The NTAGI has also stated that those having laboratory test proven SARS-CoV-2 illness should defer COVID-19 vaccination for six months after recovery, the sources said.
Research has revealed that a pig's insulin-producing cells may help cure diabetes in humans.
India's first mRNA platform-based vaccine will remain stable at 2-8 degrees Celsius while Pfizer-BioNTech's vaccine needs minus 70 degrees Celsius and Moderna vaccine can remain stable for six months at minus 20 degrees Celsius, reports Sohini Das.
While there has been no commitment from the government on the procurement of vaccines, initial volumes, or distribution plans, there is a likelihood that the low interest loans may be made available to these players only when the time to scale up manufacturing arises.
The Nagarkattis became interested in investigating the plant products for their anti-inflammatory properties because of their exposure to Ayurvedic medicine, which has argued that several plant products are effective against arthritis and other autoimmune diseases. The team plans to collaborate with scientists from India to test a large number of plant extracts for their anti-inflammatory properties and study their mode of action.
There are a number of vaccine candidates already in clinical trial and a few out of those candidates have completed phase 1/2 status, he said, adding that there are trials that will be going into phase three sometime at the end of July and then others will follow in the months of August, September and October.
Sudhir Paul of the University of Texas-Houston Medical School and his team may have found a way to attack the weakest link in HIV. According to a paper in the journal Autoimmune Reviews, the team has found an unchanging part of the virus that can be attacked using abzymes -- that is, antibodies that have enzymatic activity.
National Institute of Immunology invites applications for its PhD programme for the academic year 2007-2008.
'This year, we know the virus. Last year we didn't know anything about it.' 'The best part is that for the Indian population there has been some amount of cross protection.'
Paul, director of the Chemical Immunology Research Center at the university, says HIV needs a complex solution because it mutates so fast. Which was why Paul and his team went about hunting for a part of the HIV that does not change. They found it and found a chemical that could destroy it.
Nobel laureate Peter Doherty says his 'big worry' is there could be refusals for other vaccines if doubts over its safety turn out to be true.
Highlights of the guidelines include emphasis on ongoing monitoring and management of asthma, routine use of inhaled corticosteroids as the standard of care for most patients with chronic persistent asthma, distinguishing between managing acute and chronic asthma, and the identification of new risk factors for the disease.
As India holds its breath for the Covid vaccination to be begin, Sudhir Bisht provides a quick checklist of what you must know about the vaccines that will be administered to citizens.
Since the trial participants were not exposed to the coronavirus after vaccination, the scientists said it is not possible for the current study to determine the efficacy of the candidate vaccine.
'What prevents infection are masks, physical distancing and good ventilation.'
The United Kingdom on Wednesday became the first country to approve the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine against COVID-19, paving the way for mass vaccinations against the deadly novel coronavirus.
'Wearing masks, washing our hands, all those things are barriers to transmissibility, or contagion, but as the virus becomes more contagious it statistically is better at getting around those barriers'
'There are not enough RT-PCR tests and they take a long time to do in specialised centres. So the world is using RA tests for the same reason that India is using them, and with similar somewhat spuriously comforting rationale'
The first vaccine candidate will be an intra-muscular one, followed by intra-dermal and nasal ones, depending on test results.
Scientists around the world, including in India, suggest it hasn't been tested properly given the time constraint and there may not be enough evidence to prove its efficacy.
It is the one food that you should consume daily.
India has purchased 500 million doses of the Oxford University-AstraZeneca vaccine candidate, one billion from the United States company Novavax and 100 million doses of the Sputnik V candidate from Russia's Gamaleya Research Institute, according to the US-based Duke University Global Health Innovation Center.
The researchers, including those from the Centre for DNA Fingerprinting and Diagnostics (CDFD) in Hyderabad, advise testing asymptomatic primary and secondary contacts followed by surveillance.
The research suggests that due to strenuous exercise, elite athletes are more likely to inhale virus particles and direct them to the lower areas of the lung.
Some vaccine frontrunners are in advanced stages of trial and could hit the market by early next year, making the task of securing "last mile connectivity" and ensuring that nothing goes wrong before the shot is administered more urgent.
As India prepares to launch its vaccine drive on January 16, here is a look at the options:
The Australian immunologist, who cautioned that the number of COVID-19 cases will rise in the coming days, said the earliest time frame for an effective vaccine 'going into large numbers of people' is nine to 12 months.
While there is a glimmer of hope and India's COVID-19 numbers are on a definite decline for a combination of reasons, a vaccination programme continues to be important, particularly given the presence of a mutant, more transmissible strain, several experts said while cautioning against infection upticks ahead.
The impact of a 'dengue-COVID-19' season would entail two different diagnostic tests and extract a huge toll on patients too, each disease making the other more complicated to deal with and perhaps more fatal.
'If at all there is going to be a second wave, it will not be very strong unlike in the US and Europe.'
More than 2 million people have been diagnosed with coronavirus across the world, and the pharmaceutical industry is pulling out all stops to find potential treatments and vaccines for the global pandemic. According to the World Health Organization, there are now more than 70 potential vaccines under evelopment, with some already in clinical trials.
The surgery will be performed by a team of experts constituted by AIIMS.
As worries over India's COVID-19 spike mount -- the country added 75,809 cases on Tuesday to take its tally to 42,80,422 -- scientists are grappling with the pivotal issue of antibodies and trying to understand how they impact on the progression of the disease.
The expert noted that in India the pandemic is unlikely to be over in the months to come, and the number of people getting infected will continue to rise.
According to the World Health Organisation, 10 candidate vaccines for COVID-19 are in the clinical evaluation and 126 are in the pre-clinical stage.
Addressing a press briefing, health ministry Joint Secretary Lav Agarwal said currently there are no approved therapies for COVID-19 and there is not enough evidence to claim that plasma therapy can be used for treatment of the disease.
Early data from its vaccine candidate 'mRNA-1273' showed it produced protective antibodies in a group of eight healthy volunteers, Moderna said. The other closely watched COVID-19 vaccine is the one being developed by scientists at Oxford University.
'We need to have the courage to take a rational look at known facts and act accordingly,' advises Mohan Guruswamy.
