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Simple Summary: Peste des petits ruminants (PPR), commonly referred to as goat plague or ovine rinderpest, is an infectious viral ailment that specifically targets wild or domesticated small ruminants, including sheep and goats. The study examined the information gathered from several sources such as research publications to evaluate the overall impact of PPR in Pakistan. The overall pooled prevalence in Pakistan was calculated to be 51%. Among various regions, the level of pooled prevalence of PPR presented a non-significant difference and was almost the same. Moreover, the investigation found other factors that influence the spread of PPR, including animal husbandry techniques, immunization, and geographical factors. In summary, the review of the literature provides significant information about the occurrence and distribution of PPR in Pakistan. There is a dire need to implement efficient management measures to reduce the negative effects of this disease on small ruminant populations. Peste des petits ruminants (PPR) is an extremely transmissible viral disease caused by the PPR virus that impacts domestic small ruminants, namely sheep and goats. This study aimed to employ a methodical approach to evaluate the regional occurrence of PPR in small ruminants in Pakistan and the contributing factors that influence its prevalence. A thorough search was performed in various databases to identify published research articles between January 2004 and August 2023 on PPR in small ruminants in Pakistan. Articles were chosen based on specific inclusion and exclusion criteria. A total of 25 articles were selected from 1275 studies gathered from different databases. The overall pooled prevalence in Pakistan was calculated to be 51% (95% CI: 42–60), with heterogeneity I2 = 100%, τ2 = 0.0495, and p = 0. The data were summarized based on the division into five regions: Punjab, Baluchistan, KPK, Sindh, and GB and AJK. Among these, the pooled prevalence of PPR in Sindh was 61% (95% CI: 46–75), I2 = 100%, τ2 = 0.0485, and p = 0, while in KPK, it was 44% (95% CI: 26–63), I2 = 99%, τ2 = 0.0506, and p < 0.01. However, the prevalence of PPR in Baluchistan and Punjab was almost the same. Raising awareness, proper surveillance, and application of appropriate quarantine measures interprovincially and across borders must be maintained to contain the disease. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

District Bajaur is a newly merged District of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Pakistan. The total areas of Bajaur are 129035 hectare. It is located at an elevation of 1152 meters above sea level. The total land under agriculture is 77166 hectare. In Bajaur the cultivated field under irrigation covers approximately 2739.22 hectares and over 74426 hectares is barani (irrigated) and around 20003.99 hectares is uncultivated. Of the total cultivation fields Three fourths depends upon precipitation and managed by farmers. The current study was carried out in twelve different location of district bajaur KPK Pakistan. Four zone were selected from district bajaur on the bases of mountainous areas, plane areas, availability of water and soil fertility; Total 200 soil samples were collected from the study area during August 2018 to September 2020 for diagnosing the nematode problems. Out of 200 samples seven new record species were identified viz., Aphelenchoides shamimi Khera 1970; Filenchus uliginosa (Brzeski, 1977) Siddiqi, 1986; Helicotylenchus africanus (Micoletzky, 1916) Andrassy, 1958; H. digitiformis Ivanova, 1967; Psilenchus curcumerus Rahaman, Ahmad & Jairajpuri, 1994; Pratylenchus wescolagricus Corbett, 1984; Tylenchorhynchus hordei Khan1972. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ixodid ticks are in varying distribution patterns throughout Pakistan. They cause substantial losses to livestock industry in terms of hide loss and vector-borne disease transmission. This study was conducted in three districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK) from March 2018 to February 2019 with the aim of determining the prevalence and seasonal variation in tick species belonging to Ixodidae family in cattle population. A total of 1145 adult ticks were collected by a convenient method of sampling from 434 infested cattle of various breeds, age groups and sexes. Identification of ticks up to genus and species level was done with the help of specific morphological keys. The results showed higher prevalence of Rhipicephalus (Boophilus) microplus (77%) followed by R. (B) annulatus (70%), R. (B) decoloratus (54%), H. anatolicum (52%) and the leastprevalence was recorded inR. (B) turanicus (12%). The prevalence of all ixodid tick species with exception of R. (B) annulatus and R. (B) decoloratus was significantly associated (p<0.05) with districts, breed, age and sex of cattle. Tick prevalence was higher in Achai and Friesian breeds, young stock and male animals. Prevalence of tick infestation was at its peak during summer and rainy seasons and remained low during winter season. In conclusions, that cattle tick R. (B) microplus was the dominant tick species infesting cattle population of KPK province and tick burden presented the highestrecord in summer season. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study rests on two important considerations: the rapid increase of COVID-19 cases in Pakistan and also the marginalization of the people of the KPK province, which would make them more vulnerable in fearing COVID-19. We aim to translate and validate FCV-19S into the Urdu language and to identify the socio-demographic associations with fear in the people of the KPK. Using an online Google survey, we were able to sample 501 respondents from the KPK. The Cronbach alpha α value for the Urdu FCV-19S displayed good internal reliability at.846. The unidimensional structure of the FCV-19S in Urdu was confirmed, and all of the items were found to be statistically significant, ranging from 0.59 to 0.80. The results of the confirmatory factor analysis show that fit indices are all within an acceptable limit. The FCV-19S was also significantly and positively correlated with preventive behavior (r =.328, p <.01) and general anxiety (r =.458, p <.01). The results of independent sample t tests show that women (t = 4.086, p < 0.001), married people (t = − 2.709, p <.001), and unemployed people (t = − 3.199, p < 0.001) of the KPK experienced great fear of COVID-19. We conclude that that the Urdu version of the FCV-19S is a valid and reliable tool and must be used by healthcare practitioners, government bodies, and researchers, to identify the prevalence of fear and to subsequently plan improved social and health policies to reduce anxiety in the public. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay's goal is to shed light on the variables that affect married women's decisions to enter the workforce in KPK, Pakistan. This empirical study consists in the PDHS for the years 2017-18 uses binary logistic regression (1973 sample size). The findings show that while women's age and place of residence have a positive but slight impact on empowerment, women's education, occupation, wealth index, and husband's education all have a positive and statistically significant impact. A socioeconomic policy can be created for a developing area like KPK, Pakistan. On the basis of this research, a development policy can be created to improve human resource development for a developing and traditional economy like Pakistan, with a particular focus on gender issues. Researchers, decision-makers, and social scientists can get benefit from the conclusions of this work since it will raise the bar for social welfare and equity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A survey conducted to assess KPK's understanding of risk in the education sector in relation to terrorist attacks against educational institutions. The impact of terrorism, the threat of insecurity, the disruption of the social network and the fear generated by terrorism has been assessed. A descriptive crosssectional survey was conducted in several KPK schools, colleges and universities from December 2018 to February 2019. A semi-structured questionnaire was conducted to examine the institutions' perceptions of the risk of terrorist activity and its consequences for KPK. Life and education, social activities and frequency of generation of fear. Several factors were used to analyze the survey. 88% of respondents mentioned the fact that the number of attacks in public places increases the risk for the institutions and the same percentage answered that the security measures taken by the institutions could reduce them. The risks. In addition, 52% of respondents considered the sites to be a risk report and most students felt that educational institutions should adopt an adequate security system to deal with risk factors such as the threat of terrorist attacks. Feelings of insecurity, generation of fear. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Keywords: AIDS; blood; blood-borne; HIV; immunity; KPK; leishmaniasis; outbreak; Pakistan; prevalence; sanitation; transmission EN AIDS blood blood-borne HIV immunity KPK leishmaniasis outbreak Pakistan prevalence sanitation transmission 932 934 3 07/20/20 20200801 NES 200801 1 HUMAN IMMUNODEFICIENCY VIRUS More than 70 million people around the world are human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infected and 35 million have died, since the beginning of the epidemic. Leishmaniasis is associated with broad-spectrum clinical manifestations such as subclinical (inapparent) infections, subclinical (inapparent) infections, and disseminated infection. Cutaneous leishmaniasis caused by Leishmania (L.) major infection in Sindh province, Pakistan. [Extracted from the article]

Migration both in and out of the county has been playing an imperative function in reshaping the dimensions of distribution as well as redistribution of human settlement. Since independence in 1947 till now, Pakistan has been receiving a huge number of migrants from neighboring countries. These immigrants have added considerably to urbanization and growth of population in Pakistan, particularly in the Punjab and Sindh provinces. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Intensive survey of medicinal plants during 2009 -2010 in Miranshah, revealed 30 medicinal species in the area. They belonged to 27 families. The dominant families were Asteraceae followed by Solanaceae. Most of the plants were wild as there is no trend of cultivation of such plants Datura alba, Allium cepa, Cannabis sativa, Fagonia cretica and Angelica sloula were the important medicinal plants of the area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Injection drug users (IDUs) are considered as a high risk group to develop hepatitis C due to needle sharing. In this study we have examined 200 injection drug users from various regions of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province for the prevalence of active HCV infection and HCV genotypes by Immunochromatographic assays, RT-PCR and Typespecific PCR. Our results indicated that 24% of the IDUs were actively infected with HCV while anti HCV was detected among 31.5% cases. Prevalent HCV genotypes were HCV 2a, 3a, 4 and 1a. Majority of the IDUs were married and had attained primary or middle school education. 95% of the IDUs had a previous history of needle sharing. Our study indicates that the rate of active HCV infection among the IDUs is higher with comparatively more prevalence of the rarely found HCV types in KPK. The predominant mode of HCV transmission turned out to be needle sharing among the IDUs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Brucellosis, globally known bacterial zoonosis, is endemic to Pakistan. B. abortus in bovines, B. melitensis in small ruminants and B. canis in dogs mainly cause this disease. A total of 1821 sera (1196 from sheep and 625 from goats) from animal herds near the Pakistan–Afghanistan border were collected. In parallel testing of sera for anti-Brucella antibodies (B. abortus and B. melitensis) was carried out by RBPT and indirect ELISA. The presence of Brucella DNA in sera was tested by real-time PCR. The overall percentage of seropositive samples was 0.99 (18/1821) by both tests. All positive samples originated from Baluchistan territory which translated into 1.76% (18/1021). None of the positive sera had signals for Brucella DNA and none of sera from goats carried detectable antibodies. Both tests showed an almost perfect agreement with Kappa statistics. The flock size was found to be associated with the presence of anti-Brucella antibodies. The samples of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK) tested negative in both serological tests and hence were not processed for real-time PCR. The present study shows the presence of anti-Brucella antibodies in sheep in the Baluchistan region of Pakistan. Diagnostic services need to be improved and test and slaughter policies might be implemented for eradication of Brucella infection in these areas. Awareness about the infection is needed at the farmer's level. Isolation and molecular biology of the isolates could help with understanding the prevailing etiology in a better way. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]