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Background:The bio-medical waste products create particularly serious problems for the municipalities and its safe disposal is becoming a serious environmental problem. The concern regarding medical wastes is mainly due to the presence of pathogenic organisms and organic substances in hospital solid wastes in significantly higher concentrations. About one fourth of biomedical waste is considered as hazardous and may affect the health of both medical personnel and general community. Aim and objectives of the research was to assess the knowledge, attitude and practice about the biomedical waste management among the staff (medical and paramedical) of a tertiary care medical institute. Methods:The design of the study was observational, descriptive and cross-sectional. It was conducted in a 500 bedded private sector tertiary care medical institute in Lucknow. The study unit consisted of medical and paramedical staff (doctors, staff nurses, and ward boys) and sample size was 241 who consented to be a part of the study. All the study units who had been in the job for atleast 6 months in IIMSR who consented for the study were included; purposive convenience sampling was implemented and study period was from January 2018 to March 2018.Results:Majority across all the types of study participants were males, married, residing in urban areas and having not undergone any formal training. Our study found that though all the study participants in various groups were having the relevant level of knowledge but attitude and practices were variable.Conclusions:This study showed that knowledge may be higher but attitude and practices are variable and are not related to educational level.
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Background:World Health Organization (WHO) in 2019, released the estimates which show that approximately 80% of the causes of blindness and severely reduced visual acuity are preventable and avoidable. The aim of the study was to assess the prevalence of preventable causes of blindness in an OPD setup in the city of Lucknow.Methods:Descriptive cross-sectional study was done from January, 2019 to March, 2019 at the ophthalmology department OPD, Dr Ram Manohar lohia hospital, Lucknow. Patient presenting with complains of Blurring of vision or blindness during the defined OPD days at the study place, sample size-550. Convenience sampling, all the eligible patients who were attending the OPD on defined days during the study period.Results:The current study found the prevalence of blindness in the OPD based patients to be 13.5% and 25% (WHO and NPCB standards) respectively which is higher than the other reported statistics and found cataract to be the single most contributor of cause of blindness in accordance with other literature.Conclusions:The study demonstrates that even after the implementation of a national program (NPCB), the prevalence of blindness continues to be on the higher side and cataract remains to the most common cause of preventable blindness.
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Background: Syphilis is a sexually transmitted disease caused by bacteria named Treponema palladium, subsp. pallidum. Nearly 1.36 million pregnant women are known to be affected by syphilis in the developing countries. When left untreated syphilis during pregnancy can result in adverse fetal outcomes such as spontaneous abortion and stillbirth. Objective of the study was to evaluate the seroprevalence of syphilis among pregnant females attending Antenatal Clinic (ANC).Methods: A hospital based cross-sectional study was done over a period of six months from January to June 2019. A total of 132 pregnant females were included in the study who attended Antenatal Clinic for routine checkup whose blood samples were sent to Microbiology Laboratory for screening for syphilis by Rapid Plasma Reagin (RPR) test.Results: Out of 132 samples of pregnant females screened for syphilis, none of the sample was found reactive for syphilis by RPR test. Maximum patients (57.6%) belonged to age group 20-25 years followed by (27.3%) of 26-30 years. 30.3% patients belonged to urban areas and 69.7% patients belonged to rural areas. Majority of patients (80.3%) belonged to first trimester, followed by (18.9%) patients to second trimester and (0.8%) patients to third trimester. 78.8% patients were from lower socio-economic class followed by 12.9% patients from middle class and 8.3% patients from upper class.Conclusions: Although zero percent syphilis prevalence was observed in this study, it is recommended that free screening for syphilis should be offered to all pregnant females visiting Antenatal Clinic.
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Background: HIV (Human Immunodeficiency Virus) is the causative agent of AIDS (Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome). It belongs to the lentivirus subgroup of the family Retroviridae. The HIV/AIDS is spreading worldwide at an alarming rate. India has the third largest number of estimated people living with HIV/AIDS. Most common mode of HIV transmission is through heterosexual contact, blood transfusion, percutaneous, mucosal and perinatal mode. The present study was done to evaluate the seroreactivity of HIV among patients attending Integrated Counselling and Testing Centre (ICTC) of our Tertiary care hospital. Methods: This retrospective study was conducted on data of patients who had attended ICTC and undergone HIV testing from January 2017 to January 2019. A total of 4519 patients were included in the study who gave their consent followed by pre-test and post-test counseling and were screened for HIV antibody by using rapid kit Comb-Aids.Results: Out of 4519 samples tested, 23 were reactive to HIV screening test, hence sero-reactivity of HIV was found to be 0.50%. Higher seroreactivity was seen among males (56.5%, 13/23), and patients aged 31-40 years (39.1%, 9/23). Maximum seroreactivity was found among patients of rural areas (73.9%, 17/23), indoor patients (91.3%, 21/23) and married patients (73.9%, 17/23).Conclusions: In this study the seroreactivity of HIV was found to be low among patients attending ICTC but still HIV continues to be a major contributor to the global burden of disease. ICTC data can be used as an important tool for planning and improving the national HIV/AIDS intervention strategy.
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Background: Dengue virus infection is a growing health problem and is prevalent throughout India. Research focusing on length of hospital stay and its predictors is scarce from India. This is important considering the burden of the disease during epidemics and impact on hospital admissions. Hence the study was conducted with the objectives to find out the factors influencing the length of stay in hospital of dengue patients.Methods: A cross sectional retrospective observational study conducted at a tertiary care hospital from August 2016 to October 2016. Data was retrieved from case sheets at Medical Record Department of 350 lab confirmed adult dengue patients admitted in the hospital.Results: The majority of patients admitted were of economically productive age group of 18-45 years and males indicating the occupational exposure to the vector of dengue. The study found that majority had length of stay of less than a week and as age increases the length of stay also increases (statistically significant). The nil case fatality and lesser number of mean days of symptoms before admission possibly indicate that early arrival of patients to hospital can lead to very low fatality rates. Further research required to find out the other predictors of length of stay.Conclusions: The study concludes that the dengue affects the economically productive age group and more males thereby indicating occupational exposure to the vector. The age of the patient can be used as an indicator to the length of stay in the hospital.
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Background: According to Ayurveda, the traditional medical system of India, doshas are a combination ofcharacteristics based on a five-element philosophy that drive our mental and physical tendencies. Whenthe doshas, or functional principles, are out of balance in quality or quantity, wellbeing is adverselyaffected and symptoms manifest.Objective: This study examined relationships among imbalances in the doshas (termed Vikruti) reportedvia questionnaire and Western measures of psychological states.Materials and methods: Study participants were 101 women (n ¼ 81) and men (n ¼ 20), mean age 53.9years (SD ¼ 11.7; range 32e80). Participants completed questionnaires to categorize their Vikruti typeand psychological states, which included depressed mood (CESD), anxiety (PROMIS), rumination &reflection (RRQ), mindfulness (MAAS), stress (PSS), and quality of life (Ryff).Results: Multivariate general linear modeling, controlling for age, gender and body mass index (BMI),showed that Vata imbalance was associated with more anxiety (p 0.05), more rumination (p 0.01),less mindfulness (p 0.05), and lower overall quality of life (p 0.01). Pitta imbalance was associatedwith poorer mood (p 0.01) and less mindfulness (p 0.05), more anxiety (p 0.05) and stress(p 0.05). Kapha imbalance was associated with more stress (p 0.05), more rumination (p 0.05) andless reflection (p 0.05).Conclusion: These findings suggest that symptoms of mind-body imbalances in Ayurveda are differentially associated with western assessments of psychological states. Ayurvedic dosha assessment may bean effective way to assess physical as well as emotional wellbeing in research and clinical settings.© 2018 Transdisciplinary University, Bangalore and World Ayurveda Foundation. Publishing Services byElsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)