A study on the bacteriological profile of urinary tract infection in adults and their antibiotic sensitivity pattern in a tertiary care hospital in central Kerala, India

Background: Urinary tract infection is one of the most common bacterial infections in humans and a major cause of morbidity. The etiology of UTI and the antibiotic sensitivity pattern varies with the widespread availability of antimicrobial agents; UTI has become difficult to treat because of appearance of pathogens with increasing resistance to antimicrobial agents.Methods: A descriptive study done during January-June 2013. All positive urine culture and sensitivity reports of males and females aged 20-70years were included. A total of 373 positive urine culture cases were taken from the culture and sensitivity register from Microbiology department and details were entered using a questionnaire.Results: Out of 373 adults, males were 137 (36.7%) and females were 236 (63.3%). E. coli (74.3 %) was the most common organism, followed by Klebsiella (15.8%), Enterococcus, Pseudomonas and Staphylococcus. The incidence of UTI was more in patients in the age group of 60-70years. E. coli and Klebsiella were sensitive to Amikacin (97.1%), Nitrofurantoin (90.7%), Gentamycin and Imipenem. Both organisms were resistant to Ampicillin (>90%).Conclusions: In this study, females were mostly affected and the most common organisms were E.Coli and Klebsiella. These organisms were most sensitive to Amikacin, Nitrofurantoin and resistant predominantly to Ampicillin. The sensitivity and resistance pattern of uropathogens to common antimicrobial agents must be taken into account when selecting treatment plans for UTI

A study on the proportion of hearing impairment among percussionists in Thrissur district of Kerala

Background: Hearing loss is a cause of global concern. Percussionists are exposed to greater levels of continuous or intermittent noise than others. Little is known about the relationship between percussion activity and hearing impairment. The early detection of the same and subsequent management makes a significant reduction in the burden of health care services. The objective was to study the proportion of hearing impairment in percussionists in the district of Thrissur using an IOS based mobile application.Methods: A cross sectional study was done on percussionists from Thrissur district who has experience of more than five years and has no congenital or traumatic hearing loss. A predesigned semi structured questionnaire was given and hearing tests were done using a mobile application U hear in a sound proof setting to understand the current state of hearing ability amoung the percussionists.Results: A total of 39 subjects were involved in our study of which all were males. Mean age of our study population was 30.44+12.04. most of them were diagnosed with at least mild degree of hearing loss of one of the ear or both the ears. 15.4% of them had mild degree of hearing loss, 64.1% had moderate degree of hearing loss and 20.5% had severe hearing loss.Conclusions: The study shows percussionists are more exposed to sounds of various frequencies for longer duration, they are more prone to hearing loss. The study brought out that age is directly proportional to hearing loss, music induced hearing loss progress at a rate proportion to the work experience.

Real-World Effectiveness of COVID-19 Vaccine and Identification of SARS-CoV-2 Variants among People Living with HIV on Highly Active Antiretroviral Therapy in Central Kerala of India—An Ambi-Directional Cohort Study

Background: Vaccine effectiveness for first-generation coronavirus disease (COVID-19) vaccines among People Living with HIV (PLHIV) in India remains unexplored. This study entails the estimation of the real-world effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines (AZD1222/Covishield, BBV152/Covaxin) among PLHIV and the identification of variants of SARS-CoV-2 among those infected with COVID-19. Methods: An ambi-directional cohort study was conducted among 925 PLHIV above 18 years of age in two districts of central Kerala, India, from February 2022 to March 2023. Selected PLHIV were recruited as Participant Liaison Officers (PLOs) for the follow-up on the study participants. At enrolment, basic details, baseline CD4 count, and a Nasopharyngeal (NP) swab for RT-PCR were collected. In the follow-up phase, NP swabs were collected from subjects with COVID-19 symptoms. Positive subjects had a CD4 count and genomic sequencing performed. Results: The mean age of the participants was 46.93 ± 11.00 years. The majority, 819 (93.6%), of participants had received at least one dose of any vaccine, while 56 (6.4%) were unvaccinated. A total of 649 (79.24%) participants were vaccinated with Covishield and 169 (20.63%) with Covaxin. In the vaccinated group, 158 (19.3%) reported COVID-19 infection. Vaccine Effectiveness (VE) for one dose of any vaccine was 43.2% (95% CI: 11.8–64.5), p = 0.015. The effectiveness of full vaccination with Covishied was 63.8% (95% CI: 39.3–79.2), p 350 had greater protection from COVID-19, at 53.4% (95% CI: 19.6–75.3) p = 0.004. The incident cases were sub-variants of Omicron (BA.2, BA.2.38, BA.2.10). Conclusions: Full vaccination with Covishield and Covaxin was effective against COVID-19 infection among PLHIV on treatment; albeit, that of Covaxin was higher. A gap of 4 to 6 weeks between the two doses of COVID-19 vaccine was found to have higher VE among PLHIV