-IndiaSpend.com Chennai: About 10 months, nine million cases and over 130,000 deaths later, India does not yet know enough about why the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes COVID-19 affected whom it did, and how it did that. There is wide variation in the spread of COVID-19 between states. Areas with higher population density are expected to have more cases, but varying testing rates could be affecting case detection. While the elderly and those...
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Tamil Nadu carries out 1 crore RT-PCR tests for COVID-19
-The Hindu Chennai: It is the only State which goes entirely by RT-PCR testing, says Health Secretary Nearly nine months after it started testing samples for COVID-19, Tamil Nadu on Sunday hit the milestone of one crore tests using RT-PCR kits. “Tamil Nadu is the only State which goes entirely by RT-PCR testing. With laboratories in all districts, the State’s capacity is over one lakh tests per day,” Health Secretary J. Radhakrishnan said. With...
More »Fewer COVID-19 re-tests mar Delhi’s testing strategy -Jacob Koshy and Nikhil M Babu
-The Hindu Low level of RT-PCR re-testing in persons who are testing antigen negative will underestimate cases, says COVID-19 task force member Only 1 in 200 of those who tested negative in an antigen test in Delhi to detect possible coronavirus cases were re-tested, a fraction that epidemiologists say is too low given what is known about the disease. From June 25, daily cases appear to have peaked at 3,390 and steadily...
More »Dr. Ramanan Laxminarayan, eminent epidemiologist and health economist, interviewed by Jeevan Prakash Sharma (Outlook India)
-Outlook India Eminent epidemiologist and health economist Dr Ramanan Laxminarayan tells Outlook in an exclusive interview why rapid Covid antigen tests are problematic and should not, in any case, replace the existing RT-PCR tests. While the Delhi government's data on Coronavirus cases shows a decline in the number of positive cases, experts believe that the real picture might not be what it looks like. Eminent epidemiologist Dr Ramanan Laxminarayan, who is also...
More »Setback in TB war
-The Hindu The efforts to win the war against tuberculosis using an efficacious vaccine candidate (MVA85A) in infants aged 4-6 months have returned a disappointing verdict despite showing great promise in pre-clinical trials. Though it fulfilled the primary objective of safety and despite inducing modest immune responses, the efficacy of the vaccine was just 17.3 per cent, and hence considered insufficient to protect the infants against TB, notes a paper published...
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