My Republica

Sandeep Thapa

The author is Research Officer at Kathmandu Center for Genomics and Research Laboratory (KCGRL)
news@myrepublica.com

Exodus of Skilled Manpower: A Wake-Up Call for Nepal

Published On: July 20, 2023 09:00 AM NPT By: Sandeep Thapa

Nepal has a lengthy history of labor migration. For almost 200 years, Nepali men (and, to a lesser extent, women) have left their homes to pursue jobs and live abroad. Even before the well-known recruitment of British-Indian troops, poor Nepalese fled high taxation, forced labor, and exploitation by state agencies.

Infertility: Agony in developing countries

Published On: December 18, 2022 08:35 AM NPT By: Sandeep Thapa

Infertility is one of the neglected public health issues around the world. Infertility is defined as the inability of establishing a pregnancy after trying to conceive for at least six months or one year by having normal sexual intercourse without contraceptives.

Fighting Dengue menace

Published On: September 20, 2022 07:31 PM NPT By: Sandeep Thapa

Dengue infection is a systemic and dynamic disease and has a wide clinical spectrum that includes both severe and non-severe clinical manifestations. The key is early recognition and understanding of the clinical problems during different phases of the disease, leading to a rational approach to case management and a good clinical outcome.

Omicron: A Concern for Unvaccinated Individuals

Published On: January 18, 2022 08:13 AM NPT By: Sandeep Thapa

The highly infectious Omicron coronavirus variant causes less severe disease than the Delta strain but it remains a "dangerous virus", particularly for those who are unvaccinated, according to the head of the WHO.

Down Syndrome: An Understanding through Prenatal Screening Tests

Published On: January 11, 2022 06:30 AM NPT By: Sandeep Thapa

Prevention of Down Syndrome depends upon offering a prenatal diagnosis to high-risk pregnancies via amniocentesis and chorionic villus sampling (CVS). Amniocentesis and CVS are quite reliable but provide the risk of a miscarriage of between 0.5 to 1%.

New COVID-19 has heightened concern globally

Published On: December 9, 2021 07:10 AM NPT By: Sandeep Thapa

The identification of the Omicron variant has sparked growing concerns over its unusually high number of mutations and rapid spread in South Africa. The United States restricted travelers from South Africa and seven other countries starting Monday. It joined at least 10 other countries restricting travel from the region, including Belgium, Britain, France, Germany, Israel, Italy, Japan, Malta, the Netherlands, the Philippines, and Singapore.

PGS: An advantage for couples with genetic abnormalities

Published On: October 10, 2021 06:30 AM NPT By: Sandeep Thapa

Women who experience recurrent miscarriages may be good candidates for IVF with preimplantation genetic screening (PGS), which enables fertility specialists to test an embryo for genetic and chromosomal problems that can lead to miscarriage. Those couples who have struggled with recurrent miscarriage, failed IVF, or unexplained infertility can strongly prefer PGS to help identify chromosomally-sound embryos for transfer back into the uterus.

Antimicrobial resistance amid Covid-19

Published On: December 20, 2020 07:00 AM NPT By: Sandeep Thapa

Appropriate handling of future pandemics will require all actions to be focused on decreasing the spread and development of antimicrobial resistance.

COVID-19: Clinical Significance of Ct value

Published On: November 12, 2020 07:00 PM NPT By: Sandeep Thapa

COVID-19 was first reported in Wuhan, China in December 2019 and subsequently spread globally, with the declaration of the pandemic in early March 2020. The first confirmed imported case in Nepal was reported in the 2nd week of January 2020. The initial response of Nepal to COVID-19 was comparably slow but the country geared efforts after it was declared a 'global pandemic' by WHO on 11 March 2020.

Controlling COVID-19

Published On: April 24, 2020 05:25 PM NPT By: Sandeep Thapa

The outbreak of COVID-19 has affected the lives of millions of people globally. In December 2019, Chinese public health authorities reported several cases of acute respiratory syndrome in Wuhan. The disease is now called COVID-19, and the causative virus is named severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS- CoV-2). It is a replacement strain of coronavirus that has not been previously identified in humans.