Clinico-Epidemiological Profile of an Outbreak of Dengue Fever in Rural Area of Ambajogai Mandai, District Beed.

A c1inico-epidemiological study of fever cases was carried out in three villages of Ambajogai Mandal, Beed, Maharashtra. Out of 123 fever cases studied, most common affected age group was 21-45 years with more number of females i.e.55.28%. The patients mainly presented with fever and joint pain with no any evidence of haemorrhagic manifestation. Of the 36 blood samples tested 03 samples were found positive for IgM antibodies to dengue virus. Larval survey showed highest breeding preference in domestic water container like earthen pots. Entomological indices were found out to be higher as house index 19.76%; container index 19.02%; Breteau index 22.31%. Clinico-epidemiological, laboratory and entomological investigations indicate present episode of fever outbreak was due to dengue fever. It demands for strengthening the surveillance activity and alert reporting of peripheral health staff along with IEC activities for community participation and involvement of other departments.

Variability in platelet response to a single daily dose of 150 mg enteric coated aspirin in a high risk population.

PURPOSE: Previous studies have reported inadequate anti-platelet effect in 0.4-35% of patients taking aspirin. Such studies have arbitrarily defined the terms "semi-responders", "non-responders" or "resistant" to variable doses of aspirin on the basis of absolute values derived from different ex-vivo platelet aggregation (PA) methods. Our objective was to define response to 150-mg dose of aspirin in terms of normally distributed values using an ex-vivo measure of PA in a population at high risk for vascular events. METHODS: We prospectively studied high risk patients with either established coronary artery disease (CAD) or stroke or transient ischemic attack (TIA) or peripheral vascular disease or with multiple atherothrombotic risk factors like diabetes plus one of the following-- hypertension, increased total cholesterol, cigarette smoking, micro-albuminuria, low-high density lipoprotein (HDL), family history of CAD and receiving single 150 mg dose of aspirin daily. PA was assessed by chronolog lumi-aggregometer (490-2D) using arachidonic acid (AA) reagent. RESULTS: 130 patients were studied. The response of subjects to aspirin followed a normal, bell shaped distribution curve with a mean and standard deviation (S.D.) of 13.1 +/- 4.4%. 3.1% patients had PA values more than 2 S.D. of the mean, hence termed as hypo-responders to aspirin while another 3.1% patients had PA values less than 2 S.D. of the mean, hence termed as hyper-responders to aspirin. CONCLUSION: There is minimal inter-individual variability in the response to aspirin when tested with AA as the reagent. The response to aspirin follows a normal Gaussian distribution. The prevalence of hypo-responders to aspirin in high risk population is only 3.1%. This is the first study to document "hypo" and "hyper-responders" to single daily dose of 150 mg aspirin. The clinical relevance of these findings remains to be determined.