Das Research Centre

Heterodistribution of Trypanosoma evansi Ro Tat 1.2 antibody levels in general population of West Bengal, India. 13th International Congress on Infectious Diseases, Kuala Lumpur, June, 2008.

Heterodistribution of Trypanosoma evansi Ro Tat 1.2 antibody levels in general population of West Bengal, India
Ankita Sarkar, S. K. Dey and Satadal Das

Background: Although Trypanosoma infection in West Bengal is not reported so far but recent studies showed positive Trypanosoma antibodies in blood of general population which is probably due to cross reactive antibodies. In this study blood collected from general population of different geographical areas of West Bengal were studied for Trypanosoma evansi antibody levels.

Methods: The antibody levels were measured by CATT/T. evansi kit was obtained from Prince Leopold Institute of Tropical Medicine, Antwerp, Belgium. This is a highly specific card agglutination test for trypanosomiasis that uses Ro Tat 1.2 - a predominant variable antigen type of T. evansi.

Results: In different geographical areas positive results varied from 0% to 70%. There is no significant sex difference regarding positive results, however, there is a distinct seasonal variation with increased positive results in between July to September.

Conclusion: There is a heterodistribution of positive Ro Tat 1.2 T. evansi antibody levels in general population of West Bengal.

INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE “Impact of Global Issues on Women and Children” Dhaka, Bangladesh: February 12 - February 16, 2006

Papri Das, Sreemoyee Das and Satadal Das
Das Research Centre & Clinical Laboratory
41 Satyen Roy Road, Kolkata- 700034, India

Introduction: Urinary Tract Infections (UTI) account for approximately 10 percent of all female patients and in pregnancy the incidence of UTI is as high as 8 percent throughout the globe. UTI accounts for over 6 million patient visits to physicians per year in the United States. Internationally 1 in 5 adult women experience UTI at some point in their life, thus it is an exceedingly common worldwide patient problem.

Purpose: To study the incidence of UTI in females in rural and urban areas of West Bengal, India and to find out the factors contributing UTI in this locality.

Methods and Procedures: 1268 females and 1122 males in rural area and 2579 females and 2290 males in urban area of West Bengal, India were randomly selected and urine samples were collected for culture following standard procedures. In persons without symptoms of UTI, a bacterial count of 105/ml was accepted for a positive culture and in patients with symptoms of UTI any amount of growth was accepted as a positive result for UTI. Following a standard questionnaire attempts were made to find out the probable causes, which lead to UTI.

Result: In rural area 24 females out of 1268 (1.89%) and 17 males out of 1122 (1.5%) were found suffering from UTI. In urban area 51 females out of 2579 (1.97%) and 21 males out of 2290(0.91%) were found suffering from UTI. Escherichia coli, Klebsiella sp. and Enterococcus faecalis were the main microorganisms found in UTI.
Conclusion: In West Bengal about 2% females are suffering from UTI, which is higher in comparison to males in this region. There is no significant difference between the incidence of UTI in females in rural and urban areas. The low incidence of UTI in comparison to Western countries was found related to specific habits of the general population in this area.

Dr. Basanti Majumdar
Professor, Nursing and Family Medicine, McMaster University
Faculty of Health Sciences
1200 Main St. W., Rm HSC 3N28
Hamilton, ON L8N 3Z5 Canada
Tel: 905-525-9140 ext. 27533
Fax: 905-521-8834
E-mail: ic2006@mcmaster.ca
http://www.fhs.mcmaster.ca/slru/IC2006

Dr. AKM Alamgir
Professor, Faculty of Health Sciences
State University of Bangladesh
77 Satmasjid Road, Dhanmondi, Dhaka 1207 Bangladesh
Tel: 8802-812-6272
Fax: 8802-812-3296
E-mail: iwc2006@subd.net
http://www.subd.net/iwc2006

Habitation 2006, an international conference on space habitation research and technology development. Florida, February 4-7, 2006.

Sponsored by American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Habitation-an International Journal for Human support Research and NASA.

Organisms with high silicon content may easily be utilized in artificial Lunar and Martian environment for human habitation

It is well known that organisms with high silicon content can survive in extremes of temperature, pressure and radiation. In fact, Reynolds described temperature tolerance of silicon compounds in living creatures as early as in 1893. Thus organisms with high silicon content can aptly be utilized within artificial environments in extraterrestrial situations. There are distinct Silicon accumulator plants like Cyperaceae, Graminae, Juncaceae and Moquiles spp.. Organisms like marine phytoplanktons, marine brown algae, ‘horsetails’, foraminifera and porifera contain enough silicon, in the range of 60,000-4,37,000 mg per kg dry matter, and bacteria contain about 180 mg silicon per Kg dry matter. We have classified organisms with high silicon content, which are present on Earth. A preliminary study by us showed that they could tolerate more, extremes of temperature, pressure and radiation in comparison to the organisms with low silicon content.
Again silicon-based life is not found in meteorites, comets, planets and silicon being less abundant in the universe than carbon, utilizing organisms with high silicon content in extraterrestrial situation will be a novel approach in space biology. Our studies in last two decades indicated that many bacteria particularly Mycobacterium, Nocardia, Streptomyces and fungi showed enhanced silicon utilization in carbon deficient medium following slow adaptations. We are observing living creatures and biofilms in artificially produced liquid silicate environment for last five years which showed significant differential growths of many organisms in such environments which may help us to formulate a list of optimally utilizable organisms in artificial extraterrestrial environments for human habitations.

5th National Congress of the Italian Society of Virology (SIV) Orvieto (TR), September 19-21, 2005

2.9 HIV and HTLV-1 Co-infection status in Kolkata
Sreemoyee Das and Satadal Das
Das Research Centre & Clinical Laboratory,
41, Satyen Roy Road,
Kolkata- 700034, India

Introduction: Increased risk for development of neurodegerative conditions has been proved when HIV infection was found associated with HTLV-1 infection. In a previous study we observed high incidence of HTLV-I infection in Kolkata . This study was undertaken to find out co-infection level of HIV and HTLV-I in Kolkata.

Methods: Serological diagnosis of associated HTLV-I infection in known HIV infected persons was done by ELISA
test utilizing HTLV-I Biochem Immune Systems (Montreal, Canada) kits. In this study, serum HTLV-I antibody status was measured in 52 HIV positive persons and co-infection status of HIV and HTLV-1 was calculated.

Results: Out of 52 HIV positive cases 9 cases (17.3%) were found positive for HTLV-I antibody, which was
significantly more than the HTLV-1 positivity level in general population.

Discussion: HTLV-I infection was found more in HIV infected persons. Thus HIV and HTLV-1 co-infection may be an important determining factor of neurodegenerative complications in HIV infected persons in Kolkata.

Paper submitted for presentation in XXVIII-Annual Conference of Indian Association of Medical Microbiologists held at Lucknow from 25-28 Nov, 2004

Rust fungi of plants and high IgE levels in asymptomatic workers of a stored food grains

godown : A possible relationship

S. Das1, *P.K. Kundu2, B. P. Chattopadhyay3

1Das Research Centre & Clinical Laboratory, Kolkata- 700034

2Midnapore Medical College, Paschim Medinipur, West Bengal.

3Regional Occupational Health Centre, ICMR, Kolkata- 700 091

Air samples were collected during loading/unloading of stored food grains in a godown with the help of Rotorod sampler, UK on petroleum jelly coated tape at 2900 rpm for 30 minutes, the tapes were then directly inoculated on Sabouraud’s dextrose media for isolation of fungi by imprint smear.

Most of the collected samples yield Aspergillus sp., Rhizopus sp., Penicillium sp., Mucor sp. and one variety of Rust fungi of plants. Formaldehyde based fungal suspensions were prepared from all the cultured fungi and challenged with the workers’ serums in the form of slide agglutination tests.

It was found peculiarly that the isolated Rust fungus of plants gave positive agglutination tests in almost all cases with maximum intensity and showing violent reactions with serums having very high IgE levels. This study indicates that Rust fungi of plants have got a role in human allergy and details regarding this should be explored for the benefit of the mankind.

15th International AIDS Conference Bangkok, Thailand - July 11-16, 2004

Serum lipoprotein electrophoresis of HIV infected persons in Kolkata.
Int Conf AIDS 2004 Jul 11-16; 15:(abstract no. MoPeB3082)

BACKGROUND: Recent studies have shown abnormal serum lipids in HIV infected persons and use of protease inhibitors in their treatment further accentuates this condition. There are many studies on lipid profile of HIV infected patients but there is no study on serum lipoprotein electrophoresis in this group of patients. Thus we were interested to study this aspect in HIV infected persons in our locality.
METHOD: Serum samples of 21 HIV positive untreated cases and 24 HIV negative cases were collected and lipoprotein electrophoresis was done utilizing Beckman kits (USA), in Beckman Electrophoresis and Appraise densitometer system. Chylomicron, beta, pre-beta and alpha fractions were measured and evaluated statistically.

RESULTS: Average values of Chylomicron, beta, pre-beta and alpha fractions in the control group were 5.1%, 65.7%, 21.8%, 7.4% respectively and average values of Chylomicron, beta, pre-beta and alpha fractions in the test group were 7.9%, 59.8%, 27.0%, 5.3% respectively. P-values of the differences were statistically significant. Conclusion Serum lipoprotein electrophoresis in HIV infected patients in Kolkata showed increased chylomicrons and prebeta fractions while beta and alpha fractions were decreased.

Keywords: AEGIS, Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome, HIV Seropositivity, Electrophoresis, Lipids, HIV Infections, HIV Seronegativity, Chylomicrons, Anti-HIV Agents, HIV Protease Inhibitors, Humans, immunology

040711
MoPeB3082

Copyright © 2004 - International AIDS Society (IAS). Reproduction of this abstract (other than one copy for personal reference) must be cleared through the IAS.

BACKGROUND: Vultures are most important scavenging birds. Although it is well known that due to scavenging action vultures prevents spread of anthrax, but according to some; they may spread anthrax through their droppings. Thus this experiment was done to find out whether vulture and other birds' droppings contain anthrax and other pathogenic bacteria or not.

METHODS: This study was done on vulture droppings around different roosts, and observations were made on four patients living close proximity of a vulture roost. Droppings were present on dead leaves as well as on herbs, which were present, surrounding their roosts. We have studied pH and bacteria of the droppings.

RESULTS: Droppings were mildly acidic; pH ranges between 6.0 to 6.8. Aerobic bacteriological cultures were made on nutrient agar medium with swabs taken from droppings. There was no colony of anthrax bacilli and they mainly consist of colibacilli, Bacillus sp. Other than anthrax bacilli, few micrococci and corynebacteria. The most interesting finding was that there were plenty bacteriophages in the cultures creating plaque like gaps here and there in the colonies. Thus it may happen that these bacteriophages may kill pathogenic bacteria which may enter in the intestine of the vultures during feeding and thus they really act as a natural incinerator. On observation of the patients living close to a roost it was found that there was no difference in occurrence of secondary infections when compared to the usual findings of infections in AIDS patients in this locality.

CONCLUSION: It is unlikely that vultures and other scavenging birds can spread infections in AIDS patients through their droppings.

Keywords: AEGIS, Communicable Diseases, Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome, Bacillus anthracis, Anthrax, Birds, Infection, Bacteria, Animal, Human, methods

020707
ThPeB7386

Copyright © 2002 - International AIDS Society (IAS). Reproduction of this abstract (other than one copy for personal reference) must be cleared through the IAS.