Page 33 - Covid 2021 June 2021

Children impacted by COVID-19 pandemic provided tele-
counselling through SAMVEDNA
With an objective of providing psychological first-aid and emotional support to children affected during COVID-19 pandemic, National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) is providing tele-counselling to children through SAMVEDNA (Sensitizing Action on Mental Health Vulnerability through Emotional Development and Necessary Acceptance) - a toll-free helpline launched to provide psycho-social mental support to children affected during COVID-19 pandemic. Tele-counselling is being provided through a network of qualified Experts/Counsellors/Psychologists trained under the guidance of Dr Shekhar Seshadri, Professor, Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and his team from NIMHANS, on various psychosocial issues in reference to COVID-19, using different tele- counselling strategies.
SAMVEDNA is for psychological support to children to address their stress, anxiety, fear and other issues during the pandemic. This service is available on a toll-free No: 1800-121-2830 from Monday to Saturday from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. and 3 p.m. to 8 p.m. This service is exclusively for children who are willing to talk and are in need of counselling. When a child/caretaker/ parent dials SAMVEDNA1800-121-2830, they get to speak to a professional counsellor in a safe environment. Tele counselling is provided to the children under three categories:
1. Children who are in Quarantine/isolation/COVID Care centres.
2. Children who have COVID-positive parents or family members and near ones. 3. Children who have lost their parents due to COVID-19 pandemic.
This toll-free tele-counselling cater to the children from all over India in various regional languages like Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Oriya, Marathi, Gujarati, Bengali etc. This service was launched in September, 2020 and continuing to support children in the difficult times of COVID-19 pandemic.
Website link:
https://www.pib.gov.in/PressReleasePage.aspx?PRID=1719426
SCTIMST develops new multiplex RT-PCR kit with novel gene
targets to facilitate detection across various mutant strains of
COVID-19
A newly developed multiplex RT-PCR kit has a higher accuracy of detecting COVID-19 across the various mutant strains of the virus responsible for the global pandemic.
As we are going through a second wave of the pandemic with multiple variants of the virus, the selection of target genes in multiplex RT-PCR assay is becoming critical for accurate detection of the virus.
Even though coronaviruses make far fewer errors than other RNA viruses, the mutations in S, R, and N genes often interfere with RT-PCR assay. For example, the “variant of concern” B1.1.7 (also known as the UK variant) has a 69-70del, due to deletion of 6 bases in the RNA, which resulted in S gene drop out from RT-PCR assay.
The new multiplex RT-PCR kit developed by Sree Chitra Tirunal Institute for Medical Sciences and Technology (SCTIMST), Department of Science and Technology, Government of India targets two SARS CoV-2 genes: RdRp and ORFb-nsp14, and the human RNAse P gene as the internal control to help detect a range of mutant strains.
VIGYAN PRASAR 30