Indian Journal Watch
11 November 2026
Microbiology, infectious disease, AMR and infection-control papers from India and South Asia added to PubMed on 9 to 10 November 2026 and not covered in earlier issues (PubMed showed no new qualifying entries dated 11 November at the time of compilation).
Lead articles
Scrub typhus · Genotyping · The Journal of Infectious Diseases
Orientia tsutsugamushi genotypes associated with severe scrub typhus in South India
The Journal of Infectious Diseases · doi:10.1093/infdis/jiag530 · PubMed 43006856
- What
- A study by the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and Christian Medical College Vellore determining Orientia tsutsugamushi genotypes in chigger mites, small mammal hosts and human fever cases in Tamil Nadu, to explore genotype-specific virulence in scrub typhus.
- Design
- Scrub typhus patients were enrolled from two hospitals; chigger mites were collected from small mammals trapped in 25 rural villages in the hospital catchment areas. Samples were screened by real-time PCR followed by nested PCR of the partial tsa56 gene and Sanger sequencing, with phylogenetic grouping into clades labelled by nearest reference genotype.
- Key findings
- The authors determined 138 tsa56 sequences from 1165 blood samples from human fever cases, 63 sequences from 762 chigger pools and 58 sequences from 874 small mammals, grouped into nine genotypes. The two most common genotypes in chiggers and small mammals were never found in human cases, while genotypes common in humans were rare in chiggers. The human-to-chigger genotype prevalence ratio correlated with the proportion of severe human infections (r= 0.87, p= 0.011). Two genotypes, Kato-Vellore and TA763-Vellore, caused 72% of infections involving shock and all five observed deaths; genotype-specific risk of shock was associated with eschar prevalence (r= 0.84, p= 0.017).
- Limitations
- Genotyping was based on a partial tsa56 gene sequence; the number of deaths was small (five), and the abstract reports correlations across nine genotypes only.
- Relevance to India
- The findings indicate marked variation in clinical severity between O. tsutsugamushi genotypes circulating in South India.
Nipah virus · Transmission dynamics · PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases
Transmission dynamics of Nipah virus in Bangladesh and India, 2001-2026: Systematic review and inference on reproduction number, offspring dispersion, and serial interval
PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases · doi:10.1371/journal.pntd.0014876 · PubMed 43008051
- What
- A systematic review and modelling study, led from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine and Nagasaki University, estimating the reproduction number, offspring dispersion and serial interval of Nipah virus (NiV) transmission in Bangladesh and India during 2001-2026, where person-to-person outbreaks have been driven by the NiV-Bangladesh and NiV-India genotypes.
- Design
- PubMed, Embase, Web of Science and grey literature were searched to 28 February 2026. Case-level offspring counts from 27 sources (323 cases across 67 outbreaks) were fitted to a hierarchical Bayesian negative binomial offspring distribution model; the serial interval was estimated from 137 transmission pairs, with country-specific and sensitivity analyses.
- Key findings
- Pooling across 67 outbreaks, the median reproduction number was 0.43 (95% CrI: 0.26-0.75), the offspring dispersion parameter 0.04 (0.03-0.06) and the serial interval 13.3 days (95% CI: 12.8-13.8). Country-specific median reproduction numbers were 0.47 (0.22-0.98) for India and 0.35 (0.19-0.63) for Bangladesh, with dispersion parameters of 0.03 (0.02-0.06) and 0.05 (0.03-0.09), respectively, indicating marked overdispersion in both settings.
- Limitations
- Estimates depend on the completeness of published outbreak investigations and reconstructed transmission chains.
- Relevance to South Asia
- The authors conclude that NiV transmission is self-limiting on average and highly overdispersed, with a disproportionate share of onward transmission from a small number of cases, supporting targeted containment including contact tracing and quarantine.
More from the journals
AMR & antimicrobials
- Multi-country compassionate-use series (Medanta Lucknow, Chennai, Manipal and others): cefepime/zidebactam in 85 patients with carbapenem-resistant Gram-negative infections; investigator-assessed clinical success 88.2%, on-therapy mortality 10.6%.Journal of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy · PubMed 43004942
- AIIMS Jodhpur: 106 of 144 (73.6%) carbapenem-resistant Enterobacterales were carbapenemase producers; blaNDM in 57 of 102 MBL producers; mcr-1 detected in five isolates.Molecular Biology Reports · PubMed 43007532
- Gauhati Medical College: food-poisoning outbreak in Lower Assam (65 cases, attack rate 65%) linked to raw ‘Prasad’; Salmonella Typhimurium resistant to cotrimoxazole, ampicillin and ciprofloxacin isolated from three of seven stools.Cureus · PubMed 43005914
TB & mycobacteria
- AIIMS New Delhi and Bhubaneswar: at three DR-TB centres in Delhi and Faridabad, 60.1% of 158 patients had diagnostic delay and 33.5% treatment initiation delay; line probe assay use associated with diagnostic delay (aOR 6.6).Cureus · PubMed 43005740
- Bangladesh: systematic evidence map of zoonotic TB (35 studies); M. orygis is the only animal-adapted MTBC member molecularly confirmed at the cattle-wildlife-human interface.PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases · PubMed 43008033
- Khyber Medical University, Peshawar: qualitative study of integrating diabetes care into TB services in Pakistan using the Opt-TBD package across four facilities.Health Expectations · PubMed 43004761
- BITS Pilani Hyderabad and CSIR-IGIB: riboflavin metabolism influences biofilm development, cell-envelope homeostasis and drug susceptibility in M. tuberculosis.Microbial Biotechnology · PubMed 43004729
- Lalitpur, Nepal: endobronchial pulmonary actinomycosis with concomitant tuberculosis mimicking lung malignancy (case report).Respirology Case Reports · PubMed 43006123
Mycology
- AIIMS Patna: chronic pulmonary aspergillosis diagnosed in 27.5% of 280 symptomatic post-TB patients; Aspergillus-specific IgG positive in 92.2% of cases.Monaldi Archives for Chest Disease · PubMed 43007028
- IGIMS Patna: of 312 asthma patients with marked eosinophilia and IgE, 132 met study definitions for tropical pulmonary eosinophilia-ABPA overlap.Monaldi Archives for Chest Disease · PubMed 43007009
Viral, vector-borne & parasitic
- Dhaka: systematic review of under-five community-acquired pneumonia in South Asia (16 studies); RSV the most frequently identified pathogen (mean detection rate 29.2%).PLOS Global Public Health · PubMed 43008031
- NIMHANS, Bengaluru: subcortical paramagnetic rim on susceptibility-weighted imaging in 14 of 128 MRI studies (10.9%) from 126 patients with SSPE.Neuroradiology · PubMed 43007425
- ICMR-VCRC Puducherry: systematic review of 26 lymphatic filariasis risk prediction models; external validation reported in 15.4% and calibration in 7.7%.PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases · PubMed 43008045
- Kathmandu: spontaneous splenic rupture in Plasmodium falciparum malaria, managed conservatively (case report).International Journal of Surgery Case Reports · PubMed 43006067
Diagnostics & other
- Srinagar: point-of-care CSF lactate-glucose ratio ≥10 detected CSF infection in neurosurgical ICU patients with sensitivity 83.3% and specificity 82.8% (pilot, 47 analysed).Korean Journal of Neurotrauma · PubMed 43005021
- AIIMS Deoghar: letter proposing empiric anti-scrub typhus treatment in national acute encephalitis syndrome protocols.Indian Journal of Pediatrics · PubMed 43004112
- National Hospital of Sri Lanka: syphilitic optic neuropathy initially diagnosed as non-arteritic anterior ischaemic optic neuropathy (case report).BMC Neurology · PubMed 43004227
- Chettinad, Chennai: 16S rRNA pilot comparing gut and skin microbiota of 57 coastal and 18 non-coastal participants in Tamil Nadu.Frontiers in Microbiology · PubMed 43005270
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.
