ABSTRACT
Background: In times of an epidemic such as coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), the public's knowledge and attitude toward the disease affects the ability to abide to different preventive measures. Aims and Objectives: (1) to assess the knowledge and awareness of the domestic helpers in a tribal population, (2) whether the domestic helpers practice appropriate preventative measures that are recommended by WHO. Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional study was designed and carried out using questionnaire among rural domestic workers in Mizoram, above 14 years of age belonging to both Mizo and Non-Mizo ethnicity. Data were collected from 105 participants and analyzed through t-test, one-way analysis of variance and Pearson correlation analysis. Results: Majority of the respondents had higher secondary level of education (78.1%) and 95.2% could identify COVID-19 as a communicable disease. Almost all the participants (97.1%) were afraid of infection and the majority (92.4%) had fear of dying with the disease. Three-fourth of the participants were working during the pandemic of which 44.8% had volunteered. Media (68.6%) was the most common source of information about the disease. The education level was significantly associated with knowledge and attitude scores whereas there were no significant differences with respect to the practice (P > 0.05). Conclusion: Our findings indicate an overall good KAP of the rural domestic workers. Since these workers move from house to house and also take care of the vulnerable, and that they themselves and the families, they work for may be at an increased risk of infection with COVID-19, these findings are important from a health campaign perspective.
ABSTRACT
Apart from the regular respiratory symptoms, neurological manifestations like headache, encephalopathy, encephalitis, seizure, coma, demyelinating disorders, and aseptic meningitis has been seen in paediatric Coronavirus Disease-2019 (COVID-19) positive cases. The present case series is about three children, of age range 9 to 15 years, who presented with encephalitis between January 2022-February 2022. All the children tested positive for COVID-19, either by Rapid Antigen Test (RAT) or by Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR). One patient had necrotising encephalitis like changes in the MRI neuroimaging of the brain, but negative Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) Ribonucleic Acid (RNA) PCR in Cerebrospinal Fluid (CSF). The second patient's Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) brain was suggestive of acute encephalopathy, but with normal CSF analysis. The third patient presented with clinical findings suggestive of encephalitis with normal CSF study and normal MRI. The children were managed with antipyretics, antiepileptics, antibiotics, and antiviral, injection mannitol, and steroids. After the completion of the treatment, all the children were alive and were discharged from the hospital.