About the Authors

Narbada Thapa

narbada_thapa@hotmail.com

‡ These authors are joint first authors on this work.

Affiliation Nepalese Army Institute of Health Sciences, Kathmandu, Nepal

Krishna Kumar Aryal

‡ These authors are joint first authors on this work.

Affiliations Institute of Clinical Medicine, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway, Nepal Health Research Council (NHRC), Government of Nepal, Kathmandu, Nepal

Rupendra Puri

Affiliations Institute of Clinical Medicine, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway, District Ayurveda Health Centre, Department of Ayurveda, Ministry of Health and Population, Government of Nepal, Kathmandu, Nepal

Saraswoti Shrestha

Affiliation Initiative for Research Education and Community Health—Nepal (InREACH Nepal), Kathmandu, Nepal

Sheela Shrestha

Affiliation National Health Education, Information and Communication Centre, Ministry of Health and Population, Government of Nepal, Kathmandu, Nepal

Pukar Thapa

Affiliation Kathmandu Medical College, Kathmandu, Nepal

Suresh Mehata

Affiliation Ipas Nepal, Kathmandu, Nepal

Pushpa Thapa

Affiliation Nepal Health Research Council (NHRC), Government of Nepal, Kathmandu, Nepal

Megha Raj Banjara

Affiliation Central Department of Microbiology, Tribhuvan University, Kathmandu, Nepal

Babill Stray-Pedersen

Affiliations Institute of Clinical Medicine, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway, Division of Women and Children, Rikshospitalet, Oslo University Hospital, Oslo, Norway

Competing Interests

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: NT KKA RP Saraswoti Shrestha Sheela Shrestha MRB BSP. Performed the experiments: NT KKA RP Saraswoti Shrestha Sheela Shrestha BSP. Analyzed the data: NT KKA Saraswoti Shrestha SM. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: NT KKA Pukar Thapa SM. Wrote the paper: NT KKA RP Saraswoti Shrestha Pukar Thapa SM Pushpa Thapa MRB BSP.