Indian Journal of Communicable Diseases

 It requires a new physician to swear, by a number of healing gods, to uphold specific ethical standards which are considered a rite of passage for practitioners of medicine in many countries. Today the patient does not consider himself as a patient. The law does not see him as a patient. He has rather become more of a consumer; ready to sue you anytime anyplace for the deficiency of his services; services which he thinks are sold over the counter by the physician and his team. If the entire scenario has taken up the form of a barter system, where components like compulsion and duty are gaining prominence over humanity is it not high time that we doctors too start seeing him as a consumer?

Keywords: Doctor; Patient; Ethics.

 Genitourinary tuberculosis (GUTB) is very uncommon in children because the symptoms of renal tuberculosis do not appear for 3-10 or more years after the primary infection. We report on a child presenting with lower urinary tract symptoms with urine showing acid fast bacilli. A 16 year old male presented to the Urological services of the hospital with lower urinary tract symptoms (LUTS) of storage of two months duration. Augmentation cystoplasty was done using 15 cms of terminal ileum. Postoperative period was uneventful and following catheter removal the child was able to void with no residual urine.

Keywords: Tuberculosis; Genitourinary; Children; Antitubercular Therapy; Mycobacterium Tuberculosis; Augmentation Cystoplasty

 The International Health Regulations (IHR) is an international legal instrument applicable to all WHO member countries and came into force in 2007. The objective of the IHR is to prevent international spread of disease by enabling member countries undergo capacity building for early detection, reporting and taking control measures against any public health emergencies of international concern. Although India has attained most of the core capacities as per its obligation towards meeting IHR requirements, it faces challenges in meeting its growing needs for trained epidemiologists of a medical background, entomologists, food analysts and other specialist staff engaged in public health surveillance activities. The development of public health infrastructure for meeting IHR norms should help India develop its surveillance, response and preparedness capacities which would improve outcomes of its public health programs and help contain outbreaks. India should also not be content with meeting basic IHR norms but should strive to attain advanced capabilities permitting it to support its neighbouring countries with limited public health infrastructure in meeting their IHR goals.

Keywords: IHR; Surveillance; India.

 Introduction: Hanson’s disease is of great antiquity and full of prejudices. Misconceptions and stigma associated with it not only cause untold misery to patient, but to his family as well. The adversities suffered by leprosy patients are multi-faceted, ranging from medical, social and psychological to economic and legal. India alone contributes nearly 58.85 per cent of the global leprosy burden. With this in the backdrop, present study was undertaken in a rural area near Pune, with an aim to assess the knowledge regarding leprosy and determine prevailing beliefs and attitude in the community. Aims and Objectives: 1. To assess the knowledge, attitude and practices about leprosy in the community 2. To find out the perceived stigma. Material and Methods: A cross sectional study was conducted in Wanowari area, which is located near Pune Cantonment of Maharashtra. A total of 500 people aged more than18 years were randomly selected. A pre-designed and pre-structured questionnaire was used to evaluate knowledge, attitude and perceived stigma. Data analysis was done with the help of SPSS package. Results: Population under survey had 57.6% literacy rate with majority of them (46.4%) belonging to Socioeconomic class III. Study revealed that 42% of them were aware that the disease is caused by bacteria. However, 10% people felt that it was result of old sins. Prolonged contact is the mode of transmission; was felt by 53.6% while 21.4% thought it is airborne. The attitude of the general population towards the patients was found to be positive and sympathetic. Conclusion: Present study brings out that, though people have knowledge, but need a change in their attitude. Further, socio-economic improvement of persons, affected by leprosy will result in increased self-confidence and prevent marginalization. Health education is essential to dispel misconceptions about the disease.

Keywords: Stigma; Knowledge; Attitude; Segregation.

Introduction: India, faces an acute shortage of health workforce, and this seems to be one of the prior reason of our country not being able to achieve the millennium development goals too. With only about 50% MPHW (M) being available, the MPHW (F) is heavily overworked, which affects outreach services in rural areas. Objective: Identify barriers in the working process of health workers in a rural area of Haryana. Methods: An entire PHC was taken up for the study to interview ASHA workers, AWW, MPHW (F), PRI about the various challenges they face in their day to day work process. Data collected was summed up and compiled to find out the various associations of the level of satisfaction with their work process. Result: It was found that none of the ASHAs were satisfied with the incentives drawn by them. About 60% felt their basic minimum should be fixed. depictions on group discussions denote that most of time (71%) group discussions were based on topics related to health followed by nutrition (50%), sanitation (42%) and family planning (46%). About 98% were a part of some or other sessions held. When questioned about whether they felt people tend to less utilize the health services provided to them, it was found that, about 90% felt so and just 10% did not feel so. Discussion: The study found a strong nexus between the healthcare delivery system’s status and the community health worker’s level of performance motivation. As demonstrated in similar settings, resource constraints such as limited transportation to escort mothers and stock-outs of commodities hindered the community’s trust on them. The communication gap among different actors led to delay in receiving the stocks and non-clarity on the responsibilities among health workers.

Keywords: Health Worker; Barriers; Incentives; Work Satisfaction.

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