Sanitation: a call on resources for promoting urban child health.

Poor sanitation is known to increase the risk of morbidity and mortality from diarrhea among children. Several studies have found a high correlation between childhood morbidity and availability of sanitation services. It has been estimated that 1.7 million deaths each year, or 3.1 percent of all deaths are attributable to inadequate access to water, sanitation and hygiene. The urgency for sanitation in the urban environment stems from the fact that the urban poor live in crowded slums and informal settlements where sanitation facilities are particularly important for children's health and personal dignity. Demand for sanitation services has remained low, as livelihood priorities have been more pressing. There is a pressing need to get Governments and society to recognize the appalling toll created by poor sanitary conditions in urban poor settlements. Serious efforts should be made to develop local, national and international campaigns which promote convergence among programs aimed at urban health infrastructure, community development and education; motivate people to demand and maintain better sanitation; and place sanitation to the forefront of development and political dialogue.

Awareness and practices regarding malaria of catchment population of a primary health centre in Delhi.

Malaria is a major public health problem in India. IEC activities have been an important activity of National Anti Malaria Programme. The present study was undertaken with the objective to assess awareness and practices regarding malaria among patients attending malaria clinic. Literacy status was low among the respondents. About 57% of respondents were aware of the cause of malaria as parasite or mosquito and awareness increased with the literacy status (49.4% in illiterate to 85.4% in high school and above literate). More than half (51.0%) of the respondents attributed high fever with chills and rigor as the most important symptom of malaria, but some of the respondents also mentioned only high fever (18.9%) or high fever with diarrhea (21.2%) as main symptom of malaria. Majority of the respondents knew that mosquito bred in water (62.9%) and mosquito breeding could be prevented (56.6%), knowledge significantly better among literate than illiterates. The present study showed that the awareness and practices about the cause and prevention of malaria were just fair among the patients attending the Malaria Clinic of a Primary Health Centre of Delhi and were dependent upon the literacy status of the study population. Poor response towards practising preventive measures against mosquito bites as approx. one third were not practising any method could be due to poor awareness about malaria preventive measures.