Impact assessment of IEC intervention on knowledge of HIV/AIDS among secondary and higher secondary school students of Himmatnagar, Gujarat, India

Background: Pertaining to increasing incidence of HIV/AIDS among youths, it becomes a need of the hour to make them aware about every aspects of disease. Students of secondary and higher secondary school can be targeted for achieving this goal. The objective of the study was to assess the knowledge about HIV/AIDS among the school students before and after giving educational intervention.Methods: An educational interventional study was carried out among school going adolescents of one of the school situated in the field practice area of one of the rural teaching hospitals of Gujarat. Pre-designed and pre-tested proforma was used for pre and post test study. Educational intervention in the form of power point presentation was conducted on various aspects of HIV/AIDS.Results: Around 163 students participated in the study. Mean age of the students were 16.6±0.7 yrs. Among them, 148 (90.8%) have heard about HIV/AIDS and only 26.3% could tell correctly about full form of HIV/AIDS before intervention. After giving educational intervention this percentage was raised to 89.2% which was significant statistically. Knowledge on almost all the aspects viz. modes of transmission and preventive aspects were significantly raised among the student after giving educational session.Conclusions: Correct knowledge about etiological and preventive aspects were lacking among the students before intervention. Various misconceptions which were prevalent among them were cleared by giving educational intervention. Secondary and Higher secondary schools can be selected as a platform for raising overall awareness about HIV/AIDS.

Diffuse Pan Bronchiolitis Presenting with Bronchiectasis: A Case Report.

Diffuse Pan Bronchiolitis (DPB) is a peculiar airwaydisease with its pathogenesis enrooted in a complexinterplay of various genetic and environmental factors.Airway inflammation, chronic airflow limitation andsuppuratives in pulmonary infections are the distinctivefeatures of this entity. It poses a close differential toother frequently encountered pulmonary conditionslike chronic bronchitis, emphysema, bronchiectasis andconstrictive bronchiolitis. Deferment in diagnosis canculminate in irreversible airway remodeling andprogressive respiratory failure. Hence a punctualrecognition is vital. Macrolide group of drugs are primemodality of therapy and the response to therapy isbenignant. We herein describe a case of DPB withdevelopment of sequelae owing to its delayeddetection

Adenoid cystic carcinoma of the trachea.

Primary salivary gland ‑ type tumors of the lung and airways being unusual, they pose a diagnostic challenge on small biopsies and are usually consigned as non‑small cell lung carcinomas. Since the clinical behavior of these tumors is different from the conventional lung tumors, it is important to accurately diagnose them. Among this category of tumors, adenoid cystic carcinoma (ACC) of the lungs and airways is exceedingly rare. Few large studies and maximum case reports have been reported in literature on ACC of the lungs and trachea so far. We herein report a rare case of primary ACC of the trachea diagnosed on bronchoscopic biopsy.

Pulmonary fibrosis and emphysema.

A 58-year-old male presented with symptoms of progressive dyspnoea on exertion and predominantly dry cough of six months duration. He was a cigarette smoker with a smoking index of 10 pack years. He had no history of fever, exposure to dusts or drug therapy. There was no history of similar illness in the family members or any symptoms suggestive of connective tissue disease (CTD). On physical examination, clubbing was observed and there were bibasilar fine endinspiratory crackles on auscultation. Oxygen saturation by pulse oximetry showed significant exercise desaturation from 94% to 77%.

An Increased Incidence Of C-Band Heteromorphism In Hereditary Breast Cancer Patients and Their Healthy Blood Relatives An Indian Experience.

Healthy blood relatives (HBR) of the hereditary breast cancer (HBC) patients are considered to be at higher risk to develop cancer. However, all of them do not suffer from same. This may indicate the possibility of association with genetic polymorphism among them. We have studied this genetic polymorphism in terms of C-band heteromorphism among 11 HBC patients, 36 HBR and results were compared with 22 control females. Significantly higher incidence (p < 0.001) of C-band heteromorphism has been observed among the HBC patients and their HBR as compared to the control females. At the same time, however, the difference in incidence of C-band heteromorphism among HBC patients and their HBR were not statistically significant. The findings indicate possibilities of (i) an association between C-band heteromorphism and hereditary breast cancer, and (ii) C-band heteromorphism may be one of the important factors conferring HBR at an elevated risk to develop the breast cancer.

Constitutive Heterochromatin Polymorphism In Pediatric Cancer Patients.

Incidence of constitutive C-band heteromorphism (CBH) is reported to be higher in patients with malignancy by some studies, while in others no difference is reported between control and malignant conditions. We have studied incidence of CBH in pediatric cancer patients in terms of > 25% size difference between the homologues of chromosome #1, #9 and #16 and compared it with (i) age-matched controls, (ii) controls with minimum 60 years of age and (iii) parents/siblings of pediatric cancer patients and overall prevalence of CBH was comparable between patients and three groups of control subjects. Statistically significant difference was observed between the total lengths of C-band of chromosome #1 for pediatric cancer patients and first degree relatives group (p < 0.01). 17 families of pediatric cancer patients were studied for the pattern of CBH. In three patients, CBH analysis, more number of cancer families and normal pedigrees will be more informative. The problem still remains unresolved and should be analyzed qualitatively using techniques of molecular cytogenetics.