Book Review: U. L. Baruah, A Bangladesh War Commentary: 1971 Radio Dispatches: Vol. 1

U. L. Baruah, A Bangladesh War Commentary: 1971 Radio Dispatches: Vol. 1. Indian Council of World Affairs, Macmillan Publishers India Private Limited, 2021, ISBN: 93-5455-048-7 ₹1,650, pp. 148.

Development of Local Percentile Growth Charts of Children between Birth to Ten Years

Growth pattern of human population changes with time and place. Particularly developing countries, country like India, is in a stage of nutritional transition hence it is necessary to update growth references regularly. The present study is carried out on 0-10 years from Baramati from Pune district of Maharashtra. We considered that children from maternity homes, BCG camps, well baby clinics, immunization camps, private clinics, ‘Anganwadis and Balwadis’, Nurseries’ and schools etc. Our study shows that growth performance of Anthropometric indices for Baramati children is much less than National Centre of Health Statistics (NCHS) and slightly less than Indian Council of Medical Research ICMR and Affluent Indians (AI). We have proposed growth charts for Baramati region to monitor growth parameters. Keywords: Anthropometric Indices, NCHS, ICMR, AI.

COVID-19 in children in Odisha state, India: a retrospective review

We retrospectively analysed the swab samples tested for COVID-19 from 7 March 2020 to 17 August 2021 at the Indian Council of Medical Research-Regional Medical Research Centre, Bhubaneswar, Odisha. 553 763 nasopharyngeal swabs were collected from individuals suspected with COVID-19 in Odisha state. 75 190 (13.6%) samples were positive by reverse transcription-PCR. There were 5988 (8%) cases in children and young people under 18 years old. Odisha reported 996 153 COVID-19 cases which resulted in 6985 deaths in adults and 36 in children and young people under 18 years old.

Dietary polyphenols in the intervention of gestational diabetes

Background: The impact of gestational diabetes mellitus GDM is severe since it is directly associated with the detrimental intra-uterine environment, which may lead to enhanced risk of development of fetal metabolic disorders and affects mother and offspring both. Plant derived polyphenols are reported for their protective roles against a variety of human diseases; however, the impact of adherence to polyphenols on the risk of GDM has not been exhaustively reviewed. Objective: Aim of this review is to summarize relevant studies linking polyphenols and polyphenol rich dietary patterns by carefully considering the mechanisms of their action to the risk of GDM and its management. Method: Data from PubMed, ScienceDirect, and Springer online databases and updates from the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) were studied. Conclusion: Present review provides a comprehensive report on the association between plant polyphenols and lower risk of GDM, suggesting that polyphenol-rich dietary patterns may be important in preventing the development of GDM and its healthy management.

The Indian Council of World Affairs: Revisiting Formative Points of Institutional History

This commentary recounts the important hallmarks of the institutional history of the Indian Council of World Affairs, one of India’s first publicly funded research institutions. It presents a brief account of its long history since 1943, its career in acquiring prominence, its decline and its revival. This commentary takes off from its recently published institutional history (Raghavan, T., & Mishra, V. [2021]. Sapru House: A story of institution building in world affairs).

INSTRuCT: Protocol, Infrastructure, and Governance

Background and Purpose: Very few large scale multicentric stroke clinical trials have been done in India. The Indian Council of Medical Research funded INSTRuCT (Indian Stroke Clinical Trial Network) as a task force project with the objectives to establish a state-of-the-art stroke clinical trial network and to conduct pharmacological and nonpharmacological stroke clinical trials relevant to the nation and globally. The purpose of the article is to enumerate the structure of multicentric stroke network, with emphasis on its scope, challenges and expectations in India. Methods: Multiple expert group meetings were conducted by Indian Council of Medical Research to understand the scope of network to perform stroke clinical trials in the country. Established stroke centers with annual volume of 200 patients with stroke with prior experience of conducting clinical trials were included. Central coordinating center, standard operating procedures, data and safety monitoring board were formed. Discussion: In first phase, 2 trials were initiated namely, SPRINT (Secondary Prevention by Structured Semi-Interactive Stroke Prevention Package in India) and Ayurveda treatment in the rehabilitation of patients with ischemic stroke in India (RESTORE [Rehabilitation of Ischemic stroke Patients in India: A Randomized controlled trial]). In second phase, 4 trials have been approved. SPRINT trial was the first to be initiated. SPRINT trial randomized first patient on April 28, 2018; recruited 3048 patients with an average of 128.5 per month so far. The first follow-up was completed on May 27, 2019. RESTORE trial randomized first patient on May 22, 2019; recruited 49 patients with an average of 3.7 per month so far. The first follow-up was completed on August 30, 2019. Conclusions: In next 5 years, INSTRuCT will be able to complete high-quality large scale stroke trials which are relevant globally. REGISTRATION: URL: http://www.ctri.nic.in/ ; Unique Identifier: CTRI/2017/05/008507.

Reviewing the Ethical Concerns of the Convalescent Plasma Therapy in COVID-19

The understanding of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is evolving periodically. There is also a marked increase in COVID-19 patients’ demand for the provision of COVID-19 convalescent plasma (CCP) therapy. With the review of the literature, the stage of speculation is quickly moving towards conformity, with the interim guidelines given by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in the United States, United Kingdom’s blood transfusion services, Saudi’s FDA, and the Indian Council for Medical Research, in addition to the European health authorities. It is prudent to address the ethical concerns that merit consideration while harvesting and utilizing CCP as a therapeutic tool in local hospital setting.

CAN HOMOEOPATHY COMBAT COVID-19? A REPERTORIAL VIEW.

Corona virus disease 2019, COVID-19, the ongoing pandemic had resulted in greater loss and had been challenging to the global health security and Health care system. With no curative medicines, repurposing of existing allopathic medicines was widely carried out. Besides Allopathy, traditional medicines and complimentary alternative system of medicines are also being tried and tested everywhere. Management of COVID-19 patients in India is being done according to the guidelines of the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR). Under its directives, the Ministry of AYUSH has recommended using Homeopathy drugs as Prophylactic medicines in the name of Immune boosters and also as a Therapeutic agent along with the existing standard of care in the Management of COVID-19 disease. During many previous epidemics Homeopathic medical system has registered its success in both treatment and preventive aspects, which has been recorded in various literatures. Adapting the principles of individualization in an epidemic situation, two major concepts - Genus epidemicus and Similimum through Repertorisation have proved to be viable in embracing homeopathic approach for Prophylactic and Therapeutic measures against COVID-19 respectively. We in this study have used Repertorisation to derive similar remedies for the clinical picture in each concept, to combat COVID-19.The results from the review and repertory have shown Arsenicum album and Phosphorus to have the most similarity with COVID-19 clinical picture of various stages as listed in the World health organisation (WHO) and Indian council of Medical Research (ICMR), based on the two concepts respectively. These remedies prove to have signicant effect as a prophylactic and therapeutic against the COVID-19 disease based on the Genus epidemicus concept, yet it needs scientic clinical trials for stronger and conclusive evidence which have been started and is being done by various homoeopathic hospitals across India

The initial experience of COVID-19 vaccination from a tertiary care centre of India

To the Editor Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) has approved the Bharat biotech vaccine against COVID-19, which is a locally manufactured inactivated vaccine named ''COVAXIN'' in collaboration with the Indian council of medical research (ICMR) on 3rd January 2021 for emergency use along with the "Covishield" Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine manufactured locally by the Serum Institute of India... *The Safdarjung COVID-19 Vaccination group: KR Meena (Professor, Paediatrics), U Venkatesh (Assistant Professor, Community Medicine), Pushpa Kumari (Associate Professor, Medicine), Sonal Burman (Specialist, Medicine), Neeraj Kumar Gupta (Professor and Head, Pulmonary Medicine), Nitesh Gupta (Assistant Professor, Pulmonary Medicine), Rohit Kumar (Assistant Professor, Pulmonary Medicine), Swetabh Purohit (Senior resident, Pulmonary Medicine), Arjun Ramaswamy (Senior resident, Pulmonary Medicine)