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In early December 2019, an outbreak of novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) or the severe acute respiratory syndrome corona virus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) as it is now called, occurred in Wuhan City, Hubei Province, China. On January 30, 2020 the World Health Organization declared the outbreak as a Public Health Emergency of International Concern. Vaccines to prevent human coronavirus infections are not yet available. Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) spreads primarily when people are in close contact with small droplets produced by an infected person, identified as “super spreaders”. COVID-19 can be fatal among high-risk groups patients >60 yr. The envelope spike “S” protein receptor binding domain of SARS-CoV-2 use host receptor angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) to enter the cells of airway epithelium and alveolar type 2 (AT2) pneumocytes, and pulmonary cells. The most common clinical features are fever (80-90%), cough (60-80%) and breathlessness (18-46%). The other symptoms include myalgia, sore throat, loss of taste and smell, headache, nausea, vomiting and diarrhoea. Infection control practices to be followed stringently by Health Care Workers (HCW). Standard precautions to be maintained. Specimen to be packed in triple container packing. Cold temperature to be maintained during transport and storage. Laboratory tests of COVID-19 are broadly categorized into two methods: (1) Nucleic acid based assay: RT-PCR, TrueNAT, CBNAAT & (2) Immunoassay: Can be broadly divided into 2 types: Antigen based assay: Rapid antigen test, Antibody based assay: enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Keywords: coronavirus; COVID-19; laboratory diagnosis; SARS-CoV-2

Background: Pseudomonas aeruginosa is a leading cause of nosocomial infections. Increased resistance in this organism continues to cause a significant threat to patient care because of limited therapeutic options. Knowledge of the prevalence of P. aeruginosa in various infections and its antimicrobial susceptibility pattern is one of the salient attributes for selection of appropriate therapy. Objective: To determine the prevalence and antibiotic resistance pattern of P. aeruginosa from various clinical samples collected from different ICUs. Methodology: From 10,332 clinical specimen received over a period of one year, a total of 267 P. aeruginosa isolates were identified and minimum inhibitory concentrations for various antibiotics was found out with help of automated method VITEK 2 (bioMerieux). Results: A total of 267 (2.58%) P. aeruginosa isolates were identified from various clinical specimens. Maximum number 49 (18.35%) of isolates were recovered from patients in 61-70 years age group. The sensitivity pattern of the isolates is as follows - colistin (80.14%), amikacin (52.05%), ciprofloxacin (47.19%), gentamicin (46.55%), cefepime (44.56%), imipenem (42.69%), cefoperazone/ sulbactam (42.69%), levofloxacin (41.57%), meropenem (39.70%), ceftazidime (38.20%), piperacillin/ tazobactam (31.08%), aztreonam (25.46%) and Ticarcillin/ clavulanic acid (22.47%). Conclusion: The prevalence and sensitivity of P. aeruginosa varies between communities, hospitals and different patient populations. It is therefore, important to institute a system of surveillance in a hospital so that clinicians have access to recent data on prevalence and antimicrobial resistance which helps in making clinical judgement in therapy.

Introduction: Hepatitis C is one of the most common bloodborne diseases causing significant morbidity and mortality globally. Objective: This study was designed to evaluate the correlation between 3rd generation ELISA positives for anti-HCV antibodies with real time PCR, among various categories of patients attending KIMS hospital. Methods: This is a hospital based retrospective study at KIMS hospital, Secunderabad, India conducted between August 2013 and July 2015. From laboratory data, 115 patients, found to be anti-HCV antibody positive (done by CLIA method) were included in the study. Real-Time Reverse Transcription-PCR (RT-PCR) for hepatitis C virus (HCV) was done for these patient samples subsequently. Results: Among a total of 115 anti-HCV antibody positive cases, 70(60.86%) were positive and 45(39.13%) were negative by HCV RNA PCR. Conclusion: ELISA assays have many advantages in diagnostic settings including ease of automation, ease of use, relative cost effectiveness and low variability. Additional or confirmatory testing like RT-PCR is often helpful. The HCV RNA test is still regarded as a standard in the detection of active infection and for monitoring treatment.

Background: The diagnosis of oral malignancy and epithelial dysplasia has traditionally been based upon histopathological evaluation of full thickness biopsy from lesional tissue. As many studies had shown that incisional biopsy could cause progression of the tumors, many alternative methods of collection of samples had been tested. Oral brush biopsy is a transepithelial biopsy where it collects cells from basal cell layer noninvasively. Aim: To assess the diagnostic accuracy of brush biopsy when compared to histopathology in a group of patients with features of potentially malignancy. Materials and Methods : In the present study, 60 cases of clinically diagnosed leukoplakia are selected and subjected to histopathology and brush biopsy. Results and Conclusion: Results showed that of 16 dysplasia cases confirmed by histopathology, only 12 were positively reported in oral brush biopsy. In 44 cases, the reports are same for histopathology and brush biopsy. The sensitivity of oral brush biopsy is 43.5% and specificity is 81.25% with a positive predictive value of 58.3%. Oral brush biopsy with molecular markers like tenascin and keratins can be an accurate diagnostic test.