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Background: The district Nuh has been declared as the most backward district of Haryana state and is also listed among the 108 most backward districts of India identified by the National Institute for Transformation of India (NITI) Aayog. National Family Health Survey-4 (NFHS-4) conducted during 2015-16 reported that only 6.5% of mothers utilize four antenatal check-ups in district Nuh. This study was carried out to estimate the coverage of antenatal care services in district Nuh. Methods: A total of 300 pregnant women who were in their 1st trimester were recruited from the rural area of Primary Health Centre Nagina starting from January 2022 till December 2022. All eligible study participants were interviewed through house-to-house visits to assess the coverage of antenatal care received by them. Results: A total of 83 (27.6%) participants were primigravida, and 217 (72.3%) were multigravida. Only 25 (8.33%) participants reported receiving full antenatal care services which include early registration of pregnancy (within 12 weeks), a minimum of four ANC visits, at least one dose of diphtheria-tetanus toxoid vaccine, and 100 days of iron & folic acid supplementation. Conclusion: The coverage of antenatal care services received by pregnant women is low despite the availability of free government services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Early initiation of substance abuse is usually associated with a poor prognosis and a more serious impact on health, education, familial, or social relationships. Substance abuse may lead to behavioural problems, relationship difficulties and may cause disruption in studies, and even dropping out of school. This study aims to assess prevalence & reasons of substance abuse among adolescent boys (15-19 years) in rural areas of district Nuh. Materials and Methods: Adolescent boys in the age group of 15 -19 years formed the study population. Houseto-house survey was conducted in all the selected villages for data collection. A complete line listing of male adolescents (15-19 years) was done in each village. Then study subjects were chosen by simple random sampling. A total of 300 respondent eligible study subjects were interviewed to collect information. Results: The prevalence of substance abuse among study subjects was found to be 42%. Tobacco abuse was 36.0% (n=108, both smokeless and smoked), followed by alcohol 2.33% (n=07), opioids & pharmaceutical products 1.33% each (n=4). Of total 126, substance abuser, 77.7% (n=98) have friends who were indulge in substance abuse. Other major reasons for substance abuse were to cheer-up (38.1%), and peer pressure (35.7%). 19.8% subjects started abusing substance after drop in their academic performance. Conclusion: The burden of substance abuse was 42.0% among study subjects. It's an alarming situation considering rural area. As the findings pertain to adolescent boys in the age group of 15 -19 years, preventive strategies need to be strengthened so as to curb this problem before it shows its deleterious effects in later phase of life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: To ascertain ophthalmologist's perceptions about webinars as a method of continued medical education during the COVID-19 pandemic.Methods: In a cross-sectional study, a 21-question survey was circulated using digital media platform to approximately 1400 ophthalmologists in India between 16th August 2020 to 31st August 2020. The questionnaire focussed on the quality and usefulness of webinars based on the Bloom's taxonomy. The responses (on 4- or 5-point Likert scale) were analyzed among three professional groups- ophthalmologists in-training, consultants in public sector, and private practitioners.Results: 393 ophthalmologists participated in the survey, with a response rate of 28%. The mean age was 34.6 ± 9.7 years, and males constituted 49.6% (199/393) of the respondents. Forty-seven percent of the respondents perceived the quality of webinars as good or excellent (185/393), 72.8% reported knowledge gain from webinars (286/393), and 63.9% felt that webinars are important in clinical practice and should continue post-COVID-19 pandemic (251/393), with distinct responses among the professional groups. The drawbacks perceived were overt number of webinars (371; 94.4%), confusion regarding which webinars to attend (313; 79.6%), repetition of the information (296; 75.3%), limited opportunity for participant interaction (146; 37.2%) and disparate weightage to the core disciplines of Ophthalmology.Conclusion: Most respondents had favorable perceptions of Ophthalmology webinars happening during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, there is need for improvisation in the volume of webinars, target-audience-based delivery, and participant interaction to add value to this new dimension of teaching-learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Active case-finding is provider-initiated and implies systematic searching for TB in individuals who would not spontaneously present to a health service, and bringing them into care for diagnosis and treatment. Aim: The present study was carried out with the objective to assess the yield and feasibility of active case finding strategy among household contacts of newly diagnosed pulmonary TB cases and to determine risk factors in household contact. Methods: This community-based study with cross-sectional design was conducted among the household contacts of all newly diagnosed microbiologically confirmed pulmonary TB patients registered at Tuberculosis Unit (TU), Nuh. Investigator conducted house to house visit and met respective index case and his/her household contacts to build the rapport. Results: In the present study, there were 55 sputum smear-positive index cases and 356 household contacts of index cases. The most common symptom among screening positive household contacts was cough followed by weight loss. A substantial proportion (83.8%) of symptom positive household contacts were investigated for tuberculosis and among them, 18.9% were found to be positive for tuberculosis. The overall prevalence of TB cases among household contacts was found to be 1.97%. Conclusion: The present study concludes that household contact screening for active case finding for TB is a feasible and efficient tool that can potentially result in earlier diagnosis and treatment of active TB, thus minimizing the severity and decreasing transmission. It can also contribute toward improving treatment outcomes, health sequelae, and the social and economic consequences of TB. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Unsafe injection is an important cause of transmitting blood-borne infections such as hepatitis B virus, human immunodeficiency virus, and hepatitis C virus. In a country-like India, health system usually suffers from the paucity of workforce and nursing personnel are the most susceptible to unsafe injection and needle stick injury. Aim: The present study was carried out with the aim to assess the knowledge and skills among nursing personnel regarding safe injection practices and to measure the change following training session. Materials and Methods: This was a hospital-based cross-sectional study, included all 230 nursing personnel those who were currently working in the hospital. A pretested, predesigned, standardized questionnaire was used. Everyday activity of the study was divided into three parts. First part of activity included pretest second part of activity consisted of 3–4 h training session and third part was posttest. The collected data were tabulated and analyzed using the SPSS Statistics for Windows, version 22.0. Results: Nearly 52.9% of the participants were aware of diseases transmitted through unsafe injection and 45.5% of participants were aware about appropriate sharp waste disposal. Only 20.6% of participants wore gloves before injection administration, and 56.1% used needle destroyer for disposing off the needles. Conclusion: Periodic reinforcement of the nursing personnel with hands on training sessions is the need of the hour to protect them from needle stick injuries and prevent the spread of blood borne pathogens in public at large. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]