An Outbreak Investigation of Varicella Zoster among Male Military Personnel in a Military Training Centre.

Introduction: Chickenpox is an acute, highly infectious disease. Outbreaks can occur in adults in closed institutional settings like hostels and barracks. This study aims to report varicella zoster outbreak among male military personnel in a military training centre. Methods: An outbreak investigation of chickenpox in a military training school and tertiary hospital was conducted. Ethical approval was taken from the Institutional Review Committee (Reference number: 267). Data was collected from February 5, 2020 to April 10, 2020 by questionnaire and clinical examination. Case definitions were prepared as per the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention criteria. Data was entered and analysed in Microsoft Excel 2010. Results: Out of the 167 male personnel in the training centre, 90 (53.89%) were susceptible to varicella and 84 (50.29%) were close contacts. The secondary attack rate of varicella zoster was 21.43% (18 cases). The mean age of the patients was 22.33±1.72 years. The mean days of admission were 5±2.28 days. The most common clinical features were generalised rash in 18 (100%), fever in 15 (83.33%), and body ache in 12 (66.67%) cases. Conclusions: Natural history, clinical, and epidemiological features of varicella zoster in a closed institutional setting was studied with the secondary attack rate being less as compared to other studies. Keywords: chickenpox; military; outbreak.

Willingness of Nepalese medical and nursing students to volunteer during COVID-19 pandemic: A single-centered cross-sectional study.

BACKGROUND: Medical students, being more familiar with medical situations, can play a vital role as volunteers during medical crises like mass casualty emergencies and epidemics. This study was conducted to know the willingness of medical and nursing students to volunteer during the coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19) pandemic. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This cross-sectional study was conducted among undergraduate medical and nursing students of a medical college in Kathmandu. A proportionate stratified random sampling technique was used. A pretested, self-administered questionnaire was emailed to participants and the data were collected from 8th July to July 29, 2021 via the Google forms, extracted to the Google sheets, and then analyzed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 16. RESULTS: Out of 288 randomly selected participants, a total of 261 valid responses were obtained, giving a response rate of 90.6%. The majority (n = 203, 77.8%) of the participants were willing to volunteer. The most preferred area of work during volunteering was clinical care of the COVID-19 patients (n = 74, 36.5%), followed by involvement in health education and awareness-raising activities (n = 63, 31%). Among those not willing to volunteer (n = 58, 22.2%), the most commonly reported reason was the lack of adequate training and skills (n = 23, 40%). CONCLUSION: Since the majority of medical and nursing students were willing to volunteer during the times of COVID-19, they can be of great help as a human resource in case of shortage of healthcare professionals. As lack of training and adequate skills was the main reason for those not willing to volunteer, we recommend the provision of adequate training and skills before deploying students as volunteers during health crises like COVID-19.