[On 7th March 2020, the ministry of health, Govt. of India, said that the number of highly contagious Coronavirus disease cases in India had risen to 34. In December 2019, the World Health Organization (WHO) had described the outbreak of febrile respiratory illness of unknown etiology from Wuhan in China. Now named Covid-19, it has now spread to more than 90 countries. As on 7th March 2020, there were 101,923 confirmed cases and 3486 deaths from 94 countries, areas and territories. WHO has declared the outbreak as Public Health Emergency of International Concern? Italy has reported over 9000 infected cases, with 463 deaths as on 10th March 2019, next in enormity only to that of China] From: https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.01.22.914952v1.full.pdf. How to cite this article:Rajagopalan PK. The Deadly Corona Virus (Covid-19). J Commun Dis 2020; 52(1): 78-81. DOI: https://doi.org/10.24321/0019.5138.202010

Estimation of Quality Adjusted Life Years (QALYs) is pivotal towards economic evaluation and cost-effectiveness analysis of medical interventions. Most of the methods developed till date for calculating QALYs are based on multi-state structures where fixed utility values are assigned to each disease state and total QALYs are calculated on the basis of total lengths of stay in each state. In this article, we have presented a new proxy approach to define utility as a function of risk factors, which can be used to calculate QALY without defining discrete disease states. Retrospective survival data of HIV/ AIDS patients undergoing treatment at the Antiretroviral Therapy (ART) center of Ram Manohar Lohia hospital in New Delhi has been used to demonstrate implementation of the proposed methodology. Joint modelling, with a mixed effect longitudinal sub-model for CD4 count and a Cox proportional hazard survival sub-model with time dependent covariates, has been used to estimate risks associated with different factors and covariates. Using the proxy utilities, QALYs have been calculated for each individual for their lifetime time horizon, defined as the time since their registration in the ART till death or till their age reach average life expectancy of HIV/ AIDS patients in India. QALY results are consistent with findings of conventional cost-effectiveness studies on ART for HIV/ AIDS patients in India.

Introduction: The paper attempts to assess quality of life (QOL) outcomes at facet level and the factors affecting it to gain micro level understanding of the disease burden and to highlight key problematic areas faced by people living with HIV/AIDS (PLHA) in Manipur, India. Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional study with 200 PLHA (≥18 years of age) were recruited from 4 NGO centers in Imphal and Chandel using WHOQOL-HIV instrument. ANOVA and logistic regression tests were performed to compare and predict factors influencing QoL outcomes respectively. Results: In the ANOVA model, Physical and social relationships domains (<11) in Imphal, and SRPB and physical domains (<11.20) in Chandel showed poorest QOL outcomes. QOL outcome was reported poor for most facets across the six domains. Financial resources emerged as the worst affected QOL outcomes for both localities followed closely by dependence on treatment, HIV symptoms for Imphal and SRPB, concern about the future for Chandel. In the regression model, employment, clinical status, locality, gender and marital status emerged as significant predictors affecting QoL outcomes. Conclusion: Investments to improve better infrastructure, healthcare services, connectivity, and financial intervention for self-reliance and HIV/AIDS education including safer sex practices could positively affect QoL outcomes in many of the facets.

Kyasanaur Forest Disease (KFD) is a tick-borne viral hemorrhagic fever caused by KFD Virus (KFDV), a member of the virus family Flaviviridae (Genus: Flavivirus). KFD was first recognized as a febrile illness in Shimoga district of Karnataka state, India in 1957. It is also called as monkey fever. KFDV gets transmitted by the bite infective ticks Haemaphysalis spp., especially at its nymphal stage. There is wide range of hosts including human, tick species, rodents (shrews, forest rats) monkeys (black faced langurs and red faced bonnet monkeys), bats, squirrels, ground dwelling birds and porcupines and domestic ruminants. Rodents are the best maintenance hosts (short generation time). In KFD, Human act as dead end host. They do not develop adequate viremia to infect the ticks. Amplification of virus occurs in Monkeys. Domestic ruminants maintain the infected tick population for long time. Trans-stadial transmission in ticks is common, but trans-ovarial transmission is absent except in Ixodes petaurisae. About sixteen species of ticks are known to be involved in transmission. Ten species carry natural infection. Haemaphysalis spinigera and Haemaphysalis turturis are the two major vector playing role in KFD transmission. Other species of Haemaphysalis involved in transmission of KFDV are H. aculeata, H. bispinosa, H. cuspidata, H. kyasanurinsis and H. minuta, H. kinneari and H. wellingtoni. An attempt has been made in this manuscript to discuss the vector surveillance in KFD transmission and vector control options available at present.

In the present study phylogenetic analysis of 30 rabies virus (RV) isolates collected from North and North East India between 2013 and 2016 was carried out. Analysis of two sets of sequence of non-coding G-L intergenic region, based upon a 132-nucleotide region of the cytoplasmic domain (CD) of the G gene (G-CD) and a 549-nucleotide (Psi-L) was done. The phylogenetic tree constructed using 549 nucleotide sequence of hyper variable region (Psi-L) showed the same topology as that obtained on the basis of 132 nucleotide sequence of G-CD region. Four different genetic clusters (GCs) distributed among three geographical regions were identified. Comparison of deduced amino acid (aa) sequences showed four amino acid changes - aa462G, aa465H/R and aa468K in G-CD region. The change observed at position aa465R indicated the spillover of Indian wild strain (mongoose) to domestic animals in Delhi region. The homology among the Indian RV isolates shared >97% nucleotide similarity irrespective of their geographical regions and hosts. The study revealed that the RV isolates are region specific, not host specific and all belonged to genotype 1.

Background: Zoning of the water quality based on NSFWQI index is used more than other indices. The purpose of this study to evaluate the water quality of Kashan's Ghohrood River, using National Sanitation Water Quality Index (NSFWQI) and its zoning with Geographic information system (GIS). Materials and Methods: In this study, water quality parameters of Ghohrood River are studied monthly in five different stations from October 2014 to September 2015 during 12 months in Kahsan central of Iran. Also, these data were analyzed with NSFWQI index, and finally route of river was zoned using GIS software. Results: Among the studied stations, station A had the highest and best rate of water quality by 86.87% in March. Water quality index was 60.93% in station E in August. Average studied index in stations A, B, and C in all of the months was 72-80 and in stations D and E average index was 67-69. Average index of NSFWQI had a downward slope in the warm months; so that, in the summer, the index was lower than other seasons in each station. Conclusion: Results showed that water pollution increases by increasing the distance between source of the river and station. Since the area is considered as a recreational resort especially in the spring season and the fact that around the river is used as pastures, water quality deterioration especially in D and E stations is a very important issue.