Megalencephalic leukoencephalopathy with subcortical cysts.

Megalencephalic leukocncephalopathy is rare disorder seen in India in patient belonging to Agarwal community. Many of the patients may have a mild clinical course with gradual worsening of neurological disability. A case is being reported who was followed for 17 years and paradoxically showed radiological and clinical improvement.

Brainstem death: implications in India.

Brainstem death and brain death although practically same with regards to the concept of organ donation, remain technically different. Brain death mandates irreversible cessation of all the functions of the entire brain and brainstem while brainstem death signifies irreversible damage to the brainstem. As per the Indian law, brainstem death is the legal requirement and not brain death.

Vibrio cholerae diarrhoea in a three-day-old breastfed neonate.

A confirmed case of cholera in a 3-day-old neonate is being reported. Possible source of infection could be by holy water (Chamamrit) given to the baby, which is common ritual in India. Mother's milk has never been reported to transmit cholera, even though mother herself may be suffering from cholera. Contaminated water can transmit the disease as there is no maternally transmitted immunity.

Role of migratory population in keeping up endemicity of malaria in metropolitan cities of India.

Urbanisation is rapidly taking place in India. A sizeable number of people migrate to metropolitan cities to take up casual labour jobs and settle in pockets scattered all over the city. They generally pay frequent visits to their native place with a higher malarial endemicity and are believed to be important reservoirs of infection for the native population of metropolis. To investigate this problem, a survey was conducted in 1987-88 to compare the prevalence of chronic malaria in two such pockets of migrant population with that of local population of Delhi from nearby villages. Ninetyone out of 701 (12.84 per cent) immigrants investigated had fever clinically diagnosed as malaria at the time of survey, while in the native population 45 out of 646 (6.97 per cent) had such a history. The difference is statistically significant. Splenomegaly was also significantly higher in migrants (15.41 per cent) than in natives of Delhi villages (3.10 per cent). Migrant population is not covered by active surveillance and live in poor environmental conditions conducive to mosquito breeding and malaria transmission. A special attention needs to be paid to the migratory population in the anti-malaria programme in order to control the transmission of the disease in the cities.

Childbirth spacing in a rural community of Delhi: profile in various marriage cohorts by decades.

Complete retrospective fertility histories of 843 ever married women of two villages in Delhi, obtained through house to house survey, were analysed to study various marriage cohorts by decades for trends of child birth spacing over a period of 60 years from 1921 to 1980. Spacing between consummation of marriage and first child birth gradually declined over the last 6 decades. For all other subsequent livebirths remained constant at an average of nearly 30 months. Irrespective of the reasons for such a trend, much more efforts are required to be put in to increase child spacing.