Biomedical subjects
Publications and source records attributed to G K Sharma.
The study conducted at Kheda district, Gujarat, revealed that judgement of patient on the basis of symptoms and diagnosis of the doctor were correct in 50 and 27% of the suspected malaria cases respectively. In malaria control programme, emphasis on health education and passive case detection is indicated.
The structural polypeptides of thirty-three field isolates of foot and mouth disease virus (FMDV) collected in India between 1977 and 1985 were analysed by SDS-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. They were placed in eleven groups based on their patterns and compared with results of conventional serological (virus neutralisation and complement fixation) tests. Variation occurred in the structural proteins of the viruses isolated between 1977 and 1981; however, the polypeptide patterns of viruses isolated in 1984 and 1985 were identical.
In 1981 Entomological Field Research Units were established in three districts of Orissa State, India, from which Anopheles bloodmeals were forwarded regularly for analysis to an Entomological Laboratory in Bhubaneswar. At the onset of 1982, the laboratory introduced a modified gel diffusion technique for determining the origin of mosquito bloodmeals and by the end of 1983, 22,300 smears had been processed and analyzed. The technique is relatively very simple, fast and inexpensive. The results are reproducible and the use of double controls (negative and positive) ensure a high degree of reliability.
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The indirect immunofluorescence test was evaluated as a tool for malaria surveillance. The population of 12 villages in the East Champaran District of Bihar with a low annual parasitic index and a low annual blood examination rate was surveyed in order to confirm the low endemicity of malaria in these villages. Two specimens of blood, one taken during the pre-transmission season and one taken during the post-transmission season, were collected for parasitological and serological studies. The paired samples showed no parasite positivity in the study population in both surveys. All the villages had very low serological titres. However, the presence of malaria antibodies in the zero to five years age group (the sentinel group) indicated that malaria transmission occurred in the study area at a very low level. The seropositivity and the geometric mean titre were lower in the pre-transmission season than in the post-transmission season, but the overall reduction in geometric mean titre, which was very low throughout the study, was not statistically significant. The study emphasizes the importance of serological tests in malaria surveillance.
Entomological and epidemiological surveys in May, August and November 1985 and March 1986 were conducted in villages in Bulandshahr, a western district in Uttar Pradesh and in three eastern districts, Jaunpur, Ballia and Saran. In Bulandshahr, Anopheles culicifacies sibling species A and B were found, with a predominance of species A. Both Plasmodium vivax and P. falciparum were present and the malaria incidence remained high (SPR, 6-50%) indicating an active transmission. In contrast, in three eastern districts predominance of species B with an occasional occurrence of species A was observed. Malaria cases were almost absent in Ballia and Saran and in Jaunpur 10.3% slide positivity rate was observed in May but in later surveys cases were considerably lower (SPR, 0.5-2.9%) indicating the absence of indigenous transmission. In the eastern districts, malaria parasites are regularly brought in from endemic areas by the migrant labor population. Although An. culicifacies s.l. occurs in both the areas, the difference in malaria incidence appears to be due to the difference in the composition of the sibling species which is, the predominant presence of species A in the western district and its absence in eastern districts. This indicates that species A is responsible for active malaria transmission while species B is not.
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A field trial of malaria vector control was conducted in Phulbani district, Orissa, during 1984 and 1985. Indoor-spraying of pirimiphos-methyl emulsion formulation was undertaken at an application rate of 2 g/m2 in two sections (population 14,692) of Nuagaon Primary Health Centre. Houses in two adjacent sections (population 21,450) were sprayed with DDT a water dispersible powder (wdp) formulation at 1 g/m2 for comparison purposes. Operational problems in this area come from the tendency of tribal people to re-plaster over wdp applications. Pre-spray malariological indices in the trial area were 38% slide positivity rate, 37% slide falciparum rate and 12.1% annual parasite incidence. Densities of Anopheles annularis Van der Wulp, An. culicifacies Giles, An. fluviatilis Theobald and other potential malaria vectors were reduced in the pirimiphos-methyl trial area 2-35-fold more than in the area sprayed with DDT. Malariological indices were reduced by 65-68% in the pirimiphos-methyl sprayed area compared with only 26-35% reduction in the DDT sprayed area. Spraymen and villagers experienced no adverse side-effects from residual house-spraying with pirimiphos-methyl emulsion and it is concluded that this organophosphate product has advantages for malaria vector control, especially in operationally difficult situations.
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The study was carried out to find out the efficacy of glucose oxidase as an adjunct to penicillin and its comparison with cloxacillin on fifty penicillin resistant staphylococcal isolates. There is an unequivocal evidence that the combined use of glucose oxidase and penicillin is superior in controlling penicillin resistant coagulase positive staphylococcal infections in comparison to cloxacillin.
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Pulmonary megakaryocytes were quantitated in a series of 30 consecutive hospital necropsies using a two stage immunoperoxidase stain for factor VIII related antigen. In all 30 cases they were found with a mean density of 14.65 megakaryocytes/cm2 in lung sections of 5 micron in thickness. The maximum concentration of intrapulmonary megakaryocytes was consistently found to be in the central zone of the right upper lobe. Less than 22% of the observed cells possessed abundant cytoplasm, the rest appearing as effete, naked, and seminaked nuclei. The mean megakaryocyte count was found to be increased in association with both respiratory pathology (positive smoking history and impaired lung function) and cardiovascular disease states--shock; thromboembolism; myocardial infarction; and severe atheroma in the abdominal aorta, the coronary circulation, and the circle of Willis. Pulmonary megakaryocytes probably embolise from bone marrow. This may reflect stimulated thrombopoiesis, caused by increased platelet consumption in association with atherosclerotic disease, but it cannot be taken to confirm that the lung is the principal site of platelet production.
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