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The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a novel illness, which is not fully understood. Whether an individual has traveled outside their respective country or never left their community, COVID-19 is a highly contagious illness, which can result in high death rates. Biobanks will play a role in providing tools to examine data from those receiving treatment along with reviewing the current and long treatment outcomes associated with this novel coronavirus disease. A diverse, global network made up of laboratory scientists, clinical researchers, epidemiologists, data science teams, physicians, and so on must have a standardized, collaborative, virtual biobanking solution to share clinical expertise and evidence-based solutions. This virtual biobank must be centrally managed to ensure standardized quality assurance and quality control efforts. Virtual biobanks will eliminate the need to transport samples between two locations for a specific study, minimizing the risk of contamination. It is necessary for virtual biobanks to upload imaging data from those patients diagnosed with COVID-19. Standardized, collected information will be essential in the area of discovery and validation of disease markers as well as novel therapeutic strategies. It is essential for biobanks to collect COVID-19 specimens along with corresponding clinical and demographic data from COVID-19 diagnostic testing. Because COVID-19 is an acute respiratory illness, proper collection procedures must be in place to collect respiratory samples for biobanking purposes. A preconfigured purpose-built COVID-19 Laboratory Information Management System (LIMS) is an efficient tool to seamlessly manage a data sharing network. Data entered into LIMS will be beneficial in designing much needed clinical trials to address any unmet needs to better address clinical treatment and outcomes. The partners or entities associated with the COVID-19 data sharing network will be able to effectively communicate, view data, and images associated with their respective research interest to advance COVID-19 research and data driven, clinical care.

An extensive study has been carried out within the site of Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, Trombay, for examining the atmospheric dispersion of (41)Ar released from research reactors. The release rate, release height, meteorological parameters and geographical information were used to establish correlation between theoretical estimation using Gaussian plume dispersion model (GPDM) and dose/dose rate data obtained from Gammatracers (GTs). Ten monitoring locations were selected in five sectors and at different downwind distances from the release point. Analysis of dose rate data shows that the maximum dose rate (7.19 μSv h(-1)) and the total annual dose (1051 μSv) were observed at a downwind distance of 0.36 km. Average dose rates of all monitoring locations were varying from 0.03±0.02 to 0.12±0.07 μSv h(-1). The average dose rate increases at the monitoring locations placed at N to NE sectors during monsoon, and for monitoring locations placed at SW and SSE sectors during winter. The maximum dose rates, monthly and annual doses recorded by GT, have been compared with predicted values. Most of the locations show statistically significant coherence in the case of monthly dose.

A prospective observational study was performed to know the profile and outcome of paediatric Intensive care unit admitted patients. Paediatric intensive care unit admitted patients are mostly male (65%), suffering from critical respiratory (36%) and CNS diseases (35.4%). The survival at paediatric intensive care unit was 37.5% (25% were mechanically ventilated). Successful mechanical ventilation was done for 45 days. Major cause of mortality was sepsis with multiorgan dysfunction. Commonest organism Isolated from blood was Klebsiella pneumoniae (38%). Most Gram-negative organisms were sensitive only to carbapenems, some were sensitive only to polymyxin B. All staphylococci were resistant to vancomycin.

Epidemics of dengue outbreak are frequent in south-east Asian countries. Dengue is a major cause of morbidity and mortality in this region. This prospective observational study was done at Dr BC Roy Memorial for Children during the outbreak in 2005 in Kolkata to know the clinical pattern of dengue cases and to find the possible markers of development of dengue hemorrhagic fever. Two hundred and eighty seropositive cases of dengue were included in the study. Among paediatric population, 5 to 10 years age group was most commonly affected. One-sixth of the cases were from villages indicating the extension of the epidemic in rural areas. Abrupt onset of high fever, non-purulent conjunctival injection, erythematous lips, flushed appearance, myalgia, arthralgia, headache and thrombocytopenia were the predominant features. Rhinitis and pharyngitis were rarely found. Prolonged fever more than 7 days, flushed appearance, pharyngeal congestion, shock evidence, serous effusion, bleeding manifestations, thrombocytopenia, elevated liver enzymes and elevated PCV were associated with development of dengue haemorrhagic fever and dengue shock syndrome.

Aim: A total of 625 faecal specimens of diarrheic cases (n-313) and non diarrheic controls (n-312), were screened by RT-PCR to detect Noroviruses in children aged below 5 years in Kolkata, India., Materials and Methods: Out of the 313 fecal specimens (cases) screened using CDC primer set, 10 (3.19%) showed amplification in reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) for Norovirus. These included 5 of 260 (1.92%) from hospitalized and 5 of 53 (9.43%) from out patients departament (OPD) cases., Results: Nine (90%) of Norovirus positive cases belonged to genogroup GII and one specimen (10%) was positive for genogroup GI. Among the 312 non diarrheic controls 2 (0.63%) were positive for Norovirus GII. Partial RNA dependent RNA polymerase gene (RdRp) sequences corresponding to the six Norovirus GII positive samples showed homology to the sequences of Djibouti (horn of Africa), Brazil, Italy, Japan and US norovirus strains., Conclusion: This study shows the detection of newly emerging Norovirus strains among diarrheic and non diarrheic children in Kolkata.

Acute respiratory tract infections (ARTIs) are one of the most common causes of morbidity and mortality in young children worldwide. Influenza virus and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) are the predominant aetiological agents during seasonal epidemics, and thus rapid and sensitive molecular tests for screening for such agents and timely identification of epidemics are required. This study compared real-time quantitative PCR (qPCR) with conventional RT-PCR for parallel identification of influenza A virus (IAV) or influenza B virus (IBV) and RSV. A total of 1091 respiratory samples was examined from children with suspected ARTIs between January 2007 and December 2008. Of these, 275 (25.21 %) were positive for either influenza or RSV by qPCR compared with 262 (24 .01%) positive by RT-PCR. Overall, IAV, IBV and RSV were detected in 121 (11.09 %), 59 (5.41 %) and 95 (8.71 %) samples, respectively. In spite of overlapping clinical symptoms, RSV and influenza virus showed distinct seasonal peaks. IAV correlated positively and RSV negatively with rainfall and temperature. No distinct seasonality was observed in IBV infections. This is, to the best of our knowledge, the first report of a systemic surveillance of respiratory viruses with seasonal correlation and prevalence rates from eastern India. This 2 year comparative analysis also confirmed the feasibility of using qPCR in developing countries, which will not only improve the scope for prevention of epidemics, but will also provide crucial epidemiological data from tropical regions.

Background: Noroviruses (NoVs) are one of the major causal agents of acute gastroenteritis among different age groups. Some of the recent studies reveal that NoV genome is highly prone to mutation and recombination which often leads to emergence of new strains., Objectives: To explore the genetic diversity of human Caliciviruses (HuCVs) among diarrhoeic children in Kolkata., Study Design: The HuCVs were detected by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) of the partial RNA dependent RNA polymerase gene (RdRp) and capsid gene and confirmed by sequencing. The sequences were analyzed and the recombination point was detected., Results: Faecal specimens of children (n=111) visiting outpatient department of Dr B. C. Roy Memorial Hospital for Children with acute gastroenteritis were studied: 22 cases were HuCV positive with 21 NoVs. Of these, 12 NoV cases (54.5%) were GII.4 and six cases showed 99% identity with the new variant Japanese strain Hu/NoV/GII.4/OC07138/JP. Three novel NoV GII inter-genotype recombinant strains V1628/IND, V1656/IND and V1737/IND were also detected. The RdRp region of V1628 showed 96% identity with Pont de Roide 673/FRN whereas capsid region resembled GII.7/Osaka F140/JPN strain (98%); the strain V1656 showed 98% identity with RdRp region of GII.4/Monastir 375/TUN but capsid region resembled GII.8/Leverkusen 267/DE (91%); the strain V1737 showed 88% identity with RdRp of GII.5/Minato 6/N1/6/JPN whereas capsid region resembled the GII.12/Gifu 96/JPN (93%). During characterization of Caliciviruses two strains of NoV GII.b and one strain of each NoV GI.1/V1622/06/IND, GI.3/V1707/07/IND, GII.3/V1668/IND, GII.16/V1729/IND, Sapovirus GII.1/V1716/IND were also detected., Conclusions: The emergence of new variant of GII.4/2007, three novel NoV GII inter-genotype recombinant strains and various other NoVs, indicates the remarkable genetic diversity of the HuCVs as diarrhoeagenic viruses circulating in Kolkata, India.

Background & Objectives: The rapid spread of multidrug resistant (MDR) typhoid fever has posed a great challenge for the treatment of these cases the world over. After the emergence of chloramphenicol resistant Salmonella typhi strains, ciprofloxacin has become the drug of choice for the treatment of typhoid fever even in the paediatric age group. This study evaluated the role of ceftriaxone therapy in bacteriologically confirmed MDR typhoid cases who did not respond to 12-14 days of ciprofloxacin therapy. Attempts have also been made to investigate the in vitro susceptibility of isolated S. typhi strains to chloramphenicol, ciprofloxacin and ceftriaxone., Methods: A total of 140 children, aged 3-10 yr, clinically diagnosed as having typhoid fever, without any clinical response after 12-14 days of ciprofloxacin therapy were screened for S. typhi by blood culture. In the bacteriologically positive children the treatment was changed to intravenous ceftriaxone for 14 days. The isolated strains of S. typhi were tested for in vitro antimicrobial susceptibility., Results: Clinical and bacteriological cure was observed with intravenous ceftriaxone therapy in all the 32 bacteriologically positive patients. All isolated S. typhi strains were uniformly (100%) susceptible to ciprofloxacin and ceftriaxone but 50 per cent of the strains were resistant to chloramphenicol. The MIC values of chloramphenicol, ciprofloxacin and ceftriaxone ranged between 125-500, 0.0625-0.5 and < 0.0625 microgram/ml respectively., Interpretation & Conclusion: The study indicates that although the S. typhi strains were susceptible to ciprofloxacin in vitro, the patients did not respond clinically and bacteriologically to ciprofloxacin therapy. Hence, ciprofloxacin may not represent a reliable and useful option for treating MDR typhoid fever; ceftriaxone may be an effective alternative for the treatment of such cases.

Objective: To provide information about the characteristics of diarrheal stool in multi-drug resistant typhoid fever and observe the clinical course after treatment with furazolidone or ciprofloxacin., Setting: Hospital based., Subjects and Methods: Twenty one male children who were positive for multi-drug resistant S. typhi by blood and stool cultures, having diarrhea at the time of hospitalization comprised the subjects. Serum and stool electrolytes were estimated. Stool samples were also processed to detect established enteropathogens, leukocytes and red blood cells. Children were treated either with furazolidone or ciprofloxacin and evaluated till recovery., Results: Mean (+/- SD) pre-admission duration of fever and diarrhea of these cases were 19.1 (+/- 5.6) and 15.8 (+/- 4.6) days, respectively. Stool character in 81% of the patients was watery with mean (+/- SD) volume of stool 51.4 (+/- 25.1) ml per kg body weight in the first 24 hours of observation. Leukocyte count varied between 20-49 per high power field in 66.7% stool samples. Occult blood was present in only 19% cases. Fecal red blood cells in high power field were detected in 52.4% cases. Mean fecal electrolytes (mmol/liter) were as follows: sodium-53.8, potassium-51.4, chloride-41.6 and total CO2-24.3. Most of the children (71.4%) had no dehydration and had normal serum electrolytes. The isolated strains of S. typhi were multi-drug resistant. These children were treated successfully either with furazolidone or ciprofloxacin., Conclusion: The stools of multi-drug resistant typhoid fever patients were watery with little blood. Their electrolyte contents were more similar to the diarrheal stool seen in shigellosis rather than cholera. Uncontrolled observations revealed that children recovered with furazolidone or ciprofloxacin therapy.