Indian Journal Watch
24 October 2026
Peer-reviewed microbiology, infectious disease, AMR and infection-control papers from India and South Asia, published or added to PubMed from 22 to 24 October 2026.
Lead articles
Vector-borne · PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases
Epidemiological, clinical, and diagnostic characteristics of a large-scale upsurge of dengue in the rohingya refugee camps and host communities in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, 2021 to 2024: A retrospective study
PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases · doi:10.1371/journal.pntd.0014198 · PubMed 42912829
- What
- Epidemiological, clinical and diagnostic characteristics of the dengue upsurge among Rohingya refugees and surrounding host communities in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, and predictors of inpatient admission.
- Design
- Retrospective observational study using anonymised surveillance data from the International Organization for Migration (IOM) dengue patient database. Rapid diagnostic test (RDT)-confirmed cases across 36 IOM-supported health facilities in Ukhiya and Teknaf between 1 October 2021 and 31 December 2024 were included. Phase-specific Poisson regression modelled epidemic growth and decay, and multivariable logistic regression identified factors associated with inpatient admission.
- Key findings
- A total of 35,581 RDT-confirmed dengue cases were reported, of which 90.2% occurred among Rohingya refugees. The median age was 17 years (IQR 7-30), and 46.0% of cases were among children aged 0-14 years. Annual caseload rose from 1,011 in 2021 to 11,752 in 2022, 10,669 in 2023 and 12,149 in 2024. Overall, 8.0% of cases required inpatient admission, 1.3% were referred, and four deaths were reported (case fatality <0.1%). Admission was associated with older age (≥60 vs 0-14: aOR 2.48), delayed presentation (aOR 1.06 per day), refugee status (aOR 1.43), presence of any WHO warning sign (aOR 28.87) and chronic co-morbidity (aOR 6.63).
- Limitations
- The analysis used routine surveillance data and was restricted to RDT-confirmed cases presenting to IOM-supported facilities.
- Relevance to India
- The study describes a large, multi-year dengue upsurge in a protracted refugee setting in South Asia. The authors call for “a policy shift from episodic outbreak response toward sustained dengue preparedness in humanitarian settings”, including phase-appropriate use of NS1 and IgM/IgG diagnostics.
AMR · Journal of Patient Safety
Antibiotic Resistance in India Over a Decade: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis of Clinical and Molecular Evidence (2015-2025)
Journal of Patient Safety · doi:10.1097/pts.0000000000001604
- What
- Antibiotic resistance patterns in India from 2015 to 2025: the pooled prevalence of resistance among major bacterial pathogens, molecular resistance determinants and mortality associated with resistant infections.
- Design
- Systematic review and random-effects meta-analysis following PRISMA 2020 guidelines. PubMed/MEDLINE, Scopus, Web of Science, Google Scholar, surveillance reports and grey literature were searched for studies reporting antibiotic resistance data from India between January 2015 and December 2025. Two reviewers independently extracted data and assessed quality. The review was registered with PROSPERO (CRD420261406324).
- Key findings
- Forty-six studies met the inclusion criteria. The pooled prevalence of antibiotic resistance was 55.7% (95% CI: 47.4%-63.9%; I² = 98.6%). High resistance rates were reported among Klebsiella pneumoniae, Escherichia coli, Acinetobacter baumannii and Pseudomonas aeruginosa. The pooled prevalence of resistance-associated genes was 64.5% (95% CI: 46.0%-83.0%), with blaNDM, blaOXA-48-like and blaKPC the most frequently reported determinants. Mortality associated with resistant infections was 31.0% (95% CI: 18.2%-43.8%).
- Limitations
- The authors state that the findings “should be interpreted cautiously because of substantial heterogeneity and the predominance of studies from tertiary-care settings”.
- Relevance to India
- The review pools a decade of clinical and molecular resistance data from India. The authors conclude that the findings underscore the need for strengthened antibiotic stewardship, standardised surveillance, expanded molecular diagnostics and coordinated public health interventions.
More from the journals
Antimicrobial resistance & stewardship
- Peshawar, three tertiary care hospitals (2023): among 32 carbapenemase-producing Enterobacterales, the predominant carbapenemase gene was blaNDM-5 (90.6%), frequently combined with blaOXA-48-like variants (46.9%). 11/13 K. pneumoniae ST147 isolates carried multiple virulence-associated genes consistent with hypervirulence.JAC-Antimicrobial Resistance
- Tertiary care hospital in Saurashtra, western India: AMR surveillance data analysed using the WHO Bacterial Priority Pathogens List 2024 and the AWaRe classification.Indian Journal of Medical Microbiology
- Case report, India: a renal transplant recipient receiving trimethoprim/sulfamethoxazole prophylaxis developed pulmonary aspergillosis and disseminated nocardiosis caused by trimethoprim/sulfamethoxazole-resistant Nocardia.Emerging Infectious Diseases · PubMed 42912459
- Bharatpur Metropolitan City, Chitwan, Nepal: tissue-site distribution, antimicrobial resistance and phenotypic ESBL production of E. coli isolated from retail chicken carcasses.Journal of Food Protection
- Odisha-led systematic review of eight observational studies on colistin resistance in contaminated aquatic systems: plasmid-mediated mcr genes were identified across several environmental settings.Frontiers in Antibiotics · PubMed 42909078
- ICAR-National Dairy Research Institute, Karnal: a spore-based paper-strip assay detected 42 antibiotics across 14 classes; field validation on 529 raw milk samples showed a 15.63% positivity rate.Journal of Food Science · PubMed 42908127
- VIT Vellore, in vitro: an ethyl acetate extract of marine Streptomyces sp. VITNABS17 reduced K. pneumoniae biofilm biomass by 66.2 ± 0.22% at 20 mg/mL.Preparative Biochemistry & Biotechnology · PubMed 42913419
Tuberculosis
- Urban Ahmedabad, 251 household contacts of drug-susceptible pulmonary TB patients: 153 (61.0%) initiated TB preventive treatment, and 110 (71.9%) of initiators completed the regimen.CHRISMED Journal of Health and Research
- Perspective on BCG at 100: a tuberculin survey from western Uttar Pradesh documented an annual risk of TB infection of 3.5-4.1% in a predominantly BCG-vaccinated child population.Indian Pediatrics · PubMed 42911367
- BITS Pilani Hyderabad, in vitro and in silico: of 17 1,2,3-triazolyl indole-piperazine derivatives tested against M. tuberculosis H37Rv, three lead molecules (R11, R13 and R15) were identified.RSC Advances · PubMed 42903586
Vector-borne, zoonotic & NTDs
- Sri Lanka, 2025: two cases of asymptomatic Dirofilaria microfilaremia detected during night blood surveillance for lymphatic filariasis were caused by the novel species D. asiatica.Emerging Infectious Diseases · PubMed 42912417
- Sri Lanka, 2024: a child had persistent microfilaraemia caused by D. asiatica after 2 rounds of diethylcarbamazine treatment.Emerging Infectious Diseases · PubMed 42912415
- The Leprosy Mission Hospital, Dayapuram: qualitative study of patient experiences while undergoing multidrug therapy for leprosy in India.Leprosy Review
- Anandaban Hospital, Nepal: psychological distress, illness trajectories, influencing factors and coping among people affected by leprosy.Leprosy Review
- Case report (Indian authors): Plasmodium falciparum malaria in a 37-year-old woman with unspecified psychosis at a tertiary care psychiatric institute.Microbiologia Medica
- Review co-authored by ICMR-National Institute of Virology (96 papers): medicinal plants and phytoconstituents with reported anti-dengue virus activity, with a main focus on Indian medicinal plants.Journal of Vector Borne Diseases
Infection prevention & HAI
- Lady Reading Hospital, Peshawar (200 patients): VP shunt infection occurred in 42 of 200 patients (21.0%); 20 of 25 Gram-negative isolates were multidrug- or extensively drug-resistant.BMC Infectious Diseases
- Army Hospital Research and Referral, New Delhi: a mobile air decontamination device reduced the mean airborne microbial load in an operating theatre from 34.47 CFU/m3 to 15.20 CFU/m3 (P = 0.0033).Infection Prevention in Practice · PubMed 42909398
Virology
- Nishtar Hospital, Multan (237 symptomatic patients): the overall acute hepatitis E virus seroprevalence was 41.8% (99/237).Pakistan Journal of Biochemistry and Biotechnology
- Tertiary care hospital in Nepal: hepatic biochemical abnormalities in chronic hepatitis B.Clinica Chimica Acta
- Nepal: distribution of human papillomavirus (HPV) genotypes among women of reproductive age.Clinica Chimica Acta
- GBD 2023, children under 5 years: 15.6 million measles cases and 118,000 deaths were estimated in 2023; Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia continue to bear the highest burden.Nature Medicine · PubMed 42907529
Mycology
Diagnostics
- Bangladesh: prospective longitudinal study of cholera rapid diagnostic test performance at the host–microbe interface.The Lancet Microbe
- AIIMS New Delhi, 756 women: with the third prototype of an indigenous HPV self-collection device, clinical sensitivity for CIN2+ was 93.6% (95%CI 78.6-99.2).Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention · PubMed 42911102
- CSIR-CSIO Chandigarh: a YOLOv8n deep learning model achieved an overall accuracy of 99% for distinguishing Plasmodium-infected from uninfected cells on thin blood smear images.Journal of Applied Microbiology · PubMed 42910861
- Amala Institute of Medical Sciences, Thrissur (138 children): stool Gram staining had a positive predictive value of 86.66% for Campylobacter.Diagnostic Microbiology and Infectious Disease · PubMed 42906518
- Dhiraj Blood Bank, Gujarat (7,471 donations): 111 (1.49%) samples were VDRL-reactive, of which 45 (40.5%) were reactive on Syphi Microlisa, giving an overall syphilis seroprevalence of 0.60%.Cureus · PubMed 42909999
- Pakistan, 93 dyspeptic patients: primers targeting the vacA signal and middle regions showed the most consistent detection of H. pylori across biopsy and gastric juice samples.Pakistan Journal of Biochemistry and Biotechnology
Other
- Pakistan: qualitative study of socio-behavioural barriers and drivers of typhoid conjugate vaccine uptake using the WHO BeSD framework.Vaccine: X
- Rural and urban Delhi: qualitative study of community health workers’ roles and motivations in delivering care during and after the COVID-19 pandemic.BMC Health Services Research · PubMed 42907877
- PGIMER Chandigarh-led systematic review (122 studies) of multimodal imaging in five infectious posterior uveitides, including ocular tuberculosis and syphilitic uveitis.Ophthalmology Retina · PubMed 42906791
- Kathmandu case report: Klebsiella pneumoniae spinal epidural abscess mimicking tuberculous spondylodiscitis in a diabetic patient with pulmonary tuberculosis.Clinical Case Reports
Items are summaries of published abstracts and are not clinical advice. Readers should consult the original article. Figures are quoted as reported in each abstract.
