ABSTRACT
Introduction: Rapid cost effective, Point-of-Care (PoC) Truenat assay for the diagnosis of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Corona Virus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) have been developed to shorten the Turn Around Time (TAT) of reporting with a wireless data transfer system. Aim: To explore the SARS-CoV-2 positivity using closed system Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR). Materials and Methods: An observational cross-sectional study was carried out in Molecular Laboratory of, Department of Microbiology, Jawaharlal Nehru Institute of Medical Sciences, Imphal, Manipur, India, using Truenat RT-PCR (Molbio diagnostics) and data was entered from May 2020 to April 2021. Manufacturer's literature was followed while performing the test. Screening of sample was done with Envelope (E) gene test and confirmed with RNA-dependent RNA polymerase gene (RdRP) gene test. Statistical analysis was done using Microsoft Excel sheet by calculating the percentage, proportions. Results: A total of 1,528 individuals were tested for SARS-Cov-2 and 73 tests were reported positive. The positivity rate by age was highest among 21-30 years. The positivity rate was higher among males than females. Among 1,105 asymptomatic individual, 27 (2.4%) were positive and among 423 symptomatic, 46 (10.9%) were positive. Conclusion: Using Truenat, positivity rate among symptomatic Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) suspected persons was about four times more than positivity rate among exposed contact persons who are asymptomatic.
ABSTRACT
Introduction: The Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has affected the entire world. The need of timely detection of the virus has been of prime importance and the efforts to develop sensitive, specific, rapid, portable and cost effective diagnostic methods promoted the indigenous development of TrueNat testing for viral load in COVID-19 detection which had been previously designed for detection of Tuberculosis and other infectious organisms. Aim: To see the importance of TrueNat testing among symptomatic and asymptomatic cases in different age groups and gender. Materials and Methods: In this retrospective study conducted in the Department of Microbiology, Autonomous State Medical College and SNM Hospital, Firozabad, Uttar Pradesh, India, from June 2020 - May 2021, a total of 4,659 samples were collected from patients (Influenza Like Illness (ILI), Severe Acute Respiratory Illness (SARI), symptomatic, asymptomatic, those seeking hospitalisation, emergency), contacts and travellers and were subjected to testing by TrueNat (Molbio Quattro). The cases were divided into group A of patients who presented with symptoms ≤7 days;group B of patients who presented with signs and symptoms >7 days and group C comprised of asymptomatic patients. The symptoms of patients were associated with the Cycle threshold (Ct) values of the Envelope (E) gene and the RNA-dependent RNA polymerase gene (RdRp) gene. The Chi-square test was done to test the statistical significance of association of symptomatic patients with the outcome of the test. Results: The maximum number of positive cases were found in the people 20-39 years (p-value <0.05). The least positivity was found in the higher (80 years) and lower (below 9 years) age groups. The positivity rates had no significant impact on the gender. The percentage positivity as detected by TrueNat testing was 3.3% and maximum positive patients were found in the group having symptoms <7 days (p<0.05). On association of the Ct values of E gene and RdRp gene with the symptoms it was found that 28.1% and 27.2% of the patients were in the high Ct value group. Conclusion: TrueNat was found to be a portable and easy to perform test which did not require special laboratory set up. The use of Viral Lysis Medium (VLM) reduced the time of RNA extraction which not only rendered it safer to perform but expedited the results.
ABSTRACT
Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) is the causative agent of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. In this study, we conducted a comparative analysis of the structural genes of SARS-CoV-2 and other CoVs. We found that the sequence of the E gene was the most evolutionarily conserved across 200 SARS-CoV-2 isolates. The E gene and M gene sequences of SARS-CoV-2 and NC014470 CoV were closely related and fell within the same branch of a phylogenetic tree. The absolute diversity of E gene and M gene sequences of SARS-CoV-2 isolates was similar to that of common CoVs (C-CoVs) infecting other organisms. The absolute diversity of the M gene sequence of the KJ481931 CoV that can infect humans was similar to that of SARS-CoV-2 and C-CoVs infecting other organisms. The M gene sequence of KJ481931 CoV (infecting humans), SARS-CoV-2 and NC014470 CoV (infecting other organisms) were closely related, falling within the same branch of a phylogenetic tree. Patterns of variation and evolutionary characteristics of the N gene and S gene were very similar. These data may be of value for understanding the origins and intermediate hosts of SARS-CoV-2.
ABSTRACT
Background:SARS- CoV-2 has radically influenced the health care workers, especially Obstetricians who are at high-risk COVID-19 transmission due to the nature of their specialty as a result of exposure to infectious particles, hence they have to be judg emental in taking up pregnant females. As the Obstetrical population has to go through a unique challenge during this pandemic, the aim of the study was to know the incidence of SARS- CoV-2 positivity rate in pregnant women admitted to hospital for delivery. Furthermore, infected patients may be asymptomatic on admission and may easily transmit the disease during delivery. Methods:The study protocol was approved by the Institutional Review Board and Ethics Committee. It was conducted between Sep- tember and November 2020 at Deccan College of Medical Sciences, includes 75 pregnant women who were screened for SARS -CoV-2 positivity upon admission to the hospital for delivery. Detection of SARS-CoV-2 in Nasopharyngeal and oropharyngeal samples was performed by Real-Time Reverse Transcriptase PCR (RT-PCR) method, targeting Screening Envelope (E) gene and Confirmatory gene RNA dependent RNA polymerase gene (RdRp). Results:Out of 75 women;two (2) women had mild symptoms of fever and shortness of breath on admission respectively, on testing tested positive for SARS-CoV-2. Of the other 73 women admitted without symptoms screened for SARS-CoV-2, two (2) were found to be positive for SARS-CoV-2. Although this prevalence has limited generaliza- bility to geographical regions with lower rates of infection, it underscores the risk of Covid-19 among asymptomatic obstetrical patients. [Formula presented] Conclusions:Health care professionals have to be meticulous about taking precautionary potential steps regarding COVID-19 status of the patient to determine hospital isolation practices and control measures which also includes judicious use of Personal protective equipment. Access to such clinical data from the laboratory provides an important opportunity to pro- tect mothers, babies, and health care teams during these challenging times.