Epidemiology Of Voice Disorders Among Government School Teachers - An Analytical Cross-Sectional Study from Kancheepuram District

Background: Voice disorders cause undesirable effects on school teachers such as reducing their quality of life, decrease in work performance affecting the quality of education, job absenteeism, and reduced social activities as well. Methodology: Voice disorder among teachers was assessed through the “Voice handicap Index”, which was developed by Jacobson et al in 1997 to self-assess the severity of voice disorder in dysphonia pa-tients Results: The overall prevalence of voice disorder among government school teachers was found to be 46.5% with a 95% confidence interval from 41.5% to 51.5%. Using Backward Wald, the binary logistic regression analysis showed that female teachers (AOR 1.6, p<0.01*), teaching experience less than 10 years (AOR 2.4, p<0.01*), and teaching hours more than 21 hours per week (AOR 6.7, p<0.01*) had a sig-nificant association with voice disorders. Conclusion: The prevalence of voice disorder was found to be high since teachers are professional voice users. The study also recommends that teachers must receive the required health education on the ergo-nomic risk factors that they will come into contact with in their daily lives as part of their jobs.

Rickettsial diseases in children.

In a tropical country like India, fevers are caused by different etiological agents. Rickettsial infections, which have a global distribution is one of the differential diagnosis in such cases and are reported from almost all parts of India. Rickettsial diseases widely vary in severity from self-limited mild illnesses to fulminating life-threatening infections. They are obligate intracellular gramnegative coccobacillary forms that multiply within eukaryotic cells which makes it difficult to culture them on artificial culture medium. With globalization there is rapid spread of disease across the continents and therefore, skills for diagnosis and management of the disease attains global importance. Rickettsial diseases can be clinically classified as Spotted Fever group, typhus group, distinctive clinical rickettsiae and emerging rickettsiae. The clinical course will have incubation period, stage non-specific clinical signs and symptoms followed by typical/classical features depending on the type of rickettsiae infecting a person. However the clinical manifestation varies from one geographical area to another area for same species. The rickettsial diseases once thought to have been eradicated from India are re-emerging in many parts of our country. Their presence has recently been documented in at least eleven states of our country. Greater clinical awareness, a higher index of suspicion, better use of available diagnostic tools would increase the frequency with which rickettsial diseases are diagnosed.

Kartagener`s Syndrome: A Case Report.

Kartagener`s syndrome, a rare autosomal recessive disorder is a type of primary ciliary dyskinesia (PCD) associated situs inversus, bronchiectasis, sinusitis and male infertility. We present a case of a 12-year-old boy who came with features of bilateral glue ear, recurrent sinusitis, adenotonsillitis, obstructive sleep apnea and situ inversus. He was diagnosed to have Kartagener`s syndrome and was treated with bilateral grommet insertion, bilateral antral lavage and adenotonsillectomy to alleviate his symptoms.

Evaluation of an intermittent six-month regimen in new pulmonary tuberculosis patients with diabetes mellitus.

BACKGROUND: The treatment of tuberculosis (TB) with category I regimen of the Revised National Tuberculosis Control Programme (RNTCP) for patients with diabetes mellitus (DM) needs evaluation. OBJECTIVE: To assess the cure and relapse rates in 3 years, among the new smear-positive TB patients with Type-2 DM (DMTB) treated with CAT-I regimen (2E3H3R3Z3/4R3H3) of RNTCP. METHODOLOGY: TB suspects attending the diabetology units and the TB research centre (TRC) Chennai, were investigated. Eligible DMTB cases were enrolled. Baseline estimation of cardiac, renal, liver function tests and glycosylated-HBA1c were undertaken. All patients received 2E3H3R3Z3/4R3H3 under supervision at TRC. Clinical and sputum (smear and culture) examinations and monitoring of diabetic status were undertaken every month up to 24 months, then once in 3 months up to 36 months. RESULTS: Of 100 patients admitted, 7 were excluded for various reasons from analysis. Of 93 patients, 87 (94%) had a favourable response at the end of treatment. Pre and post treatment mean glycosylated-HBA1c were 9.7% and 8.4% (>7% poor control). During follow-up period, 6 died and one lost to follow-up. Of the remaining, four relapsed. CONCLUSION: Category-I regimen, recommended for all the new smear-positive patients in the Indian TB programme, is effective in the treatment of DMTB patients, despite poor control of diabetes.