction characteristics. The values of cohesion intercept (c) and angle of internal friction (ф) are found in the range of 50 to 63 kPa and 55˚ to 71˚, respectively. It is observed that the optimum values of shear strength parameters (c = 63 kPa, ф = 64˚), hydraulic conductivity (3.12 × 10-5 m/s), and compaction characteristics (OMC = 11.50 %, MDD = 1.96 gm/cm3) are found for 50 % RBA content in RCA-RBA blends. The water absorption is found on the verge of upper bounds considering pavement applications. The impact and crushing resistance of blends are found comparably low and decrease with increased RBA content in RCA. Therefore, their applicability to the surface course, even to the base course in pavements, may be restricted. Based on experimental results current study suggested that up to 50 % RBA content in RCA-RBA blends may provide satisfactory performance in various geotechnical applications like: pavement base and sub-base, fill material in embankments and reinforced earth structure, etc.

Abstract Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever (CCHF) virus, a highly pathogenic viral agent is responsible for severe fatal hemorrhagic infections in many parts of the world. The early diagnosis of CCHF infection is important for successful clinical management and epidemiological control. The nucleoprotein (NP) of CCHFV being highly conserved and immunogenic is used as early diagnostic marker. In this study, we report a rapid and sensitive double antibody based antigen capture ELISA to detect Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever virus (CCHFV). Highly specific polyclonal and monoclonal antibody against NP has been generated and used as capture and detector antibody respectively. The assay was able to detect viral nucleoprotein in different matrices including human serum, ticks and culture supernatant. The detection limit of the developed sandwich ELISA assay was 25 ng of purified antigen. Comparison with a real time RT-PCR revealed its detection limit to be 1000 genome equivalents of CCHFV. Further the assay was comparatively evaluated with a commercial kit employing gamma irradiated CCHFV, revealing a sensitivity and specificity of 100%. This newly developed sandwich ELISA (sELISA) with high sensitivity and specificity could be used as an efficient method for the detection of CCHF virus in humans, ticks and culture supernatant. The assay will be useful as alternate tool for diagnosis of acute infection and is amenable for screening of large scale samples in resource limited settings.

Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever (CCHF) is an important tick borne zoonotic viral disease of humans. CCHF virus causes sporadic cases of severe illness across a huge geographic area across Africa to Europe to Asia including India. CCHF has emerged as a major public health concern in western Indian states including Gujarat and Rajasthan, where regular human cases were reported since the year 2011. Human serve as the dead-end host, and they gain infection via infected tick bite, in close contact with ruminants and from slaughter house. Currently, the detection of this fatal infection is limited to BSL-4 laboratory which is scarce even in developed economies. Thus, a safe, sensitive assay for early immunodiagnosis is crucial for disease management and containing the outbreak. In this study, the conserved recombinant nucleoprotein was exploited as a safe, scalable alternate antigen for development of indirect IgM and IgG ELISA detection platform. The indirect ELISA was evaluated using suspected clinical samples collected from hotspot areas in India. Comparison with reference MAC ELISA and IgG ELISA revealed a correlation of 95% and 100% respectively. The results indicate that the developed IgM and IgG indirect ELISA has high sensitivity and specificity for detecting CCHFV antibodies among human. These assays are easy to perform and can be employed for high throughput screening of human samples for clinical diagnosis as well as serosurveillance. These assays are also amenable for conversion to low-cost point of care testing formats for application in resource limited settings.

Background: Cement in one hand is the most used substance for construction all over the world but on the other hand prolonged exposure from cement dust particles along with smoking, long working duration in dusty environments and increasing age impairs pulmonary functions. Objectives: The study aimed to determine the effect of cement dust on the pulmonary functions of cement factory workers. Methods: It was a cross-sectional observational study conducted from October 2019 to February 2020 among 360 workers of cement factories of Chhattisgarh state selected by systematic random sampling who were interviewed. Spirometry was done and their forced vital capacity, forced expiratory volume in one second, Forced expiratory flow, peak expiratory flow rate, and lung age were determined with a flow-sensing spirometer. Data were collected, entered in MS Excel spreadsheet, and analyzed using SPSS software (version 20.0) for Chi-square test, linear regression, and general linear model. Results: One-third of the study subjects had pulmonary dysfunction, out of which 10% and 30% were having severe and moderate dysfunction, respectively. Significant higher Odds for developing impaired pulmonary functions were seen among >40 years of age (adjusted odds ratio [AOR] =1.88 [1.13, 3.12]), more than 10 years of service (AOR = 4.69 [2.32, 9.53]) and smokers (AOR = 4.45 [2.53, 7.83]) Conclusion: Working in dusty environment along with other factors in cement factories significantly decrease lung parameters. Exposure with dust is strong predictor for chronic respiratory symptoms.

Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever (CCHF) is a re-emerging zoonotic viral disease prevalent in many parts of Asia, Europe, and Africa. The causative agent, Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever orthonairovirus (CCHFV), is transmitted through hard ticks. Tick vectors especially belonging to the Hyalomma species serve as the reservoir and amplifying host. The vertebrate animals including sheep, goat, and bovine act as a short-lasting bridge linking the virus and ticks. CCHFV causes fatal hemorrhagic fever in humans. Humans are usually infected with CCHFV either through the bite of infected ticks or by close contact with infected animals. Immunological assays, primarily enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) using whole viral antigen, are widely used for serosurveillance in animals. However, the whole virus antigen poses a high biohazard risk and can only be produced in biosafety level 4 laboratories. The present study focuses on the development and evaluation of safe, sensitive, and specific IgG indirect enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (iELISA) using recombinant nucleoprotein (NP) of CCHF virus as an antigen. The codon-optimized NP gene sequence was synthesized, cloned, and expressed in pET28a+ vector. The recombinant NP was purified to homogeneity by affinity chromatography and characterized through Western blot and MALDI-TOF/MS analysis. The characterized protein was used to develop an indirect IgG microplate ELISA using a panel of animal sera. The in-house ELISA was comparatively evaluated vis-à-vis a commercially available ELISA kit (Vector-Best, Russia) with 76 suspected samples that revealed a concordance of 90% with a sensitivity and specificity of 79.4 and 100%, respectively. The precision analysis revealed that the assay is robust and reproducible in different sets of conditions. Further, the assay was used for serosurveillance in ruminants from different regions of India that revealed 18% seropositivity in ruminants, indicating continued circulation of virus in the region. The findings suggest that the developed IgG iELISA employing recombinant NP is a safe and valuable tool for scalable high-throughput screening of CCHFV-specific antibodies in multiple species.