Knowledge and Practice of Personal Hygiene and Sanitation: A Study in Selected Slums of Dhaka City.

Background: : Slum dwellers are likely to be among the most deprived people in urban areas. Poor hygiene practices and inadequate sanitary conditions play major roles in the increased burden of communicable diseases within developing countries like ours. Objective: To assess the knowledge and practice about personal hygiene and environmental sanitation in selected slums of Dhaka city. Materials and method: This cross sectional study was conducted in purposively selected urban slum areas of Moghbazar slum, Bashabo slum and T&T slum of Dhaka city during February 2014 to April 2014. Convenient sampling technique was applied. Semi-structured pre-tested questionnaire was used and face to face interview was conducted. Total 475 subjects, irrespective of age and sex, were included in this study. Results: Out of 475 respondents, more than fifty percent slum dwellers resided in tin shaded room while 21.7% in ‘kacha’ houses. Sixty six percent of the respondents used to drink water from tube-well and 24% used supplied water provided by the city corporation. The study revealed that near 59% of the respondents used sanitary latrine. About 67% slum dwellers regularly practiced hand washing before taking meal and 59.2% respondents used soap after defecation. About fifty percent respondents brushed their teeth regularly with tooth paste. Regarding personal cleanliness, 81% subjects took bath regularly while 78% washed clothes irregularly. A statistically significant relation was found between washing of hands before meal (p=0.001), washing of hands after defecation (p=0.02), tooth brushing (p=0.001), bathing (p=0.009), washing of cloths (p=0.001), use of footwear (p=0.63) with knowledge of personal hygiene of the slum dwellers. Conclusion: Continuous community hygiene education along with adequate access to water supply and sanitation improves hygiene behaviour and policy makers and health care providers should have definite strategy and implementation.

A Case Report on Stab Injury.

Stabbing is the most common method of homicide in developing countries like Bangladesh, due to poverty, over population, joblessness, political unrest, etc. The reported case is of a 27 years old man stabbed on the front of the left thigh, a relatively unusual site by a sharp pointed knife by some snatchers while sitting on a rickshaw. On medicolegal point of view the injury was homicidal in nature to run away without having a motive to kill the person. The site was easily approachable for the snatchers. We need to create awareness among general population about the circumstances and probable mishaps that can happen unexpectedly.

Socio Demographic Determinants of Delivery Practice in Rural Women of Bangladesh

Background: Every year, world wide, 200 million women become pregnant. The development of urban areas allowed women to receive more care and treatment. However, in rural areas such measures are not available to every woman. Data on delivery practice of rural woman may help the social and public health planners and decision makers to minimize and prevent maternal mortality and morbidity ensuring safe motherhood. Objective: The aim of the study was to observe the delivery practice of rural women of Bangladesh. Materials and method: A cross-sectional study was conducted and data were collected from Dhamrai upazila, Dhaka, Bangladesh in April 2008. Total 159 women of reproductive age group at least having one child were selected purposively to elicit information on various demographic, socioeconomic, cultural and selected programmatic variables including maternal health care and delivery practices. Results: Among the respondents about 55% were literate. Majority (80%) of the respondents delivered at home and most of the them (71%) felt that home delivery was comfortable where as about 29% of the respondents were compelled to deliver at home due to family decision and financial constraint. Among the deliveries about 82% occurred normally and 18.2% were by cesarean section. A considerable percentage of deliveries (49%) were attended by traditional birth attendants. Blade was used for cutting umbilical cord in majority of the cases (74%) who delivered at home. Most of the respondents (90%) took ante natal check up and about 74% were vaccinated by tetanus toxoid. Conclusion: The results of the study suggest that a lot of work is still to do for the policy makers and health planners to target, plan, develop and deliver maternal health services to the rural women of Bangladesh.