ABSTRACT
Background: About 30% of blind population of India loses their eyesight before the age of 20 years and many of them are under 5 when they become blind. Childhood blindness will have serious impact on development, education and quality of life. Therefore it is essential that ocular morbidity is detected and treated at an early stage.Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted among 120 children aged 3-5 years attending 6 anganwadi centres of Hubballi taluk which were selected by stratified random sampling. Data was collected using pretested semi-structured questionnaire. Ocular examination was conducted to identify ocular morbidity. Test for visual acuity, colour blindness and refractive status was done using lea chart, ischihara charts and plusoptix mobile vision screener respectively. Nutrition status was assessed by clinical examination and anthropometry. Statistical analysis was done using SPSS package.Results: Out of 120 children 51.7% were male. Majority, 63.3% were residing in urban area and 40% belonged to class IV of modified B G Prasad classification of socio-economic status scale. The prevalence of ocular morbidity was found to be 20%. 15.8% of children had refractive error, 2.5% had vitamin A deficiency and 1.7% had squint. No statistically significant association was found between ocular morbidity and any risk factors.Conclusions: Refractive error was found to be the most common ocular morbidity among pre-school children. This if detected early can be corrected. Therefore it is important to screen for refractive error at the preschool age itself and to create awareness among parents and anganwadi teachers regarding common ocular symptoms.
ABSTRACT
Background: Rabies is a fatal zoonotic disease of the central nervous system, most commonly caused by the bite of rabid dogs. Globally canine rabies causes 59,000 human deaths, over 3.7 million DALYs and 8.6 billion USD economic losses annually. These losses are due to a lack of knowledge about wound management and post-exposure prophylaxis. The objective of the study was to assess the knowledge and practices following dog bite and its management among the urban and rural population.Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted in the field practice area of KIMS, Hubli. 120 households of the urban and rural locality were interviewed with a semi-structured pretested questionnaire.Results: Overall 89.16% of the study population was aware that the disease can be prevented by vaccination. 35% of the rural and 28% of the urban population believed that the disease can spread from person to person. The knowledge about the site and the number of doses of vaccine was poor among both the population. The harmful practices for treatment of bite were still prevalent among both rural (25%) and urban (8.3%) population.Conclusions: The knowledge about the dog bite management and Rabies prevention is insufficient among both populations. There are myths and misconceptions about the disease and wound management. Practices like application of harmful substances like lime, turmeric, mud are the problems hindering rabies prevention and control. Proper steps need to be taken up to control the canine rabies.