Screening for psychosocial development among infants in an urban slum of Delhi.

OBJECTIVE: Psychosocial developmental screening of the infants in an urban slum of Delhi and studying the factors influencing the development. METHODS: In this cross-sectional study 202 infants and their mothers were included. Psychosocial Development Screening Test developed by Indian Council of Medical Research was used to asses the development status of infants, and the mothers were interviewed for socio-demographic details RESULTS: Infants who achieved milestones in time were 92.5% for personal skills, 91.8% for hearing language and concept development and 90.6% for gross motor milestones, respectively. These percentages were lower for Vision and fine motor (88.6) and social skills (81.4). Sex of the infant and socioeconomic status of their families significantly influences the few domains of development. Other factors like age of the infant, literacy of their mothers were not significantly influencing the development of infants. CONCLUSION: The objective evaluation and screening for psychosocial development of infants living tin urban slums is necessary for early detection and intervention.

Can Southeast Asia eradicate yaws by 2010? Some lessons from the Yaws Eradication Programme of India.

Yaws has traditionally been known as a skin disease that affects people living in hilly, remote and inaccessible areas. Despite the availability of successful treatment and yaws control programmes worldwide since 1948, yaws is endemic in a number of countries, probably because it is not considered a priority disease for eradication. The presence of a disease that can be eradicated in a community can be taken as a sign of 'backwardness' and an indicator of inappropriate public health efforts. Yaws is endemic in 3 countries of the Southeast Asia (SEA) Region of WHO-indonesia, India and Timor-Leste. The WHO SEA Regional Office has set a target for yaws eradication from the region by year 2010. Yaws eradication is at various stages in these countries. India has reported no cases for the past 3 years and has declared elimination. In the other 2 countries yaws eradication programmes are in their infancy and achieving the WHO regional goal appears impossible. However, if lessons are learnt from the Yaws Eradication Programme in India and an externally funded, technically supported, vertical programme is started immediately in Indonesia and Timor-Leste, the target would not be difficult to accomplish.

Prospects of eradicating poliomyelitis by 2007: compulsory vaccination may be a strategy.

The polio eradication has reached at a critical juncture. The progress was good until year 2000, and since then no major success has been achieved. The year 2006 can easily be termed as 'nightmare period' as there was sudden increase of polio cases in the affected countries this year. The threats of re-emergence and importation continued. The apprehensions became stronger, while the target elusive. This situation requires an immediate decisive action, by the international health community, to eradicate polio at the earliest possible. This article draws some lessons from polio eradication program in last two decades, along with analyzing the concept, feasibility and applicability of compulsory vaccination for achieving the goal of polio eradication by the end of the year 2007.

Emergence of chikungunya virus in Indian subcontinent after 32 years: A review.

An outbreak of chikungunya virus is currently ongoing in many countries in Indian Ocean since January 2005. The current outbreak appears to be the most severe and one of the biggest outbreaks caused by this virus. India, where this virus was last reported in 1973, is also amongst affected countries. Chikungunya virus has affected millions of the people in Africa and Southeast Asia, since it was first reported in 1952 in Tanzania. Even then, natural history of this disease is not fully understood. The intra-outbreak studies, point towards recent changes in the viral genome facilitating the rapid spread and enhanced pathogenecity. The available published scientific literature on chikungunya virus was searched to understand the natural history of this disease, reasons for the current outbreak and the causes behind re-emergence of the virus in India. The paucity of the scientific information on various epidemiological aspects of chikungunya virus threatens off an epidemic as control of spread of virus might be difficult in the absence of appropriate knowledge. There is an immediate need of the research on chikungunya virus, for an effective vaccine besides strengthening the existing diagnostic laboratory facilities. The current outbreak can also be taken as a lesson for establishment of a system for continuous surveillance of diseases, considered disappeared from the countries. The re-emergence and epidemics are unpredictable phenomena but the impact of such events can be ameliorated by appropriate knowledge and by being in the right state of preparedness.

Avian flu and possible human pandemic.

Avian flu is affecting the poultry animals world over since first outbreak in 1997 in Hong Kong and has resulted in 92 human deaths and culling of more than 150 million poultry animals in Asia and Europe. The loss to the economy has also been enormous. 13 new countries, including India, reported occurrence of the disease in poultry animals in February 2006 only, to the World Health Organisation. This rapid rate of spread of virus along with notoriety of the virus for frequent genetic re-assortment, which might enable H5N1 to infect human beings, threatens of possible influenza pandemic since the last pandemic in 1968. The human influenza caused by this subtype of the virus (H5N1) has high case fatality of 54% and majority of affected humans are between the age of 5 to 23 years. Lack of effective vaccine, poor knowledge about treatment, and with scarcity of public health measures in developing countries are major causes of concern. The real threat of impending pandemic can be avoided only if we act immediately on the basis of currently available source of information and apply scientific knowledge rationally for containment and prevention of bird flu and treat human cases promptly.

Effect of sewage water on the growth and yield parameters of wheat and blackgram with different fertilizer levels.

Impact of biologically treated domestic sewage water was studied on the growth and yield attributing characters of wheat and blackgram under different fertilizer levels in the field condition. There was no significant difference on the yield and yield attributing characters of wheat. However, yield attributing characters like number of tillers/plant, panicle length (cm), number of grains/panicle and 1,000 grain weight showed increasing trend to the tune of 13.29, 1.59. 5.49 and 3.79 per cent respectively over the tubewell irrigated crop. Yield was also increased to the tune of 3.63 per cent when the crop was irrigated with sewage water. Interactions between irrigation and fertilizer levels were also insignificant. However, sewage water with N60P45K45 responded better on tillering, panicle length, number of grains/panicle and yield of wheat. In case of blackgram, treated sewage water had no significant effect on the grwoth and yield attributing characters, rather sewage water had some negative effect on these parameters. Interactions between irrigation and fertilizer levels were insignificant. But tubewell irrigation with N10P10K10 was more responsive on growth parameters. When the crop was grown with tubewell irrigation and without fertilizer, yield attributing characters were more positively responded.