SARS-CoV-2 is an RNA virus that was identified for the first time in December 2019 in Wuhan, China. The World Health Organization (WHO) labeled the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak a worldwide pandemic on March 11, 2020, due to its widespread infectivity pattern. Because of the catastrophic COVID-19 outbreak, the development of safe and efficient vaccinations has become a key priority in every health sector throughout the globe. On the 13th of January 2021, the vaccination campaign against SARS-CoV-2 was launched in India and started the administration of two types of vaccines known as Covaxin and Covishield. Covishield is an adenovirus vector-based vaccine, and Covaxin was developed by a traditional method of vaccine formulation, which is composed of adjuvanted inactivated viral particles. Each vaccine’s utility or efficiency is determined by its formulation, adjuvants, and mode of action. The efficacy of the vaccination depends on numeral properties like generation antibodies, memory cells, and cell-mediated immunity. According to the third-phase experiment, Covishield showed effectiveness of nearly 90%, whereas Covaxin has an effectiveness of about 80%. Both vaccination formulations in India have so far demonstrated satisfactory efficacy against numerous mutant variants of SARS-CoV-2. The efficacy of Covishield may be diminished if the structure of spike (S) protein changes dramatically in the future. In this situation, Covaxin might be still effective for such variants owing to its ability to produce multiple antibodies against various epitopes. This study reviews the comparative immunogenic and therapeutic efficacy of Covaxin and Covishield and also discussed the probable vaccination challenges in upcoming days.
Background: Tetanus is still a public health problem in developing countries with high morbidity and mortality. Aims and Objectives: To evaluate the effects of magnesium sulfate in the treatment of moderate to very severe tetanus cases. Patients and Methods: Eighty-six patients suffering from of moderate to very severe tetanus, treated with injection magnesium sulphate in combination with injection diazepam were evaluated and compared to the tetanus patients from the hospital record (treated with only diazepam) regarding outcomes. Results: The average duration of re lex spasm was 12 vs. 8 days in moderate group, 18 vs. 15 days in severe group and 21 vs. 17 days in very severe group in the previous and study year respectively. Average duration of hospital stay was 20 vs. 17 days in moderate group, 27 vs. 22 days in severe group and 36 vs. 30 days in very severe group in the previous and study year respectively. It had been observed that in both severe and very severe tetanus cases, occurrence of autonomic instability, respiratory depression, aspiration pneumonia, cardiac arrhythmia and total death -all were decreased in the study period than previous year. Conclusion: Magnesium sulfate in combination with diazepam may be a better option in the treatment of tetanus particularly in developing countries with limited intensive care facility because of morbidity and mortality bene its.
We are presenting two cases of Guillain-Barré syndrome where it is preceded by hepatitis E virus (HEV) and Japanese encephalitis virus (JEV) infection, respectively. Our first case is a forty-three-year-old nondiabetic, nonhypertensive female who was initially diagnosed with acute HEV induced viral hepatitis and subsequently developed acute onset ascending quadriparesis with lower motor neuron type of bilateral facial nerve palsies and respiratory failure. Second patient was a 14-year-old young male who presented with meningoencephalitis with acute onset symmetric flaccid paraparesis. After thorough investigations it was revealed as a case of Japanese encephalitis. Our idea of reporting these two cases is to make ourselves aware about this potential complication of these two common infections.
Adrenocortical carcinoma (ACC) is a rare tumour, which sometimes affects pediatric age group. Fine needle aspiration cytology (FNAC) is a rarely performed technique in adrenal cortical tumours. There is sparse literature available describing the cytological findings of ACCs in children. Here we describe the cytological findings of 2 cases of ACCs in children. The first case describes the FNAC findings in a 4 year old girl who presented with a large abdominal mass. The second case narrates the intra‐operative imprint cytology findings in a 2‐year‐old boy who came with precocious puberty. However, diagnosis of adrenocortical tumours based on cytology alone can be difficult and definitive diagnosis should be made after correlating cytological features with the clinical profile, radiology, histopathology, and immunohistochemistry.
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