Saramma Mini Jacob

• Professor at Tamil Nadu Dr. M.G.R. Medical University

Purpose: Leptospirosis is a re-emerging infectious disease that has been reported from all over the world, including South India. Several studies have documented the prevalence of Leptospira in the general population. However, the data on leptospirosis in children were limited. We evaluated the prevalence of antileptospiral antibodies and the dist...

Author and Affiliations-Purpose: Yoga is well known for improving oxygenation to the biological system and combating oxidative stress which is responsible for numerous lifestyle diseases which includes type 2 diabetes and hypertension. Therefore, the present study was conducted to evaluate the effects of yoga in modifying and improving the quality...

Objective: This study was conducted to determine the frequency of C3435T and G2677T/C single nucleotide polymorphisms of multi drug resistance gene-1 (MDR1) in nephrotic syndrome (NS) children in relation to healthy subjects. The role and association of these SNPs were also determined, whether response and/or resistance to steroid treatment in chil...

Introduction: Toxoplasma gondii is an obligate intracellular protozoan parasite causing toxoplasmosis. Humans acquire this zoonotic disease mainly by ingesting infectious oocysts. Transplacental transmission can occur when acquired in pregnancy. The objective of this study was to estimate the seroprevalence of IgM and IgG antitoxoplasma antibodies...

Objective: Adiponectin is a plasma protein with anti-inflammatory and anti-atherogenic effects. Low levels of circulating adiponectin have been reported in HIV-infected patients. However, there are no studies in India on adiponectin levels in HIV-infected antiretroviral-treated and treatment-naïve subjects. Therefore, we estimated adiponectin level...

The HIV-1 epidemic in India is caused mainly by subtype C viruses that are transmitted sexually and by injecting drug use. The state of Tamil Nadu in Southern India has an HIV-1 median prevalence of 16.8% among injecting drug users, 6.6% in men who have sex with men, and 4.6% in female sex workers. In the rural district of Namakkal, a prevalence >3...

Background: As antiretroviral therapy (ART) becomes more available to the HIV infected population in rural areas in India, it is important to determine the prevalence of its long term complications. Therefore, it was proposed to find out the prevalence of lipodystrophy in patients receiving ART and compare the gender differences. Material and metho...

Diagnosis of HIV infection in infants is difficult due to the presence of maternal antibodies; only nucleic acid assays are very helpful in early detection. Filter papers are especially useful for blood collection in resource-poor settings with limited access to diagnostic facilities. MATERIALS #ENTITYSTARTX00026; DBS samples were collected from th...

As antiretroviral therapy (ART) becomes more available to the HIV-infected population, it is important to determine the prevalence of its long-term complications. In this cross-sectional study, 145 HIV-positive patients on ART, 146 HIV-positive patients not on ART, and 72 HIV-negative individuals visiting the Namakkal District Head Quarters Hospita...

To evaluate the serological profile of leptospirosis by microscopic agglutination test (MAT) and dark field microscopy (DFM) and to determine the serovar prevalence rate among patients with pyrexia of unknown origin. A total of 3830 blood samples were received from different hospitals and laboratories in and around Chennai. They were screened for l...

7‐11 November 2010, Tenth International Congress on Drug Therapy in HIV Infection, Glasgow, UK

The objective of this paper was to assess the prevalence of metabolic syndrome among HIV-infected patients in a rural setting in India, and to determine whether there were gender-specific differences in the prevalence of metabolic syndrome.

Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) is the most sensitive test to diagnose HIV-1 infection among infants born to HIV seropositive mothers. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the use of dried blood spot (DBS) specimens for PCR and to compare it with whole-blood stored in tubes for HIV-1 DNA PCR. Five hundred and seventy-seven whole-blood infant s...

Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) is the most sensitive test to diagnose HIV-1 infection among infants born to HIV seropositive mothers. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the use of dried blood spot (DBS) specimens for PCR and to compare it with whole-blood stored in tubes for HIV-1 DNA PCR. Five hundred and seventy-seven whole-blood infant s...

This study assessed HIV attitudes among pregnant women attending antenatal clinics in the Namakkal district of Tamilnadu, India, as well as HIV knowledge before and after group counseling sessions. Two hundred thirteen women (97%) attending five antenatal clinics in July 2004 accepted HIV counseling and testing and completed precounseling and postc...

Background: The authors assessed acceptance and safety of, and adherence to, perinatal HIV-1 transmission prophylaxis at 2 public hospitals in rural Tamil Nadu, India. Eligible HIV-1-infected women were offered zidovudine (ZDV) beginning at 28-weeks gestation until delivery. Their infants received ZDV for 6 weeks. A subsequent revision to the proto...

Background: The Department of Experimental Medicine functions as the National Reference Laboratory (NRL) for HIV testing covering 11 Medical Colleges (State Reference Laboratories SRL) & 723 subcenters i.e. Integrated Coun-seling & Testing Centres and Blood Banks. The External Quality Assurance Scheme (EQAS) in NRL implements Quality Control (QC) T...