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Background: Patients with COVID-19 (coronavirus disease 2019) present varying disease severity; with such heterogeneity in clinical presentations, it can be challenging to assess the severity and progression of the disease. In addition, no specific markers have been identified that would indicate the diagnosis or prognosis of the disease. Therefore, this study was aimed to determine whether a panel of hematological and inflammatory biomarkers were indicative of disease severity in the assessment and the prognosis of COVID-19. Methods: The retrospective cross sectional study was carried out in a university hospital in South India between May 2020 and September 2020. The participants were 997 patients with COVID-19, confirmed by real-time reverse transcriptasepolymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). Information regarding demographics and laboratory tests was obtained from medical records. Association analysis was conducted using SPSS, version 16, and a P-value

The major health care problem in developing world is shifting from communicable diseases to non-communicable disease which causes morbidities more than mortality affecting the personal efficiency. Hypertension is a major health care burden in developing countries like India causing both morbidity and mortality. Few studies shows that the hypertension prevalence has raised from 2% to 15% in rural population and 2% to 25% in urban population in last six decades in India. This research work aims to enumerate the price of commonly available oral antihypertensive drugs in India. It also aims to study the cost variation of oral antihypertensive drugs. The present study was carried out in the department of Pharmacology in a tertiary care medical college in south India. The cost analysis of individual drugs by different manufacturers were done. Percentage of cost variation was analysed. The variation in cost of most of the antihypertensive drugs is more than 100%. It’s found maximum in Amlodipine (5mg) with cost variation of 625%, Atenolol 100 mg with cost variation of 413%. In India there is a wide price variation among antihypertensive drugs. The major gap in the cost variation of antihypertensive drugs to be narrowed for the benefit of the patients. So the government and the prescribing doctors should think about the huge difference in cost and work in the direction of benefitting the patient.

Background: Sexual violence among adolescents has become a major public health concern in Sri Lanka. Lack of sexual awareness is a major reason for adverse sexual health outcomes among adolescents in Sri Lanka. This study was intended to explore the effectiveness of a worksite-based parent-targeted intervention to improve mothers' knowledge, and attitudes on preventing sexual violence among their adolescent female offspring and to improve mother-daughter communication of sexual violence prevention with the family., Methods: "My mother is my best friend" is an intervention designed based on previous research and behavioral theories, to help parents to improve their sexual communication skills with their adolescent daughters. A quasi-experimental study was conducted from August 2020 to March 2023 in randomly selected two Medical Officer of Health (MOH)areas in Kalutara district, Sri Lanka. Pre and post-assessments were conducted among a sample of 135 mothers of adolescent girls aged 14-19 years in both intervention and control areas., Results: Out of the 135 mothers who participated in the baseline survey, 127 mothers (94.1%) from the intervention area (IA) physically participated in at least one session of the intervention. The worksite-based intervention was effective in improving mothers' knowledge about adolescent sexual abuse prevention (Difference in percentage difference of pre and post intervention scores in IA and CA = 4.3%, p = 0.004), mother's attitudes in communicating sexual abuse prevention with adolescent girls (Difference in percentage difference of pre and post intervention scores in IA and CA = 5.9%, p = 0.005), and the content of mother-daughter sexual communication (Difference in percentage difference of pre and post intervention scores in IA and CA = 27.1%, p < 0.001)., Conclusions and Recommendations: Worksite-based parenting program was effective in improving mothers' knowledge about sexual abuse prevention among adolescent daughters and in improving the content of mother-daughter communication about sexual abuse prevention. Developing appropriate sexual health programs for mothers of different ethnicities, and cultures using different settings is important. Conduction of need assessment programs to identify the different needs of mothers is recommended., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

Introduction: Studies across the world have shown that parent-adolescent SRH communication can prevent unhealthy sexual and reproductive health (SRH) practices among adolescents and promote their sexual and reproductive health. Parents have the ability to provide individualized sex education to suit the needs of their children, their families, and societal values. The fact that children have more opportunities in the family, makes parent-based sexuality education of children a better approach to Sri Lankan context., Objective: To explore mother's perceptions and concerns over sharing SRH information with their daughters among Sinhalese mothers of adolescent girls aged 14-19 years in Sri Lanka., Methodology: Six Focus group discussions (FGD) were carried out among mothers of adolescent girls aged 14-19 years. Each focus group discussion included 10-12 participants who were recruited using the purposive sampling method. A focus group discussion guide developed after an extensive literature search and expert opinion was used to retrieve information from mothers. Data management and analysis mainly followed an inductive approach to thematic analysis principles. The findings were presented in narrative form using respondents' quotes in their own words and were developed into codes and themes., Results: The mean age of the participants was 43.5 years while 62.4% (n = 40) were educated above the Ordinary level. Analysis of data identified eight main themes from the FGDs. Many mothers thought that sexual and reproductive information is important to adolescent girls. They tried to keep their girl adolescents informed about Adolescent sexual and reproductive health (ASRH) issues. They preferred abstinence-only education over abstinence-plus education. Lack of skills and lack of knowledge on adolescent SRH issues was a major challenge identified by the mothers to communicate SRH matters with their children., Conclusions and Recommendations: Although mothers perceived their role as primary sex educators to their children, they were not confident about their knowledge and skills in discussing SRH matters with children. Implementation of interventions to improve mothers' attitudes and skills in communicating SRH matters with children is recommended., (© 2023. The Author(s).)