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Swapan Kumar Niyogi

Publications and source records attributed to Swapan Kumar Niyogi.

8 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2006

Epidemic of HIV coupled with hepatitis C virus among injecting drug users of Himalayan West Bengal, Eastern India, Bordering Nepal, Bhutan, and Bangladesh.

A study was conducted in June 2004 to find out the epidemiology of HIV infection among injecting drug users (IDUs) of Darjeeling District of West Bengal, eastern India. The district headquarter, Darjeeling town, also known as "Queen of Hills," is a beautiful spot situated in Himalayan West Bengal that attracts a large number of tourists each year from all over the world. Another unique feature of the district is that it has international boundaries with three countries, Nepal, Bhutan, and Bangladesh. Siliguri, the part of the district on plains, acts as a transit station for these countries as well as to the entire Himalayan region of West Bengal and neighboring state, Sikkim. It is also a transit point to all northeastern states of India: Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram, Meghalaya, and Tripura. Two hundred twenty-eight study subjects (IDUs) were included in this community-based cross-sectional study from all four subdivisions of the district. Informed consent was obtained, and then personal interviews, followed by blood testing were performed using unlinked anonymous procedure. The study revealed that overall HIV seroprevalence among IDUs was 11.8% (n = 27; 95% confidence interval, 7.9-16.7), whereas seroprevalence of hepatitis C was found to be 47.7% (n = 97). Prevalence of HIV was higher in subjects from hill districts (13.5%) compared with subjects from the plains (9.2%). It also revealed that most IDUs (75.3%) used "brown sugar," an impure form of heroin, as their major addictive substance followed by injection norphine. Sharing of injecting equipment was found to be as high as 67% among IDUs, and sharing of drugs from common ampules was found to be 35.5% of the studied subjects (n = 93). Most subjects (96%) were found to clean their injecting paraphernalia with plain water. Most IDUs (98%) were found to inject intravenously. About 52% of IDUs visited sex workers one or more times within the last 1 year, and 15% of the interviewed subjects (n = 93) reported to suffer from sexually transmitted diseases during the same period. All the IDUs knew about HIV/AIDS. About 69% of the subjects knew that apparently healthy looking person might have HIV infection. HIV was found to be associated significantly with age of the injectors and duration of injecting practices. The study revealed the epidemic of HIV and hepatitis C among IDU populations at this bordering district of West Bengal for the first time that requires urgent intervention at local, national, and international levels.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2005

Young age is a risk factor for HIV among female sex workers--an experience from India.

OBJECTIVE: A cross-sectional community-based study was conducted among brothel-based sex workers of West Bengal, eastern India, to study the prevalence of HIV and associated risk factors. METHODS: Unlinked anonymous HIV testing was performed on 2076 sex workers. Of these, 558 were interviewed using a pre-tested questionnaire to study their risk factors. RESULTS: Overall HIV sero-prevalence was 5.9%. All infections were HIV-1, except that four sex workers from Kolkata were infected with HIV-2. Surprisingly, HIV infection was much higher (12.5%) in younger sex workers (age < or =20 years) compared with older age groups (5.4%) (P=0.002; odds ratio 2.40, 95% CI: 1.29-4.38). CONCLUSIONS: This could be associated with larger areas of cervical ectopy of younger sex workers who are subjected to repeated trauma during sexual intercourse, facilitating higher HIV transmission. Behavioral factors may increase a young sex worker's risk of acquiring HIV infection, including professional immaturity with clients, which might lead to more unprotected sex. HIV status was associated with other sexually transmitted infection in the previous year but was not associated with literacy status, daily income, duration of sex work, number of clients entertained per day, entertaining clients outside a brothel (in a hotel), and reported condom use.

AIDS Serodiagnosis↗
PubMed2005

Evaluation of sexually transmitted diseases/human immunodeficiency virus intervention programs for sex workers in Calcutta, India.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: The Sonagachi Project in Calcutta, India, organized sex workers to improve working conditions. GOAL: To compare rates of sexually transmitted diseases between the Sonagachi Project and other areas in which only the National AIDS Control Organization (NACO) interventions were implemented. STUDY: A cross-sectional survey of randomly selected female sex workers. RESULTS: There was no difference in the prevalence of all STDs between the 2 areas; both were lower than reported in other surveys in 1992. Analysis using propensity scores also failed to demonstrate any difference. The number of preventive activities was similar in the Sonagachi and NACO-only areas but was more prevalent than in 1992. Sex workers in the Sonagachi area had better treatment-seeking behavior and attitudes. Both the Sonagachi and NACO strategies have resulted in lower STD rates, but the Sonagachi Project also increased the proportion who had an optimistic attitude and increased prevention and treatment-seeking behavior.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2005

Shigellosis.

Shigellosis is a global human health problem. Four species of Shigella i.e. S. dysenteriae, S. flexneri, S. boydii and S. sonnei are able to cause the disease. These species are subdivided into serotypes on the basis of O-specific polysaccharide of the LPS. Shigella dysenteriae type 1 produces severe disease and may be associated with life-threatening complications. The symptoms of shigellosis include diarrhoea and/or dysentery with frequent mucoid bloody stools, abdominal cramps and tenesmus. Shigella spp. cause dysentery by invading the colonic mucosa. Shigella bacteria multiply within colonic epithelial cells, cause cell death and spread laterally to infect and kill adjacent epithelial cells, causing mucosal ulceration, inflammation and bleeding. Transmission usually occurs via contaminated food and water or through person-to-person contact. Laboratory diagnosis is made by culturing the stool samples using selective/differential agar media. Shigella spp. are highly fragile organism and considerable care must be exercised in collecting faecal specimens, transporting them to the laboratories and in using appropriate media for isolation. Antimicrobial agents are the mainstay of therapy of all cases of shigellosis. Due to the global emergence of drug resistance, the choice of antimicrobial agents for treating shigellosis is limited. Although single dose of norfloxacin and ciprofloxacin has been shown to be effective, they are currently less effective against S. dysenteriae type 1 infection. Newer quinolones, cephalosporin derivatives, and azithromycin are the drug of choice. However, fluoroquinolone-resistant S. dysenteriae type 1 infection have been reported. Currently, no vaccines against Shigella infection exist. Both live and subunit parenteral vaccine candidates are under development. Because immunity to Shigella is serotype-specific, the priority is to develop vaccine against S. dysenteriae type 1 and S. flexneri type 2a. Shigella species are important pathogens responsible for diarrhoeal diseases and dysentery occurring all over the world. The morbidity and mortality due to shigellosis are especially high among children in developing countries. A recent review of literature (Kotloff et al.,1999) concluded that, of the estimated 165 million cases of Shigella diarrhoea that occur annually, 99% occur in developing countries, and in developing countries 69% of episodes occur in children under five years of age. Moreover, of the ca.1.1 million deaths attributed to Shigella infections in developing countries, 60% of deaths occur in the under-five age group. Travellers from developed to developing regions and soldiers serving under field conditions are also at an increased risk to develop shigellosis.

Drug Resistance, Bacterial↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Epidemic strain Shigella dysenteriae Type 1 Dt66 encodes several drug resistances by chromosome.

BACKGROUND: Multiple antibiotic-resistant strains of Shigella dysenteriae type 1 were isolated from an epidemic in West Bengal, India (1984). During the past two decades, much attention was given to reevaluation of treatment recommendations. However, there are no useful data on drug resistance encoded by chromosome. METHODS: A total of 300 strains of Shigella dysenteriae type 1 were isolated from an epidemic. Strains were biochemically identified by API 20E system and further confirmed serologically. Antibiotic susceptibility was determined by disk diffusion method and plasmid DNA was prepared by alkaline lysis procedure. Elimination of plasmids was achieved by curing with acridine orange from a representative epidemic strain S. dysenteriae 1 Dt66. PFGE was performed for typing of wild-type and plasmid-cured strains. Southern blot of PFGE separated XbaI digested chromosomal DNA was done onto positively charged nylon membrane. For Southern hybridization, plasmid DNA was used as probe. RESULTS: All isolates showed identical drug resistance patterns and plasmid profiles. All these isolates contained six plasmids ranging in sizes from 3 to 145 kb. We have eliminated all the plasmids from a representative strain of S. dysenteriae 1 Dt66 by using acridine orange as curing agent. All epidemic Shigella isolates were resistant to amoxycillin, ampicillin, bacitracin, carbenicillin, cefixime, ceftazidime, chloramphenicol, clarithromycin, erythromycin, fusidic acid, methicillin, penicillin G, polymixin B, streptomycin, rifampicin, tetracycline and vancomycin, among 29 antibiotics used. Out of 17 resistant antibiotics, 12 were encoded by chromosome. Resistance to ampicillin, chloramphenicol, streptomycin, tetracycline and ceftazidime was plasmid encoded. Southern blot hybridization showed the recognition of two clear sites in the chromosome used plasmid DNA of Dt66 strain as probe, which reveled some sequential genetic homology between chromosome and plasmids. Pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) was performed for typing of the chromosome of plasmidless strains of Dt66 and wild-type strain Dt66 (having plasmids) that remain unaltered. CONCLUSIONS: Seventy percent drug-resistant loci of Shigella dysenteriae 1 Dt66 are present in chromosome and the remaining are plasmid mediated.

Acridine Orange↗