Polyethylene microplastics (PE MPs) have sparked widespread concern about their possible health implications because of their abundance, pervasiveness in the environment and in our daily life. Multiple investigations have shown that a high dosage of PE MPs may adversely impact gastrointestinal health. In tandem with the rising prevalence of Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) in recent decades, global plastic manufacturing has risen to more than 300 million tons per year, resulting in a build-up of plastic by-products such as PE MPs in our surroundings. We have explored current advancements in the effect PE MPs on IBD in this review. Furthermore, we compared and summarized the detrimental roles of PE MPs in gut microbiota of different organisms viz., earthworms, super worm's larvae, yellow mealworms, brine shrimp, spring tails, tilapia, gilt-head bream, crucian carp, zebrafish, juvenile yellow perch, European sea bass, c57BL/6 mice and human. According to this review, PE MPs played a significant role in decreasing the diversity of gut microbiota of above-mentioned species which leads to the development of IBD and causes severe intestinal inflammation. Finally, we pinpoint significant scientific gaps, such as the movement of such hazardous PE MPs and the accompanying microbial ecosystems and propose prospective research directions.

The key challenges to any health care setup during emergency situations, such as that of the COVID-19 pandemic would be to rapidly address hospital preparedness and response tailored to the local population, societal influences, political factors within the existing infrastructure, and workforce. Second, to adopt and moderate policies, standard operating procedures (SOPs) and guidelines issued by national and international agencies, such as WHO, CDC, and the Indian Council for Medical Research (ICMR) were tailor-made to the local conditions of the hospital and community. In this publication, we have discussed the challenges and experiences in preparation and responses to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic at a tertiary teaching hospital situated at a suburban locale in a small union territory. Puducherry is located in the South Eastern Coromandel Coast of India. The core processes, such as hospital preparedness, adoption, and amendments to SOPs based on dynamic changes in guidelines released by the central and local government, training given to health care workers, setting up the in-house diagnostic facility, surge capacity, management of supplies during the lockdown, infection prevention, and control and patient care are discussed. We have also reinforced our experiences in translating COVID-related opportunities for research and innovation in the form of awards and research proposals for the faculty and students of our institute. The lessons learned in terms of strength and limitations on the ground level of public health during this process is worth sharing as it would provide guidance in preparing the health care setups for pre- and post-pandemic.

Continuous bio-surveillance of SARS-CoV-2 is an ongoing task at local, national and global levels since the pandemic onset for understanding genetic evolution and vaccine efficacy. Present study was designed to track the emergence of new variants along the duration of three peaks of infection in the city of Puducherry, India. A total of 128 samples were subjected to Illumina deep RNA sequencing. The results showed predominance of uncommon, delta and omicron variants in first, second and third waves respectively. The most common pangolin lineage was B.1.560 and B.1.617.2. The study observed a total of 3133 common and 11 new mutations. The most common is in the Spike_D614G. A new set of mutations was observed in key viral factors such as NS16 that are implicated to be involved in immune evasion. This may have impact on enhanced disease virulence, vaccine efficiency and possible tolerance to current antivirals. This warrants further in vitro studies to understand the significance of the mutations. While the results presented would also augment the ongoing research on evolutionary and the genetic epidemiology of SARS-CoV-2, it also emphasizes the need for continuous genetic monitoring to predict the forthcoming threats due to the emergence of new or existing variants.