RECENT DEVELOPMENTS IN LABORATORY DIAGNOSIS OF COVID-19 INFECTION- AN UPDATE

2021 ◽  
pp. 58-60
Author(s):  
Ivneet Kour ◽  
Lipika Singhal ◽  
Varsha Gupta
Keyword(s):  
Point Of Care ◽  
Laboratory Diagnosis ◽  
Public Health Emergency ◽  
World Health ◽  
Global Public Health ◽  
Rt Pcr ◽  
Testing Strategies ◽  
Recent Developments ◽  
Health Organization ◽  
Point Of Care Tests

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is an infectious disease caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). This new virus and disease were unknown before the outbreak began in Wuhan, Hubei Province of China, in December 2019. The World Health Organization (WHO) initially declared COVID19 as the global public health emergency on 30th January 2020 and subsequently a pandemic on March 11, 2020. Besides availability of RT-PCR there is need for development of rapid point of care tests with better sensitivity and specicity which helps in early and accurate diagnosis and also aids in containing the spread . This review summarizes various molecular diagnostics methods, technical guidelines, and advanced testing strategies adopted in India for laboratory diagnosis of COVID-19.

scholarly journals Cutaneous presentation of COVID-19 Case Report

2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
pp. 01-02
Author(s):  
Khadiga Ismail
Keyword(s):  
Public Health Emergency ◽  
World Health ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Scientific Journals ◽  
Global Public Health ◽  
The World ◽  
Global Spread ◽  
Novel Coronavirus ◽  
Health Organization ◽  
Recent Attention

COVID-19 has high transmissibility and infectivity among human. On January 30, 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) in an effort to slow down the global spread of the virus declared the outbreak, “A global public health emergency of international concern". The skin manifestations of the novel coronavirus COVID-19 were not recognized at the early stages of the pandemic but have received much recent attention in scientific journals. Reported manifestations range from pseudo-chilblains to a morbilliform (measles-like) exanthem, urticaria, vesicular eruptions, a dengue-like petechial rash and ovate scaling macules, and plaques mimicking pityriasis rosea.

scholarly journals Overcoming the Pandemic: Analysing the Ongoing Challenges in the Prevention of COVID-19 in India

2020 ◽  
Vol 22 (4) ◽  
pp. 630-652
Author(s):  
Puneeta Ajmera ◽  
Jaseela Majeed ◽  
Ramesh K. Goyal ◽  
Sheetal Yadav ◽  
Debraj Mukhopadhyay
Keyword(s):  
Prevention And Control ◽  
Public Health Emergency ◽  
Decision Makers ◽  
World Health ◽  
Family Welfare ◽  
Published Data ◽  
Global Public Health ◽  
Recent Outbreak ◽  
Health Organization ◽  
And Control

World Health Organization (WHO) has declared the recent outbreak of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) a Pandemic and a global public health emergency. The eventual scope and consequences of this outbreak are uncertain at present as the condition is swiftly evolving. The purpose of this article is to cumulate existing published data and researches, identify the challenges with reference to India and develop a comprehensive preventive plan to prevent the spread of this deadly pandemic. The authors explored WHO situation dashboards, the web portal of Ministry of Health and Family Welfare of India and press reports of different countries, published literature on coronavirus transmission, textbooks, scientific and medical journals and several other sources to identify ongoing challenges in the fight against COVID-19 in India. After an exhaustive literature search, 15 ongoing challenges in the fight against novel COVID-19 especially with reference to India have been identified. After a thorough analysis of all these challenges along with the lessons from the International community, a preventive plan has been established to be devised by different agencies from our personal perspectives to overcome the challenges which may assist decision-makers in the prevention and control of COVID-19 in India.

Zika

2017 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 224-227
Author(s):  
Rabia Aftab
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Pregnant Women ◽  
Zika Virus ◽  
Public Health Emergency ◽  
World Health ◽  
Global Public Health ◽  
Geographic Spread ◽  
The World ◽  
Public Health Threat ◽  
Health Organization

The Zika virus (ZIKV), first discovered in 1947, has emerged as a global public health threat over the last decade, with an accelerated geographic spread of the virus occurring in the last 5 years. The World Health Organization (WHO) predicts that millions of cases of ZIKV are likely to occur in the Americas between 2016 and 2017. These projections, in conjunction with an increase in newborn microcephaly cases that are suspected to be ZIKV-associated, prompted the WHO to declare a public health emergency of international concern in February 2016. With the current media attention, it is likely that GPs will be consulted on th topic, particularly by pregnant women.

scholarly journals Analytical sensibility and specificity of two RT-qPCR protocols for SARS-CoV-2 detection performed in an automated workflow

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gustavo Barcelos Barra ◽  
Ticiane Henriques Santa Rita ◽  
Pedro Góes Mesquita ◽  
Rafael Henriques Jácomo ◽  
Lídia Freire Abdalla Nery
Keyword(s):  
Laboratory Diagnosis ◽  
Public Health Emergency ◽  
World Health ◽  
Analytical Sensitivity ◽  
Rna Targets ◽  
Qualitative Detection ◽  
The World ◽  
Confirmatory Assay ◽  
Automated Platform ◽  
Health Organization

AbstractThe World Health Organization declared that COVID-19 outbreak constituted a Public Health Emergency of International Concern and the development of reliable laboratory diagnosis of SARS-CoV-2 became mandatory to identify, isolate and provide optimized care for patients early. RT-qPCR testing of respiratory secretions is routinely used to detect causative viruses in acute respiratory infection. RT-qPCR in-house protocols to detect the SARS-CoV-2 have been described. Validations of these protocols are considered a key knowledge gap for COVID-19, especially if executed in a high throughput format. Here, we investigate the analytical sensitivity and specificity of two interim RT-qPCR protocols for the qualitative detection of SARS-CoV-2 executed in a fully automated platform. Under our conditions, the N1 and RdRP (modified) showed the highest analytical sensitivity for their RNA targets. E assay, in its original concentration, was considered a tertiary confirmatory assay. Taken together, N1, RdRP (optimized) and E presented appropriated analytical sensibility and specificity in our automated RT-qPCR workflow for COVID-19 virus, E being at least 4-fold less sensitive than the others. This study highlights the importance of local validation of in-house assays before its availability to the population. The use of the synthetic RT-qPCR target to investigate novel assays diagnostic parameters in automated workflows is a quick, simple effective way to be prepared for upcoming threats. The proposed assay detected the fisrt SARS-CoV-2 infection in Brazilian Central-West.

scholarly journals Current and emerging diagnostic tests available for the novel COVID-19 global pandemic

2020 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
pp. 8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gerald Mboowa
Keyword(s):  
Diagnostic Tests ◽  
Point Of Care ◽  
World Health ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Global Pandemic ◽  
The Us ◽  
The Status ◽  
Novel Coronavirus ◽  
Health Organization ◽  
Point Of Care Tests

On March 11, 2020 the World Health Organization (WHO) upgraded the status of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak from epidemic to a global pandemic. This infection is caused by a novel coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2. Several rapid diagnostic tests have been developed at an astonishing pace; however, COVID-19 requires more highly specific rapid point-of-care diagnostic tests. This review describes the currently available testing approaches, as well as the available test assays including the Xpert® Xpress SARS-CoV-2 test (takes ~45 min) and Abbott ID COVID-19 test (5 min) as easy to use point-of-care tests for diagnosis of novel COVID-19 that have so far received the US Food and Drug Administration emergency use authorizations clearance. This review is correct as of the date published and will be updated as more diagnostic tests come to light.

scholarly journals The detection dogs test is more sensitive than real-time PCR in screening for SARS-CoV-2

2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mohammed Hag-Ali ◽  
Abdul Salam AlShamsi ◽  
Linda Boeijen ◽  
Yasser Mahmmod ◽  
Rashid Manzoor ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Low Cost ◽  
High Sensitivity ◽  
World Health ◽  
Surveillance Systems ◽  
Global Public Health ◽  
Rt Pcr ◽  
Nasal Swabs ◽  
Timely Access ◽  
Asymptomatic Individuals ◽  
Health Organization

AbstractIn January 2020, the coronavirus disease was declared, by the World Health Organization as a global public health emergency. Recommendations from the WHO COVID Emergency Committee continue to support strengthening COVID surveillance systems, including timely access to effective diagnostics. Questions were raised about the validity of considering the RT-PCR as the gold standard in COVID-19 diagnosis. It has been suggested that a variety of methods should be used to evaluate advocated tests. Dogs had been successfully trained and employed to detect diseases in humans. Here we show that upon training explosives detection dogs on sniffing COVID-19 odor in patients’ sweat, those dogs were able to successfully screen out 3249 individuals who tested negative for the SARS-CoV-2, from a cohort of 3290 individuals. Additionally, using Bayesian analysis, the sensitivity of the K9 test was found to be superior to the RT-PCR test performed on nasal swabs from a cohort of 3134 persons. Given its high sensitivity, short turn-around-time, low cost, less invasiveness, and ease of application, the detection dogs test lends itself as a better alternative to the RT-PCR in screening for SARS-CoV-2 in asymptomatic individuals.

scholarly journals Impact of COSARS-Cov-2 on Cardio-Pulmonary-Immune Signatures: A Review of Recent Developments with a Look toward the Future

2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (4) ◽  
pp. 01-05
Author(s):  
Charan Kudumula
Keyword(s):  
Central China ◽  
World Health ◽  
Global Public Health ◽  
Alveolar Cells ◽  
Immune Signatures ◽  
First Case ◽  
The World ◽  
Recent Developments ◽  
Novel Coronavirus ◽  
Health Organization

In December 2019, the first case of patient with severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) caused by the novel coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2, was reported in Wuhan, Hubei Province, Central China. SARS-CoV-2 causes CoronaVirus Disease-2019 (COVID-19 or nCoV-19) disease, which rapidly spread all over the world. In response to this serious situation, on 30 January 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared a global public health emergency of international concern, putting all health organizations on high alert. In mid-March 2020, WHO declared nCoV-19 a pandemic. By the end of September 2020, there were ~33.67 million confirmed cases and ~10.08 lakh deaths worldwide and the trend rising on each passing day. SARS-CoV-2 mainly infects the pulmonary system, but cause damage to other organs such as heart, kidney and intestine. Understanding the cardio-pulmonary issues underpinning of nCOV-19 pathogenesis is key to managing outcomes and mortality. SARS-CoV-2 uses the SARS-CoV receptor ACE2 for entry and the serine protease inhibitor TMPRSS2 for S protein priming. Alveolar cells and cardiomyocytes express ACE2 and TMPRSS2. In this Review, we summarize the current understanding of nCOV-19 pandemic from basic mechanisms to clinical perspectives, focusing on the interaction between SARS-CoV-2 and the cardio-pulmonary-immune signatures. The study provides crucial insights into the first step of SARS-CoV-2 infection, and potential targets for antiviral intervention.

scholarly journals Cutaneous presentation of COVID-19 Case Report

2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
pp. 01-02
Author(s):  
Khadiga Ahmed Ismail ◽  
Mahmoud Khalifa Marzouq ◽  
Ahmed Mahmoud Khalifa ◽  
Osama Mahmoud Khalifa
Keyword(s):  
Public Health Emergency ◽  
World Health ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Scientific Journals ◽  
Global Public Health ◽  
The World ◽  
Global Spread ◽  
Novel Coronavirus ◽  
Health Organization ◽  
Recent Attention

COVID-19 has high transmissibility and infectivity among human. On January 30, 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) in an effort to slow down the global spread of the virus declared the outbreak, “A global public health emergency of international concern". The skin manifestations of the novel coronavirus COVID-19 were not recognized at the early stages of the pandemic but have received much recent attention in scientific journals. Reported manifestations range from pseudo-chilblains to a morbilliform (measles-like) exanthem, urticaria, vesicular eruptions, a dengue-like petechial rash and ovate scaling macules, and plaques mimicking pityriasis rosea.

scholarly journals SARS-CoV-2 has been circulating in northern Italy since December 2019: evidence from environmental monitoring

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Giuseppina La Rosa ◽  
Pamela Mancini ◽  
Giusy Bonanno Ferraro ◽  
Carolina Veneri ◽  
Marcello Iaconelli ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Wastewater Treatment Plants ◽  
Warning System ◽  
Northern Italy ◽  
Public Health Emergency ◽  
World Health ◽  
Environmental Surveillance ◽  
Rt Pcr ◽  
Italian Case ◽  
Wastewater Samples ◽  
Health Organization

ABSTRACTSevere Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is responsible for the coronavirus disease COVID-19, a public health emergency worldwide, and Italy is among the world’s first and most severely affected countries. The first autochthonous Italian case of COVID-19 was documented on February 21. We investigated the possibility that SARS-CoV-2 emerged in Italy earlier than that date, by analysing 40 composite influent wastewater samples collected - in the framework of other wastewater-based epidemiology projects - between October 2019 and February 2020 from five wastewater treatment plants (WTPs) in three cities and regions in northern Italy (Milan/Lombardy, Turin/Piedmont and Bologna/Emilia Romagna). Twenty-four additional samples collected in the same WTPs between September 2018 and June 2019 were included as blank samples. Viral concentration was performed according to the standard World Health Organization procedure for poliovirus sewage surveillance. Molecular analysis was undertaken with both nested RT-PCR and real-rime RT-PCR assays. A total of 15 positive samples were confirmed by both methods. Of these, 8 were collected before the first autochthonous Italian case. The earliest dates back to 18 December 2019 in Milan and Turin and 29 January 2020 in Bologna. Samples collected in January and February in the three cities were also positive.Our results demonstrate that SARS-CoV-2 was already circulating in northern Italy at the end of 2019. Moreover, it was circulating in different geographic regions simultaneously, which changes our previous understanding of the geographical circulation of the virus in Italy. Our study highlights once again the importance of environmental surveillance as an early warning system, to monitor the levels of virus circulating in the population and identify outbreaks even before cases are notified to the healthcare system.

Recent developments and opportunities in fighting COVID-19

Coronaviruses ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 01 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vikram Rao ◽  
Subrat Kumar Bhattamisra
Keyword(s):  
World Health ◽  
Diagnostic Tools ◽  
Extensive Literature ◽  
Angiotensin Converting Enzyme 2 ◽  
Recent Developments ◽  
Therapeutic Molecules ◽  
Discharged Patients ◽  
Extensive Literature Search ◽  
Repurposed Drugs ◽  
Health Organization

Background: COVID-19, a Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-Cov-2) was first diagnosed in the patients from Wuhan, China in December 2019. Within couple of months of infection, it was declared as pandemic by World health organization. COVID-19 has become the most contagious infection with a serious threat to global health. In this review, we aimed to discuss the pathogenesis, diagnostics, current treatments and potential vaccines for COVID-19. Methods: An extensive literature search was conducted using keywords “COVID-19”; “Coronavirus”; “SARS-Cov-2”; “SARS” in public domains of Google, Google scholar, PubMed, and ScienceDirect. Selected articles were used to construct this review. Results: SARS-Cov-2 uses the Spike (S) protein on its surface to recognize the receptor on angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) and bind with 10-folds greater affinity than SARS-Cov-1. Molecular assays and immunoassays are the most frequently used tests whereas computed tomography (CT) scans, Artificial intelligence enabled diagnostic tools were also used in patients. In therapeutic treatment, few drugs were repurposed and there are 23 therapeutic molecules including the repurposed drugs are in different stages of clinical trial. Similarly, development of vaccines is also in the pipeline. Few countries have managed well to contain the spread by rapid testing and identifying the clusters. Conclusion: Till now, the acute complications and mortality of COVID-19 has been linked to the pre-existing comorbid conditions or age. Besides the development of therapeutic strategies that includes drugs and vaccine, the long term implication of COVID-19 infection in terms of the disorder/disability in the cured/discharged patients is a new area to investigate.

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