Health

The Serum Institute of India will provide ten million doses of the pneumococcal conjugate vaccine, which helps to prevent severe pneumonia, every year to lower-income countries for the next decade under a new supply agreement with the UNICEF that helped dramatically decreased the price of pneumonia vaccine for those nations.

The Central Drug Research Institute (CDRI), Lucknow, has received permission from Drug Controller General of India (DCGI) for carrying out Phase III clinical trials to test the efficacy, safety and tolerability of the antiviral drug Umifenovir. The Phase III activities will be carried out at King George’s Medical University (KGMU), Dr Ram Manohar Lohia Institute of Medical Sciences (RMLIMS) and ERA’s Lucknow Medical College and Hospital, Lucknow.

The Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare on Tuesday informed that the recovery rate of patients suffering from COVID-19 has risen to 52.47 per cent in the country, indicative of the fact that “more than half of positive cases have recovered” from the disease.

The recovery rate of novel coronavirus patients in India now stands at 49.47 per cent

This face mask can annihilate pathogenic microorganisms that are stuck to its outer surface and thereby limit the spread of secondary infections. “The mask that is available in the market currently acts as a filter to stop the entry of microbes to oral and nasal airways but does not have any effect on the microbe stuck to the mask surface,” said Dr Marshal, Associate Professor, School of Biomedical Engineering, IIT (BHU), while speaking with India Science Wire.

Scientists at the International Advanced Research Centre for Powder Metallurgy and New Materials (ARCI), an autonomous R&D Centre of Department of Science and Technology (DST) has developed a rare-earth-based magnetocaloric material that can be effectively used for cancer treatment.

In the current pandemic scenario, global supplies of nasopharyngeal (NP) swabs are not dependable resulting in supply chain delays, escalating prices and variable quality. CSIR-National Chemical Laboratory (CSIR-NCL), Pune, has developed an indigenous NP swab for collecting samples from the throat cavity of COVID-19 patients. The need for making available domestic technology for NP swabs was flagged by CSIR to NCL in mid-April.

Nasopharyngeal swab is a medical device with stringent specifications of quality, polymer grade, dimensions and sterilization. An NP swab consists of a cylindrical plastic stick with a brush-like tip of synthetic bristles/flocks. The flocking process helps align the fine bristles in a parallel orientation on the stick head, much like a tooth brush, except that this has round uniform geometry and the NP swab bristles are of micron diameter.

The NCL team of polymer science and chemical engineering scientists – which included Dr. Chandrashekhar V. Rode, Dr. Prakash P. Wadgaonkar, and Dr. Anuya A. Nisal – successfully worked out the detailed specifications of NP swab polymers and adhesives. The specifications included medical-grade materials that must be used for manufacture, the swab design and the packaging and sterilization protocols. “This is an excellent example of optimizing the polymer specifications and validating the chemical analysis of an urgently needed medical swab product in a very short time,” noted Dr. Ashwini Kumar Nangia, Director, NCL.

The NCL has transferred the process knowhow of indigenous NP swabs for sample collection to a Mumbai-based chemical company under the COVID-19 technology transfer guidelines of CSIR. After confirming the correct chemical and polymer composition of NP swabs, their diameter, alignment of bristles, and sterilization method, NCL has suggested the next regulatory pathway for approval of medical devices to the company. They will be able to produce 1 lakh NP swabs per day.