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Four million medical personnel in Indonesia will receive a fourth dosage of the COVID-19 vaccination due to increased transmissions caused by the virus’s subvariants, according to Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin on Wednesday.

Sadikin informed local media that the third dosage of the COVID-19 vaccination was administered in August, and that it is now time for a fresh immunity injection. “As a result, they require a fourth dose to rebuild their immune system. We emphasise medical personnel “Sadikin stated.

Sadikin stated that the present vaccination stock is sufficient for all medical staff to utilise.

The spread of the Omicron sub-variants BA.4 and BA.5 has lately caused a resurgence in cases in the Southeast Asian country.

Authorities have also discovered several instances with the BA.2.75 sub-variant, which the World Health Organization has classified as a Variant of Concern Lineage Under Monitoring.

Mycobacterium tuberculosis is still responsible for the world’s biggest infectious illness, TB, which affects around 25% of the world’s population. Drug-resistant strains have made infections difficult to cure, but University of Oklahoma professor Helen Zgurskaya is leading research into new, possibly beneficial treatment approaches to the illness.

The study’s findings were published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The research looked into how recently identified novel inhibitors destroy the disease. The corresponding author of the publication “Proton transfer activity of the reconstituted MmpL3 is controlled by substrate mimics and inhibitors” is Zgurskaya, a George Lynn Cross Research Professor in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry in the Dodge Family College of Arts and Sciences.

“This is one of the scariest infectious diseases affecting billions of people worldwide,” said Zgurskaya. “Like many other bacterial infections, it is becoming more resistant to antibiotics. Currently, the treatment requires a combination of antibiotics taken by patients for six months, but now imagine that the disease does not respond to the treatment. We are out of therapeutic options for this infection, and we need new drugs.”

Casey Stevens, Ph.D., postdoctoral research associate Svitlana Babii, and research assistant professor Jitender Mehla led the study of the MmpL3 transporter and its analogues, which are crucial in the physiology of Mycobacterium TB and antimycobacterial drug development. These transporters are essential for the formation of the bacterial outer membrane, which is required for bacterial growth and drug resistance. Researchers effectively isolated and reconstituted MmpL3 and its analogues into artificial membranes in this investigation. They also created a set of substrate mimics and inhibitors that are particular to these transporters and studied their activities and characteristics.

Researchers discovered that all reconstituted proteins promote proton translocation across membranes, however MmpL3 analogues varied significantly in their reactions to pH and interactions with substrate mimics and indole-2-carboxamide inhibitors.

Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the director-general of the World Health Organization (WHO), stated on Wednesday that COVID-19 mortality have been increasing over the previous five weeks, with certain nations experiencing an increase in hospitalizations.

Addressing a media briefing WHO Director-General Tedros said, “COVID-19 deaths have been increasing for the last five weeks, and several countries are reporting increasing trends in hospitalizations following waves of transmission driven by Omicron subvariants.” Tedros said that though the world has learned a number of important lessons by being with COVID-19 for over 2 years now however he warned that one must not let their guard down.

“Although the COVID-19 pandemic is far from over, we are now in a very different situation to where we were a year ago, and we have learned a number of important lessons,” the WHO chief said during the briefing.

He also laid great emphasis over treating vaccination as an elixir to save lives. “One of the most important is that the most effective way to save lives, protect health systems and reopen societies and economies is to vaccinate the right groups first.”

Tedros stated that even in nations where vaccination coverage has reached 70%, if substantial numbers of health professionals, older people, and other vulnerable populations remain unvaccinated, mortality will occur, health systems would be under strain, and the global recovery will be jeopardised.

This is not a hypothetical situation, he stressed.

Last week, WHO released an update to the Global COVID-19 Vaccination Strategy, emphasising the need of vaccinating the most vulnerable groups, including 100% of health and care professionals, 100% of older people, and 100% of those at highest risk.

The WHO chief urged the world to “strive for the target of 70 per cent vaccination coverage, with a focus on targeted vaccination strategies that prioritize the most vulnerable, which is the most effective way to save lives.”

“While vaccines have saved countless lives, they have not substantially reduced transmission,” he noted.

He also emphasised the need of governments and the business sector continuing to collaborate and invest in the development of new vaccines to prevent both infection and sickness.

“We also need vaccines that can be delivered more easily, such as through nasal sprays or drops. Crucially, it’s essential as new vaccines and other COVID-19 tools are developed, they are available equitably to all countries.”

Tedros also urged all countries to strengthen their readiness and response plans for any possible future COVID-19 waves.

“In addition to vaccination, WHO urges all countries to assess and strengthen their readiness and response plans for future waves of transmission, including surveillance, testing, strong clinical management and a well-equipped health workforce,” he concluded.

Several pharmaceutical firms have begun conversations with the Centre about developing a viable vaccine against monkeypox, according to sources on Wednesday.

“The vaccine against monkeypox is under discussion with various vaccine manufacturing companies, but it is a very early stage for any such decisions. If it is required then we have potential manufacturers. If it is required in future then options will be explored,” sources told ANI. One of the vaccine manufacturing companies said there is no such next-generation vaccine specifically for monkeypox and the virus has also been mutated. “In future, there will be a requirement for the vaccine if cases rise,” the company said.

Several pharmaceutical companies are in talks with the government about developing a monkeypox vaccine.

So far, India has documented four instances of monkeypox. Three of the instances are from Kerala, while one is from Delhi.

Dr VK Paul, Member of Niti Aayog, told ANI that India is completely prepared for the illness and that there is no reason to fear.

“Our disease surveillance system has been energized even more to investigate such cases. The situation is under control, no reason to worry and panic,” Dr Paul said.

“We have to play a responsibility in case there is some individual who has symptoms who should come for diagnosis because this disease has to be represented differently. The individual could be taken care of. We have such systems and restrictions have already been issued. People with symptoms must come forward and report,” he said.

The World Health Organization (WHO) on Saturday declared monkeypox a global health emergency. However, the WHO chief Dr Tedros also said that “discrimination could be as harmful as the virus.”

Dr Poonam Khetrapal, Regional Director, WHO South-East Asia, has expressed worry, stating that cases of monkeypox are now being detected in countries where no cases had previously been recorded.

The Central Government has requested Expressions of Interest (EOI) in creating a vaccine against the monkeypox virus, only days after instances were confirmed in areas of India.

The government issued an EoI for the development of a monkeypox vaccine and diagnostic kits through a public-private collaboration. The Centre has invited Expressions of Interest (EoI) from experienced vaccine manufacturers and in-vitro diagnostic (IVD) kit manufacturers for joint collaboration in developing a vaccine candidate against monkeypox and diagnostic kits for this infection.

The last date for submission of EoI is August 10.

The objective of the tender read, “ICMR is willing to make available Monkeypox Virus strain/isolates for undertaking R&D, validation as well as manufacturing activities using characterized isolates of Monkeypox virus under the joint collaboration in the public-private partnership mode for the following two activities- 2.1 Development of vaccine candidate against Monkeypox disease. 2.2 Development of diagnostic kits for diagnosis of Monkeypox virus infection.”

The Monkeypox virus has been identified at the ICMR-National Institute of Virology (ICMR-NIV), Pune, one of the Institutes of the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), New Delhi, and is being propagated on specified cell lines under biosafety laboratory settings. These isolates were purified and described further. Tissue culture infective dosage (TCID50) has been calculated, and bulk propagation of the viral stock has been accomplished, according to the tender document.

All Intellectual Property Rights and Commercialization Rights on Monkeypox virus isolates and their methods/protocols for purification, propagation, and characterization were reserved by ICMR. The tender copy stated that ICMR is legally entitled to enter into non-exclusive agreements with experienced Drug/Pharma/Vaccine/IVD manufacturers through defined agreements for undertaking R&D as well as manufacturing activities using characterised Monkeypox virus isolates of ICMR for development of vaccine against Monkeypox disease or Diagnostic kit for diagnosis of Monkeypox virus, hereinafter referred to as the ‘Product(s).’

The World Health Organization (WHO) has issued the highest level of warning for monkeypox, declaring the virus a public health emergency of worldwide significance (PHEIC).

Monkeypox is a zoonotic disease caused by the monkeypox virus, which belongs to the same family of viruses that causes smallpox. The disease is endemic in regions like West and Central Africa but lately, cases have been reported from non-endemic countries too, according to the WHO.

In India, a 34-year-old man from Delhi with no history of foreign travel tested positive for monkeypox on Sunday, taking the country’s tally of cases to four. Three cases of monkeypox were earlier reported in Kerala.

India reported 14,830 fresh COVID-19 cases in the last 24 hours, informed the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare on Tuesday.

A total of 57 deaths were reported with 18,159 recoveries in the last 24 hours. India’s active caseload currently stands at 147,512. Active cases stand at 0.34%

Its daily positivity rate is at 3.5 per cent.

With 18,159 recoveries in the last 24 hours, total recoveries increased to 4,32,46,829. Recovery Rate currently stands at 98.47%.

87.31 cr Total Tests conducted so far with 4,26,102 tests conducted in the last 24 hours.

202.5 cr Total Vaccine doses (93.04 cr Second Dose and 7.57 cr Precaution Dose) have been administered so far under Nationwide Vaccination Drive.