A study on knowledge, beliefs and attitude towards leprosy in students of Jaipur, Rajasthan.

The objective of this study was to determine the knowledge, beliefs and attitudes regarding leprosy in school students of Jaipur district. A cross-sectional study was conducted from August 2010 to February 2011 on 1199 students (rural and urban) studying in class 10th and above. The findings of this study showed fair knowledge in students about cause, signs and symptoms of leprosy but less knowledge about prevention and treatment of the disease. Myths and beliefs were more prevalent in rural students as compared to urban ones. Both the groups showed positive attitude toward leprosy with 30-50% students showing neutral approach but negative reaction was more in rural students. In conclusion the study highlights to emphasize on health education in students and improving knowledge to develop positive attitude towards leprosy.

Study of immunisation status of rural children (12-23 months age) of district Jaipur, Rajasthan and factors influencing it: a hospital based study.

To outline the immunisation status of rural children and factors influencing it, a cross-sectional study was undertaken in the paediatric OPD of a medical college hospital among children (n = 300) in the age group of 12-23 months belonging to rural areas of the district Jaipur, Rajasthan. Parents of 300 children were interviewed using a preformed schedule. Children were labelled as 'completely immunised', 'partially immunised' or 'non-immunised' according to working definitions. Various socioeconomic, demographic, cultural, logistic and behavioural factors found to influence the immunisation status were outlined. Chi-square test and logistic regression analysis was done for statistical analysis. There were 100 children (33.3%) who were 'completely' immunised, 144 (48%) were 'partially' immunised and the remaining 56 (18.7%) were 'non-immunised'. The immunisation status was significantly influenced by the visit of the health worker at home, social class, religion, place of delivery, distance from the vaccination centre to child's residence, caste and education. Sex of the child, birth order and type of the family had no impact. The most common reasons for partial immunisation (n = 144) were: Parents' 'forgetfulness' of the schedule, adverse effects observed and not recalled by the health worker. The most common reasons for non-immunisation (n = 56) were lack of knowledge regarding vaccines and schedule, fear of 'injection' and busy in profession. The various factors found to influence the immunisation status of rural children need to be addressed in order to achieve millennium development goal of reducing under-five child mortality.

Multivariate ordination approach for identification of sub-regional homogeneities in Gujarat, western India.

Identification of homogeneous invariant geographical units assumes considerable importance in the context of current attempts at developing environmental indices to monitor changes. Data on the edaphic and climatic parameters for the state of Gujarat--a predominantly arid to semi-arid province in western India--has been used to elaborate an approach that employs principal component analysis (PCA) as the basis for unbiased clustering of similar geographic units at sub-regional scales. PCA identified different sets of edaphic and climatic variables responsible for separating one unit from another. With the exception of a few cases, soil variables exhibited greater influence on the separation of units than climate. Response of some agro-ecological variables (total cultivable area, forestland and normalized difference vegetation index) to both original and ordinated variables in each of the identified edaphic-climatic units (ECU) has been evaluated using step-wise multiple regressions. The edaphic-climatic parameters were good predictors of these variables, although ordination did not necessarily enhance the predictive power of the independent variables. Instead, in many cases original variables showed better correlations. The response of these variables, chosen on the basis of varying levels of dynamism (slow to seasonal fluctuations), showed that independent of the degree of dynamism, the dependence of these variables was distinct in each ECU. This provided a reality check on the agro-ecological and bio-climatic differentiation among the ECUs.

Status of seismic hazard and risk management in Kathmandu Valley, Nepal

Nepal is, right at this time, taking many of the required steps for improving seismic safety of her people. The country is very fortunate in that her efforts are being assisted by international agencies like UNDP, Habitat and WSSI. However, the task lying ahead is inmense. At the root of the required action is the need to raise the awareness of all sectors of the community to the seismic risk with which they are living. Considering the perceived vulnerability of Kathmandu, which will be the source of all assistance immediately after such a disaster, a worthwhile first step would be the participation of as wide as possible section of the Kathmandu Valley community in an earthquake scenario exercise. This would very much complement the progressive and planned introduction of the strength-based building code being developed at the moment.(AU)

Status of seismic hazard and risk management in Nepal

Nepal is, right now, taking many of the steps that the World Seismic Safety Initiative hopes to assist worldwide. Nepal's needs for access to up-to-date information systems and pertinent literature are greater than its needs for more advanced foreign training for its seismic safety community. The implementation of a better standard of seismic safety requires the professionals involved in the construction process to adopt proper advanced training methods, peer-review and self-regulation of thier professions, along with a Code of Ethics.(AU)