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Background: People with diabetes need extensive self-management support, medications, regular screening for and treatment of possible complications and comorbidities, all of which can increase out-of-pocket (OOP) costs in patients and their families. There is a very strong correlation between the level of OOPs and an indicator that is used to monitor how well a health system is performing in terms of financial protection namely, incidence of catastrophic health expenditure. Objectives: 1. To assess the catastrophic health expenditure on treatment of diabetes mellitus and its complications in the study population. 2. To find out the association of CHE with sociodemographic profile, diabetic profile, and treatment compliance among the study population. Methodology: After applying the inclusion criteria 360 known diabetics were included from the four randomly selected slum areas of Agra city. A cross- sectional study through face-to-face interview using predesigned, pretested, and semi-structured questionnaire was conducted from September 2020 to March 2022. Data was entered on MS excel and appropriate statistical analysis was done. Results: Males and females were 59% and 41% respectively. Nearly 66% participants were of age group 35-60 years, 28% were illiterates, 54% were unemployed & 44% belong to upper lower socioeconomic class. Almost 96% were having type 2 diabetes, 74% were on oral hypoglycaemic agents and 70% were compliant to treatment. Monthly median direct out-of-pocket expenses were INR 1500 and indirect expenses were INR 505. Type of diabetes, and treatment regimen were the factors found to be associated with Catastrophic health expenditure. Conclusion: A significant proportion of 39.4% of the study participants were found to have catastrophic health expenditure.

Background: Dengue is the most widespread mosquito-borne viral infection, found in tropical and subtropical climates worldwide. The World Health Organization has included dengue as one of the 10 threats to global health in 2019 with rapidly evolving epidemiology. Aims and Objectives: Given the limitation of data in regard to dengue burden, we have planned the present study with the objectives to provide a comprehensive overview of the seroprevalence, clinicoepidemiological profile, and serotype of dengue virus in Agra region of Uttar Pradesh. Materials and Methods: We conducted an observational study at viral diagnostic and research laboratory, Sarojini Naidu Medical College, Agra, Uttar Pradesh, from August to December 2021. Our study included all blood specimens received at virology laboratory from clinically suspected cases of dengue infection. For the identification of serotype, NS1-positive samples were sent to King Georges Medical University, Lucknow. For clinical-epidemiological profile of dengue positive patients, data were obtained from records of 203 patients from our hospital. Results: We received total of 5457 serum samples from suspected patients for dengue serology during the study period. In total, positivity rate was 27.29% (1489/5457) and peak of cases was reported in month of October. Median age of dengue positive cases was 17 years. Dengue hemorrhagic fever (DHS) was diagnosed in almost 41% of patients of 203 patients admitted in our hospital. DEN-2 was reported to be most common serotype (97.1%). In our analsyis, we found that in most patients fall in platelets levels below 50,000 happened during the 5th and 6th day in Dengue fever. Conclusion: We conclude that our study showed higher seroprevalence of dengue in Agra region with the age group of 0–20 years being infected most. DEN-2 was most prevalent circulating strain, which leads to more severe dengue infection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Ethanol extract of Coccinia grandis (L.) Voigt showed significant triglyceride (TG) and cholesterol-lowering effects in dyslipidemic hamster model. Ethanolic extract was fractionated into chloroform, n-butanol and water-soluble fractions and [...]

Ethanol extract of Coccinia grandis (L.) Voigt showed significant triglyceride (TG) and cholesterol-lowering effects in dyslipidemic hamster model. Ethanolic extract was fractionated into chloroform, n-butanol and water-soluble fractions and were evaluated. Activity was proved to be concentrated in chloroform-soluble fraction. Chloroform-soluble fraction containing active component was subjected to repeated column chromatography, furnished a polyprenol characterized as C(60)-polyprenol (1) isolated for the first time from this plant. It significantly decreased serum TG by 42%, total cholesterol (TC) 25% and glycerol (Gly) 12%, accompanied HDL-C/TC ratio 26% in high-fat diet (HFD)-fed dyslipidemic hamsters at the dose of 50mg/kg body weight. Results are comparable to standard drug fenofibrate at the dose of 108 mg/kg. Based on these investigations, it was concluded that the compound polyprenol (1) isolated from leaves of C. grandis possess marked antidyslipidemic activity.