Perception of risk and potential occupational exposure to HIV/AIDS among medical interns in Delhi.

A cross sectional study was conducted among 129 medical interns of Maulana Azad Medical College, New Delhi for assessing the perceived levels of risk of acquiring HIV infection in the health care settings among medical interns, reasons for the same and their exposure to situations having potential of HIV transmission. Majority of the interns (68.3%) perceived themselves to be at a very high/high risk of acquiring HIV infection during their medical career. The common reasons for perceived risk of acquiring HIV infection were getting injuries due to needle pricks/cuts during surgical procedures (32.4%), frequent exposure to the blood/secretions of patients (28.5%) and insufficient availability of gloves (17.6%). Some (23.2%) were of the opinion that students in future might lose interest in the medical profession due to increasing risk of HIV infection and few (3.1%) were even considering to leave the medical profession for the same reason. Majority of the interns (72.9%) had experienced needle pricks and more than half (53.7%) of them even had had blood splashes in their eyes/nose/mouth during surgical procedures. The findings of the study call for efforts for bringing a reduction in the risk perception of the interns through awareness campaigns and reorientation trainings, ensuring availability of gloves and other items necessary for observing universal work precautions and proper disposal of potentially contaminated articles.

Community based study on sero-prevalence of syphilis in New Delhi (India).

Syphilis continues to be a major health problem in India. Data regarding sero-prevalence of syphilis is largely hospital based. Majority of community based studies have been conducted on select groups. Therefore, these studies do not reflect the true prevalence of syphilis in general population. The objective of the study was to determine the sero-prevalence of syphilis in the urban and rural communities of New Delhi, using both VDRL and TPHA for screening and FTA-ABS for confirmation and discrepant analysis. Serum specimens from 178 males and 227 females aged between 15-49 years were tested. VDRL test was put up using VDRL antigen from serologist, Kolkata. TPHA and FTA-ABS were performed using commercially available kits. 6.91% (28/405) subjects were found to be seropositive for syphilis (males 10.11%, females 4.40%). Syphilis seropositivity was found to be significantly associated with low income (p=0.02) and presence of symptoms suggestive of STIs (p=0.00) among males. Positive syphilis serology was significantly associated with trichomoniasis in females (p=0.00). Community based studies utilizing one non-treponemal test plus one treponemal test for screening purpose and an additional specific test for confirmation should be used for designing a control programme.