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Objective: To determine the awareness, need, role, and the effectiveness of the health education programs in improvement of well being of the community/citizens. Study Design: Descriptive cross-sectional study. Place and Duration of Study: The study was conducted, from Aug to Dec 2015 at the four districts of Karachi city. Material and Methods: The instrument of the study was a questionnaire, including basic demographic information of the participants and other 20 items related to need and role of health education programs in control of diseases. A total 250 participants were selected through stratified random sampling design from residential areas of North, South, East and West districts of Karachi. Participants failed to answer item one of the questionnaire were excluded from the study. The data was then analyzed and expressed in percentages and graphs. Results: Total 189 residents were continued the participation belonging to the age group between 18-65 years. Majority of the respondents (96.82%) were in favor of organizing health education activities. About 75.13% believed that such programs have pronounced effect in management of diseases. Furthermore, participants (51.32%) were willing to attend health seminars/symposiums and workshops to be aware to their medical problems. It was also found that they have basic concept of immunization and harmful effects of smoking on health. Conclusion: Over all the residents of Karachi were well aware to the health education and its role in improvement of disease status. Residents showed positive response for participation in health education activities to manage their illness or medical problems. However, the present study involves a smaller population subjects. Authors highly recommended the institution of health education programs in hospitals and community to make the people and environment healthy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A study was made to determine the current antimicrobial activity of the commonly used antibiotic clindamycin against clinical pathogens. In-vitro antibacterial activity of the clindamycin (2μg) was examined using disk diffusion method. Total 155 clinical isolates were tested comprising of Staphylococcus aureus (n = 110) and Streptococcus pneumoniae (n = 45). Samples were differentiated on the basis of patients' age, gender and sources of infection. The specimens were collected from various pathological laboratories and tertiary care hospitals of Karachi, Pakistan from June to September 2016. Clindamycin was found to be effective (82.72%) with a resistance of 11.27% against Staphylococcus aureus. However it offers comparatively less antimicrobial spectrum (78.02%) towards S. pneumoniae. On the basis of findings it is concluded that clindamycin holds the growth of S. aureus more strongly than S. pneumoniae and could be used to be a treatment choice for infections of S. aureus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]