ABSTRACT
Background: As there is some improvement in sanitary latrine use and safe disposal of child faeces which is the one of the important goal of millennium development goals, awareness, practice and lack of community and household sanitary latrines is still a major problem. The objective was to study awareness and practice about use of sanitary latrine in villages.Methods: The study was undertaken to assess the knowledge, attitude and practice in rural villages of Kalaburagi District, Karnataka, India. The study sample consist a total of 500 participants.Results: The prevalence of usage of sanitary latrines was 40%. The prevalence of open air defecation in the study was 97.4%. There was significant association between belief, low standard of living and open air defecation.Conclusions: To overcome the underutilization problem of sanitary latrines in rural areas is to provide quality household and community sanitary latrines along with the provision for creating awareness among the population regarding the benefit of using sanitary latrine.
ABSTRACT
Background: Gutkha is a preparation of crushed tobacco, lime, catechu, areca nut and flavouring agent. Gutkha chewing may lead to various diseases like cancer of oral cavity, gingival diseases, addiction, submucosal fibrosis and overall poor health of an individual. The use of gutkha in youths is highly prevalent due to a lack of awareness and education and has misconceptions, particularly in rural areas like chewing tobacco products aids in digestion, acts as germ-killer, mood enhancement and tension relief.Methods: The study was undertaken to know the knowledge, attitude and practice among gutkha chewers of Hiroli village in Kalaburagi district, Karnataka, India. The study sample comprised a total of 479 participants.Results: The result of the study showed that the prevalence of smokeless tobacco consumption is high in rural population (49.2%). And most of the participants (51%) agreed that gutkha chewing is injurious to health, but the knowledge of gutkha causing oral and throat cancer was limited (40.6% and 36.4% respectively).Conclusions: The result indicated to increase awareness programs on associated health risks that focus on improving the knowledge, attitude and practice of gutkha chewing.
ABSTRACT
Background: A periodic measurement of lung functions would be a guiding principle to detect the lung abnormalities in the early stages and among lung function tests, peak expiratory flow rate (PEFR) is useful. The industrial workers are subjected to illness suffered not only of those of fellow citizens but are also subjected to certain illness due to mainly their work environment which is peculiar to each work place or industry. The objective of the study was aimed at the PEFR of workers in stone crushing units, Gulbarga city. The authors were also aimed at the study of the factors influencing PEFR of the workers and to suggest the various measures for the improvement in the health status of the workers. Methods: The study was undertaken among the workers engaged in stone crushing units and related respiratory ailment among workers based on PEFR in stone crushing units surrounding Gulbarga city, Karnataka, India. The study sample comprised a total of 150 workers examined. Results: The result of the study showed that 51 (34%) workers with less than 400 L/min PEFR having signs and symptoms like breathlessness and cough were as 99 (66%) workers with PEFR 400-600 L/min were normal. The study also shows that there is highly significant association between lung function parameter (PEFR) with duration of exposure. Conclusions: The result indicated the need to increase awareness among the workers regarding the dust generated by crushing units.
ABSTRACT
Biodiversity provides critical support for drug discovery. A significant proportion of drugs are derived, directly or indirectly, from biological sources. Through high throughput screening (HTS) and bioassay-guided isolation, bioactive compound sclerotiorin has been isolated from an endophytic fungus Cephalotheca faveolata. Sclerotiorin was found to be potent anti-proliferative against different cancer cells. In this study sclerotiorin has been found to induce apoptosis in colon cancer (HCT-116) cells through the activation of BAX, and down-regulation of BCL-2, those further activated cleaved caspase-3 causing apoptosis of cancer cells.