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Background: Biomedical waste become hazardous if it is not segregated, treated and disposed properly and poses a serious health problem to health care workers as well as to the community. Objectives: To assess the knowledge, attitude and practice about biomedical waste management among the health care workers posted in primary health care facilities in a district of West Bengal. Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted in subcentres, bedded and non bedded primary health centres (PHC) selected by multi stage random sampling. Thus six PHCs and 14 subcenres were chosen. Study population included doctors, nurses, pharmacists, lab technicians, health supervisors, Auxiliary Nurse Midwives and housekeeping staff. Study techniques included interview of the study participants and practice of was observed by an observation check list. Results: Knowledge and attitude of the study participants were satisfactory about biomedical waste management, but practice was seen to be very poor. Nurses were seen to be more knowledgeable than other categories of staff. Training and vaccination status were poor. The median knowledge, attitude and practice score had no significant association with age or years of experience of the study participants. Conclusion: Repeated training and sensitization workshops should be organized for increasing knowledge and attitude of the health care workers and repeated monitoring is required to improve practice. All the HCWs should be vaccinated properly with Hepatitis B vaccination and tetanus toxoid. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Type 2 diabetes is a major public health challenge. Indian Diabetes Risk Score (IDRS), a simple and cost-effective tool consisting of two modifiable (waist circumference, physical activity) and two non-modifiable risk factors (age, parental history) for diabetes, can be easily applied in mass screening programmes. Opportunistic screening for diabetes among individuals aged = 30 years is being done under the programme for Prevention and Control of Non-communicable Diseases. Objective: To assess the risk of type 2 diabetes mellitus using IDRS, coverage of screening services for diabetes through the primary health care delivery system and to identify their correlates. Methodology: : A descriptive, cross-sectional study was conducted in a block of Murshidabad district, West Bengal during September to November 2023 among permanent residents aged = 30 years on a calculated sample of 300 selected through multi-stage sampling. Required data were collected by interviewing the study subjects using pre-designed, pre-tested schedule including IDRS, reviewing medical records and measuring waist circumference. Analysis was done using SPSS-20. Results: Among 300 participants, 40.7% had high risk; 54% and 5.3% had moderate and low risk of diabetes respectively according to IDRS. In multivariable analysis, age =35 years (AOR 18.10, 95% CI 5.07-64.66), female gender (AOR 2.36, 95% CI 1.40-4.00) and being in joint family (AOR 3.53, 95% CI 1.77-7.04) were significant correlates for high-risk category according to IDRS. Only 67% were screened for diabetes within last six months, of which 89% were through primary health care delivery system. Screening status varied significantly by age group (OR 3.81, 95% CI 1.98-7.35) and IDRS risk categories (OR 1.72, 95% CI 1.06-2.80). Conclusion: Alarmingly substantial proportion of people in the area are at high/moderate risk of diabetes coupled with low opportunistic screening coverage, which highlights the need for intensive behaviour change communication and stronger service delivery. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

India's achievements in the field of health have been less than satisfactory and the healthcare delivery at the village level is constrained by lack of healthcare infrastructure, lack of doctors, lack of supply-chain and lack of appropriate monitoring of the existing healthcare infrastructure. This paper describes an innovative and low cost health care infrastructure that can be rapidly rolled out to provide basic healthcare using tele health services. It consists of a standard shipping container converted to a Micro Health Centre (referred to as μHC). It is connected to medical personnel through Internet, to bring much needed preliminary healthcare to those in need and provisions for medical equipments being directly linked to the μHC health cloud. The objective is to equip the Micro Health Centre with basic diagnostic equipments that can be operated by paramedics or interns, along with specialist medical personnel providing expert interventions through remote medical consultation. It can have a network connectivity varying from 256 KBPA (via satellite) to 2 MBPS (via leased line). Furthermore it can be easily transported to remote rural areas as all supply-chains such as trucks, trains, roadways etc are aligned to handling shipping containers. The solution has been rolled out in North India on a research basis. As this healthcare infrastructural solution is easy to transport and rapidly deployable thus it is well suited for war torn areas as well as areas affected by natural disasters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]