Adaptive Capacity of the Communities in View of Climate Change in Areas Vulnerable to Malaria in the Himalayan Region of India

Background: Malaria is one of the major public health problems in India and climate change is expected to aggravate the situation by opening new windows for transmission, particularlyin the Himalayan region. It is, therefore, essential to identify knowledge gapsand adaptive capacity of communities to the adverse impacts of climate change, to develop adaptation plan and improve resilience. Methods: The adaptive capacity to potential risks of malaria due to climate change was assessed in the states of Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand, based on the knowledge, attitude, health seeking behaviour, practices and socio-economic status of the communities. The preparedness of health facilities was also assessed in the respective healthcare facilities in view of the threat of climate change. Results: Though communities had basic knowledge about malaria, lack of specific knowledge about breeding sources of mosquitoes, use of traditional protective measures (41%) from mosquito bites, delayed health seeking behaviour by 40% households (2-4 days after illness) were found unsatisfactory.The assessment of health system revealed inadequacies in capacity for beds at CHCs (in 60%), lack of training of staff and logistics in preparedness for the threat of malaria. Conclusion: The general knowledge of communities regarding malaria was satisfactory, but several misconceptions which may affect the vulnerability to future risk of malaria were found. The adaptive capacity was found slightly above average (57.04) owing to the overall good socio-economic status. However, lack of proper health care infrastructure may impact the overall adaptive capacity of the communities to malaria.

Catastrophic COVID-19 Second Wave in Aligarh: Lessons learnt

The second wave of COVID-19 in India showed its devastated effect mainly in April-May 2021 and crumbled the whole health care infrastructure. Demand for medical oxygen was higher during the second wave of COVID-19 pandemic in comparison to the first spell. Three states viz Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh and Delhi were more severely affected. Aligarh, a small district of around 1.8 million population lies in the state of Uttar Pradesh (UP). The district is famous as ‘Oxford of the East’ due to large number of intellectuals and teachers living and working at Aligarh Muslim University, was obviously not left unsaved in this second wave. The present paper discussed the catastrophic effect of COVID-19 second wave in Aligarh, the possible reasons behind it, preparation for the anticipated third wave and lessons learnt from the past experience. Bangladesh Journal of Medical Science Vol.20(5) 2021 p.140-143

THE EFFECT OF BARICITANIB USAGE ON THE CLINICAL AND BIOCHEMICAL PROFILES OF COVID-19 PATIENTS- A RETROSPECTIVE OBSERVATIONAL STUDY

Introduction: Coronaviruses typically cause influenza like illness which progresses to ARDS along with other systemic manifestations. India is experiencing its second wave with a huge surge in the number of cases exponentially causing huge impact on health care infrastructure and the demand supply chain. As a result several new modalities have been used, one of which is the use of remdesivir and baricitanib. Hence this study is aimed at finding out the clinical and biochemical profile of the patients who have received the combination Materials and Methods: All the patients who have received the combination meeting the inclusion and exclusion criteria have been included in the study. A total of 31 participants were included and their records were retrospectively analyzed. Results: There was a significant reduction in the oxygen requirement, CRP and IL-6 levels with p values<0.05. However, in the non-survivors group, there was no statistically significant reduction. Serial monitoring of NLR ratio showed increase towards the fifth day, especially in the non-survivor group it was as high as 41.24. The mortality rate was found to be 10% and the cause being secondary sepsis in all of them. Conclusion: The ACTT-2 trail has proved the efficacy of the use of the remdesivir and baricitanib combination with mortality benefit. In our study we found similar results which was well co-related with clinical and biochemical parameters like CRP and IL-6 especially in people with co-morbidites.

Voice activity detection using optimal window overlapping especially over health-care infrastructure

Purpose This paper aims to introduce recently an unregulated unsupervised algorithm focused on voice activity detection by data clustering maximum margin, i.e. support vector machine. The algorithm for clustering K-mean used to solve speech behaviour detection issues was later applied, the application, therefore, did not permit the identification of voice detection. This is critical in demands for speech recognition. Design/methodology/approach Here, the authors find a voice activity detection detector based on a report provided by a K-mean algorithm that permits sliding window detection of voice and noise. However, first, it needs an initial detection pause. The machine initialized by the algorithm will work on health-care infrastructure and provides a platform for health-care professionals to detect the clear voice of patients. Findings Timely usage discussion on many histories of NOISEX-92 var reveals the average non-speech and the average signal-to-noise ratios hit concentrations which are higher than modern voice activity detection. Originality/value Research work is original.

Medicare Professional

Smartphones have hit every side and every house nowadays. As a result, people use useful smartphone apps to make their daily lives simpler. The number of smartphone apps relating to physical fitness and the goal of maintaining a healthy daily routine is increasing. In order to provide an accessible health care infrastructure, this paper focuses on designing a smartphone application. By using this app the users can get numerous features/benefits such as login or sign up, medicine reminder, nearest ambulance booking feature, doctor’s appointment, search for a specialist, separate medical folder for a patient. The application has two interfaces - Patient side and the Doctors side. The doctor side has features like the- My Patients, Appointments, Profile, Patient’s Request, Doctors Calendar. The Patient’s side contains - a search doctors, medical folder, my doctors, patient’s profile and doctors appointment. Firebase is used as the backend with Authentication for email and password whereas the real time database is used to keep the track of the ambulance which takes latitude and longitude as parameters.

Longitudinal COVID-19 Surveillance and Characterization in the Workplace with Public Health and Diagnostic Endpoints

The rapid spread of SARS-CoV-2 and the associated COVID-19 has precipitated a global pandemic heavily challenging our social behavior, economy, and health care infrastructure. In the absence of widespread, worldwide access to safe and effective vaccines and therapeutics, public health measures represent a key intervention for curbing the devastating impacts from the pandemic.

Spatial Variation in Contraceptive Practice Across the Districts of India, 1998–2016

India is currently one of the most demographically diverse regions of the world. Fertility and mortality rates are known to show considerable variation at the level of regions, states and districts. Little is known however, about the spatial variations of the contraceptive usage—a critical variable that is relevant to fertility as well as health policy. This paper uses data from four national population-based household surveys conducted between 1998 and 2016 to explore district-level variations in the contraceptive prevalence rate. We find no clear evidence of convergence. The gap between the best and worst performing districts is more than 70 percent across the four rounds and does not diminish over time. We also find considerable evidence of spatial clustering across districts. Districts with high prevalence concentrate in Southern states and more recently, in the Northeast of the country. Our analysis suggests that female literacy and health care infrastructure are important correlates of spatial clusters. This suggests that investments in women’s human capital and health-care infrastructure play a role in expanding women’s opportunities to time their births.

Prospects of Immunology Education and Research in Developing Countries

The burden of infectious disease in developing countries is substantially higher than in developed nations. Reasons include poor health care infrastructure and deficiencies in public understanding of infectious disease mechanisms and disease prevention. While immunology education and research have an enviable role in understanding host-pathogen interactions, training programs in immunology remain fully integrated into the curricula of higher institutions, and by extension, to high schools of developing nations. Therefore, we discussed the need to make major investments in immunology research and research training into all natural sciences teaching curricula, particularly in developing countries.