Sustainable leprosy related disability care within integrated general health services: findings from Salem District, India.

The main focus of leprosy control has been case detection and treatment delivery with relative neglect of prevention of disability. Absence of reliable data and lack of research have added to the problem. This raised concerns about the capacity of the general health system to address the needs of people living with leprosy-related disabilities. In this prospective study appropriate services for people living with leprosy-related disabilities were introduced in the form of self-care training, guidance and monitoring by the general health staff facilitated by a non-governmental organisation leprosy centre in a district in south India with a population of 3.1 million (estimated in 2005). The staff identified 1232 people with leprosy-related disabilities and trained them in self-care. Follow-up assessments indicated that 86% were found to be practising self-care regularly and all the 239 general health workers were found to be actively involved. The most heartening outcome was the healing of plantar ulcers in 70% of people at the 1-year follow up. This intervention is sustainable because of the simplicity of the procedures and the involvement of all health staff including supervisors.

Effect of cyclodextrin complexation in bromine addition to unsymmetrical olefins: evidence for participation of cyclodextrin hydroxyl groups.

Multiple recognition by cyclodextrin in a bimolecular reaction, namely bromination of styrene, methyl cinnamate, phenylacetylene and allylbenzene, has been studied. Bromohydrin is obtained as a major product along with dibromide in the bromination of styrene and methyl cinnamate. The percentage of bromohydrin decreases as the cavity size increases. With phenylacetylene, bromophenylacetylene and phenacyl bromide are obtained in addition to the dibromides. In the bromination of cyclodextrin complexes of allylbenzene, the product distribution is the same as in solution bromination. The observed results demonstrate the efficiency of cyclodextrin in stabilizing the open carbocationic intermediate and thus provide chemical evidence for the participation of cyclodextrin hydroxyl groups.