ABSTRACT
Background: Hepatitis B, a vaccine preventable infection is one of the important causes of morbidity in India. The risk of acquiring the infection is more among the health care providers like nurses than in general population as they come in close contact with patients. The study has been done to know the sociodemographic profile, vaccination status along with the knowledge about the disease and the factors determining the acceptance of vaccination among nursing staff of KPC Medical College in West Bengal.Methods: A cross-sectional study was carried out among the 284 nursing staff of KPC Medical College and Hospital in November to December, 2018 with the help of pre-designed and semi-structured questionnaire. Data on demographic characteristics, knowledge, occupational exposure, vaccination status and factors for acceptance of vaccine etc. were collected and analysed.Results: 86% nursing staff received vaccination out of which 71% were completely vaccinated, 29% were partially and 14% were non vaccinated. The acceptable knowledge was found in 84% of the nurses. The major reason of vaccination was to protect themselves from infection and the major reason for non-acceptance was time limitation, cost issues etc. Accidental prick was found in 5% of the nurses and universal precautionary measure was taken by 98% of the nurses.Conclusions: In spite of availability of safe, effective and cheap vaccine against hepatitis B infection, 29% of nursing staff were partially vaccinated and 14% were non-vaccinated. There should be a mandatory vaccination at the beginning of their training and frequent educational and awareness programme for them on hepatitis B.
ABSTRACT
Background: Tuberculosis (TB) is an infectious disease caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis bacteria spread by droplet infection.According to global TB report 2017, there were approximately 28 lakhs cases of TB in India accounting a quarter of the world TB cases. Today, it is the fastest-expanding and the largest program in the world in terms of patients initiated on treatment and the second largest in terms of population coverage. The objective of this study is to assess the socio-demographic profile of the patients attending revised national TB control programme (RNTCP) clinic, to determine the nature of disease, its co-morbidities, seasonal variability and treatment profile of the patients attending the RNTCP clinic during this study period.Methods: This was a retrospective record-based study conducted in RNTCP clinic of KPC Medical College and Hospital, Kolkata. Details of all the 684 patients who were enrolled under RNTCP from the year 2014 to 2018 were collected from RNTCP records. Data was analyzed using suitable software.Results: 684 cases were registered and treated under directly observed treatment, short-course (DOTS) during the study period with 41% completing treatment. 84.3% were new TB cases. 23.61% were sputum smear positive. Males (67.25%) contributed to more in cases. Maximum patients visited during March to June. 74.87% of the total patients were diagnosed with pulmonary TB. Pleural effusion was the commonest form of extrapulmonary TB (42.75%).Conclusions: The number of TB cases showed a decreasing trend over the years. Males contributed to a greater number of cases with majority being contributed by the age group 21-30 years.
ABSTRACT
Background: The problem of high fluoride concentration in groundwater resources has become one of the most important toxicological and geo-environmental issues in India. Excessive fluoride in drinking water causes dental and skeletal fluorosis, which is encountered in endemic proportions in several parts of the world. World Health Organization (WHO) guideline value and the permissible limit of fluoride as per Bureau of Indian Standard (BIS) is 1.5 mg/L. About 20 states of India, including 43 blocks of seven districts of West Bengal, were identified as endemic for fluorosis and about 66 million people in these regions are at risk of fluoride contamination. Studies showed that withdrawal of sources identified for fluoride often leads reduction of fluoride in the body fluids (re-testing urine and serum after a week or 10 days) and results in the disappearance of non-skeletal fluorosis within a short duration of 10-15 days. Objective: To determine the prevalence of signs and symptoms of suspected dental, skeletal, and non-skeletal fluorosis, along with food habits, addictions, and use of fluoride containing toothpaste among participants taking water with fluoride concentration above the permissible limit, and to assess the changes in clinical manifestations of the above participants after they started consuming safe drinking water. Materials and Methods: A longitudinal intervention study was conducted in three villages in Rampurhat Block I of Birbhum district of West Bengal to assess the occurrence of various dental, skeletal, and non-skeletal manifestations of fluorosis, along with food habits, addictions, and use of fluoride containing toothpaste among the study population and the impact of taking safe water from the supplied domestic and community filters on these clinical manifestations. The impact was studied by follow-up examination of the participants for 5 months to determine the changes in clinical manifestations of the above participants after they started consuming safe drinking water from supplied domestic filters and community filter with fluoride concentration below the permissible limit. The data obtained were compared with the collected data from the baseline survey. Results: The prevalence of signs of dental, skeletal, and non-skeletal fluorosis was 66.7%, 4.8-23.8%, and 9.5-38.1%, respectively, among the study population. Withdrawal of source(s) identified for fluoride by providing domestic and community filters supplying safe water led to 9.6% decrease in manifestation of dental fluorosis, 2.4-14.3% decrease in various manifestations of skeletal fluorosis, and 7.1-21.5% decrease in various non-skeletal manifestations within 5 months. Following repeated motivation of participants during visit, there was also 9.7-38.1% decrease in the usage of fluoride containing toothpaste, and 9.8-45.3% and 7.3-11.9% decrease in the consumption of black lemon tea and tobacco, respectively, which are known sources of fluoride ingestion in our body and have an effect on the occurrence of various manifestations of fluorosis following drinking of safe water from domestic and community filters. Conclusion: Increased prevalence of dental, skeletal, and non-skeletal fluorosis was found among the study population. Withdrawal of source(s) identified for fluoride by supplying domestic and community filters, dietary restriction, and other nutritional interventions led to decrease in manifestation of the three types of fluorosis within 5 months.
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Background: Contaminated hands play a major role in fecal-oral transmission of diseases. In 1847, Dr Semmelweis Ignac pointed to the link between infection and unclean hands, and demonstrated that washing hands could reduce transmission of puerperal fever (child birth fever), a dreaded disease with high mortality in those days. Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted to find out the extent of germs present in hand, and also the students' perception on hand washing. This was assessed by questionnaire as well as by collection of swab from hand and performing bacteriological culture in the laboratory. Results: In regard to students' perception about the dirty areas of the hands, it was observed that majority (78%) felt palm was likely to be more dirty while less than 70% felt that web spaces could harbor dirt. Almost 86% reported that they washed hands before eating lunch, but only 21.3% said they always used soap while 47.3% never used it. Availability of soap all the time in the school was reported by only 18.4% students. The swabs of 61% children showed potential pathogens. The commonest of these was Staphylococcus aureus which was seen in 44% samples. Conclusion: The students' hands were contaminated before taking food. Although they washed hands before meals, they hardly used soap due to non-availability of soap. The school authority should be asked to keep soaps in the toilets for hand washing.
ABSTRACT
Dengue is one of the major public health problems which can be controlled with active participation of the community. A cross sectional study was conducted in urban field practice area of Calcutta National Medical College to determine perception of general population on the disease Dengue. A total 161 individuals were interviewed regarding the different aspects of the Dengue fever. The result showed that out of total respondents, majority (68.9%) had knowledge that fever is the main symptom of the disease, though only 6.2% knew of retro-orbital pain as the pathognomic symptom of the disease. Out of total respondents 83.3% were unaware regarding modes of transmission of disease and the level of awareness is significantly higher among educated group (p < 0.05). 69.6% were unaware about the prevention of disease but there is no significant variation in relation to literacy status. Regarding awareness about vector control 60% of the respondents belonging to the lower socio economic class were unaware followed by 58.6% of the upper lower class. Only 39.1% had knowledge about breeding places of Aedes aegypti. The main source of information was found to be mass media (65%) and 7% of the respondents did not get any information about Dengue. Specific intervention measures such as Information Education Communication to be provided to the urban slum community for prevention and control of Dengue/Dengue haemorrhagic fever.