After India’s first confirmed case of SARS-CoV-2 appeared in late January 2020, misinformation surrounding the outbreak and “cures” for the virus spread across the nation through various platforms. Across the globe, social media applications like WhatsApp and Facebook have played a vital role in the advancement of misinformation; however, in India, the dissemination of inaccurate information has been particularly exacerbated by public figures advancing their conservative ideologies and bringing the “sacred” cow to centre stage. Several influential religious and political leaders were witnessed vehemently supporting their long-held narratives that cow excreta is a “proven” precautionary remedy against most diseases, including coronavirus. Hence, to debunk such claims, the authors, in this essay, first analyse media used to circulate unfounded information concerning coronavirus across the world, followed by citing India-specific events where customary beliefs of Hindus have now taken the form of practices which can worsen the spread, as such practices lack significant scientific backing. Finally, we discuss the impact of such misinformation on human rights, and how states and social media companies can combat the infodemic.

In recent years, the antimicrobial resistance to various synthetic or chemically formed antimicrobial agents in medicines and food products has been observed. The high preference of consumers for purchasing food products free from chemical preservatives has led to more exploration into using antimicrobial agents from natural sources like plants, fungi, algae, and bacteria. The marine ecosystem comprises microorganisms, plants, vertebrates, and invertebrates that are rich sources of diverse antimicrobial products and can be a significant potential for developing novel type therapeutic agents, as the major portion of the sea has still not yet been examined for the evaluation of natural molecules for their antimicrobial activity. Such marine ecological niches promise a great source of antibacterial agents against many drug-resistant strains of pathogenic microorganisms. Among the marine source, marine algae are a diverse group of organisms that includes brown, red, and green algae that have been targeted over the last few years for the secondary metabolites and a broad range of natural molecules for a broad spectrum of bioactivities beneficial to humans. Such bioactive compounds and secondary products possess a broad range of biological activities of antibacterial, antiviral, and antifungal properties. The class of compounds derived from marine algae, such as polysaccharides, fatty acids, phenolic compounds, pigments, lectins, alkaloids, terpenoids, and halogenated compounds, would be a new emerging area for unconventional drugs. Such classes of compounds will share a potent ability to control new diseases or tackling against multi-resistant strains of pathogens.

The current pandemic has been declared as a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC) by the World Health Organization (WHO) on January 30, 2020. The causative agent of the COVID-19 is Sub-Acute Respiratory Syndrome-Coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) that causes lung severe disease, is an enveloped RNA virus. The bats being the main zoonotic reservoir of the virus. As of July 9, 2020, the number of cases has around 11,841,326 cases, with 544,739 death cases worldwide. Surveillance of the asymptomatic carriers, the certain lockdown of the public places, quarantine of 14 days of suspected individuals, or other necessary steps have been taken by each country to limit the coronavirus infection. Many scientists have worked on drug repositioning of already available drugs to compete and kill the virus. The following literature review has been conducted from the publicly available information about the evolutionary relationship, genetics, pathogenesis, clinical manifestation, diagnosis, or laboratory tests of the virus. We have also covered the available control or precautionary measures, and treatment against the virus.

The pervasiveness of urinary tract infections (UTIs) with their clinical manifestations in patients with diabetes mellitus has escalated amidst the past decade or so, as myriad predisposing factors contribute to its occurrence. Although the causative agent of UTI is Escherichia coli, the etiopathogenesis can be traced back to glycosuria in the renal parenchymal region. This has precipitated pyelonephritis and renal complications, including cytopathic and altered metabolism. Furthermore, impaired immunity with scarce IL-6, 8 in urine, urinary retention, and dysfunctional voiding raise susceptibility towards uropathogens, mainly E. coli. Treatment for UTI with diabetes is based on symptoms and severity, urologic abnormalities, renal function, bladder infections, and metabolic alteration. The treatment process or regimens for patients with type 2 diabetes with asymptomatic bacteriuria are very low or negligible. Adequate management with antibiotic regimens in symptomatic patients after critical diagnosis is crucial for prophylaxis and effective treatment.

Fruits are the major source of nutrients that are consumed as raw by most of the people across the country. Being nutritive in its value, most of the fruits have a high amount of water content which makes them vulnerable to microbial spoilage. Both bacterial and fungal contaminants are more common in fruit spoilage. Need to preserve them in its true form is necessary without the loss of nutritive values of fruits. Packaging of fruits with antimicrobial agents gives promising results. Chitosan-based packaging with certain bacteriocin has given satisfactory results for the preservation of fruits like papaya. Papaya packaged with chitosan-bacteriocin coated LDPE kept under refrigerated conditions was preserved for more than 3 days.