Author: Biotech Express

by Anil V. Shah, R. M. Ramanuj, K. B. Vaghela and Sunita Varjani* Gujarat Pollution Control Board, Sector-10A, Gandhinagar – 382010, Gujarat, India. *Corresponding author: drsvs18@gmail.com Abstract Viruses may occur, survive and/or decay much differently from bacteria in water. Pathogens, if not removed properly from wastewater may enter in water bodies and cause infections. Among the diseases caused by viruses some have been reported severe. COVID-19, SARS-CoV and MERS-CoV are recent examples of how coronaviruses infect humans. We have no tools to control the disease except social isolation. COVID-19 is enveloped, non-segmented, positive-sense RNA virus having high mutation rate and…

Dear Honorable Prime Minister Modi ji: As I am aware of the fact that you have to listen scientific people around you for scientific suggestions but let me bring some facts to you. World Health Organization puts out statistics on various causes of deaths in each country every year. I checked for one recent year, in India, 1.23 million people died of diarrhoeal diseases compared to 18000 in China. Influenza, pneumonia and TB together killed about 1.1 million people compared to 0.75 million in China. Another 4 or 5 million people are dying in each year from heart problems, stroke,…

By Anonymous Writer Despite having huge money flow in this biological pandemic Indian Bioscience sector is looking at the backfront in recent announcement of G.O.I of AtmaNirbhar Package Rs 20 lakh crore package announced in five tranches by FM Sitharaman stood at Rs 20,97,053 crore, included the Rs 1.92 lakh crore stimulus from measures announced by PM Modi recently such as the Pradhan Matri Garib Kalyan Package worth Rs 1.7 lakh crore. The first set of relief measures announced by Nirmala Sitharaman focused on enabling the Indian economy’s backbone – MSMEs that employ around 11 crore people and have a…

Contents in this Issue Coronavirus2 Special Issue: All you need to know about SARS-CoV2 and COVID19 Virology Expert View: How to Tackle Coronavirus Transmission and Possible Route of Exit from Lockdown Mental Health Expert Views: Meet your mental health  experts for COVID-19 related Stress Why India has gain advantage over COVID19 pandemic? Impact of COVID19  on Global and Indian Economy COVID19 Diagnosis: Past present and future COVID19 Cure: Race against SARS-CoV2 & COVID19 Covid19 News of Focus • Scientists, led by Shailendra K. Saxena is the first Indian group to work on CoV vaccine • Hydroxychloroquine in Coronavirus pandemic •…

by  Kamal Pratap Singh, Managing Editor, Biotech Express E-mail- kamal9871@gmail.com Coronaviruses (CoVs): Introduction Coronaviruses (CoV) are member of a group of related viruses that cause diseases in mammals and birds. There are many diverse groups of viruses and each group contains further more different viruses (see complete phylogeny here). Novel CoV-2019’s story is not very old, a new group of viruses with the name of coronaviruses have been recognized by an informal group of virologists who have sent their conclusions to Nature and consequently in 1975 the International Committee on the Taxonomy of Viruses (ICTV) approved the creation of…

Why India has gain advantage over COVID19 pandemic? A lesson till now by Kamal Pratap Singh and Vaibhav Sharma(PhD, AIIMS) India has gain advantage of not becoming a victim of death-air created by Coronavirus named SARS-CoV2 which has swallowed more than 1.5 million lives as on 20th April 2020. According to one website www.worldometers.com the global death rate per million of population is 12.4 as on April 16 ,which means these many people died out of 1 million (10 lakh) people of global population (7.8 billion). Though the virus originated in China it had hurt many countries with severe…

by Prof Ramareddy V Guntaka, Professor, Department of Microbiology, Immunology & Biochemistry University of Tennessee, USA. First of all, about Coronavirus and its severity, this group of viruses contain a very large RNA genome with a complicated life cycle. Ordinarily this group causes seasonal colds in humans and mostly not serious illness. A variant caused severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) around 2003 and killed a few thousand people and disappeared. Later MERS emerged from camels in Middle East and killed few hundred people around 2012. Now we are witnessing the emergence and spread of COVID19. By acting very quickly…

The Lockdown and curfew has imposed too much stress on individuals as evident by current few news around the world. This has encouraged us to write a article which would help our readers to understand mental health in current scenario. On directions, after discussing the facts with our Editorial Board Member Dr Rachna Agarwal who is into Neurosciences and is working as Associate Professor in Institute of Human behavior and Allied Sciences (IHBAS) and her peer Dr Om Prakash, we have prepared points which can be considered to understand mental health problems and and to prevent complications associated with it.…

by Biotech Express Bureau | Updated on April 20, 2020 There is no cure (or vaccine) against COVID19; Doctors can only relieve the symptoms. Since it is a new pathogen the chances of making a candidate vaccine very soon are very low, yet world’s scientists are working rigorously to find one. The biotech industry, both by pharmaceutical companies and research organisations across the world are working on the development of novel coronavirus vaccines and possible treatment. But to kill the virus a chemical or biological entity is required which takes time for discovery, approval and gain trust. The most effective…

by Biotech Express Bureau | Updated on April 20, 2020 Current molecular methods to detect infections of the novel coronavirus rely on identifying particular genetic sequences (Nucleic acid amplification tests) of SARS-CoV2, but new assays are being developed to meet the growing demand for rapid answers. The quick sequencing of the SARS-CoV-2 genome and distribution of the data early on in the COVID-19 outbreak has enabled the development of a variety of assays to diagnose patients based on snippets of the virus’s genetic code. But as the number of potential cases increases, and concerns rise about the possibility of a…