Perspective of self-help groups, Panchayati Raj institution and adolescents on implementing COVID appropriate behavior in the community in rural settings

The vaccination drive in India brought cheers to the country's people, only to be eroded by the unpredictable twitch of the COVID-19 second wave. The best way to tackle the pandemic has been to adopt appropriate practices, thereby breaking the chain of transmission. The second wave in India has already created havoc both on the people and health system, questioning and challenging our capabilities to handle any heave of sudden cases, particularly in rural areas. Time has arrived to inflate our horizon by including groups of society close to the people, particularly in the rural community. Like the previous wave, COVID appropriate behavior was very much instrumental in slowing the pace. Adolescents’ self-help groups in coalition with Panchayat Raj Institutions (PRI) will be the main stand in the fight against the dreadful virus. Their main role is to translate the prevailing preventive measures into action among the very people they live around. Passing the right message through IEC/BCC to the right people will bring about dramatic changes in the attitude, belief, and exercise they do in their day-to-day life. PRIs members would utilize their powers to execute optimum administrative services. A decentralized approach involving these stakeholders will spearhead the fight against the pandemic. This trifold power shall bear the torchbearer in preventing the disastrous consequences of any upcoming wave, if any, in a holistic manner

Executive health checkup package at All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Bhubaneswar: A novel approach

Early detectionof a disease leads to relatively simple courses of treatment and prevents life-threatening complications. Many health conditions can be corrected or maybe improved through treatment modalities if they are discovered by health screening facilities. Health screening program such as executive health checkup is convenient, affordable, inexpensive, and vastly beneficial for the patients. Hence, health screening saves lives immensely by early detection of diseases and preventing serious complications. It is an effective component of healthcare. It achieves more positive effects than medical treatment and at a lower cost. Health promotion is aimed at influencing people's social circumstances and lifestyles so that their health is improved (or maintained) and disease is prevented

Theory and practice of learning through the family adaptation and field visits in medical school: A reflective perspective

The major purpose of posting MBBS students in community medicine is to understand the ground realities of different existing problems leading to the disease. The students chalk out possible solutions using the available resources and transform the solution to an intervention explicitly designed for the family or individual. Family Health Advisory Services provides a platform to learn the above intent, make family visits in the community, reach a community diagnosis associated with various prevailing and contributing factors, and finally formulate a structured and specific elucidation to root out the disease or health condition. The village visit during the posting in the department of community medicine is crucial for making the preventive and promotive steps before the arrival of ill-health conditions. It also thrills the motive of different schemes and programs by state and central government in their approach and consequence if appropriately and adequately implemented in the anticipated circumstance and situation. The current article explores how a student utilizes community posting to go deep into a family's running and prevailing problems, identify the responsible and probable causes, and find a feasible and possible solution concerning the family's affordability, accessibility, and acceptability

Computational screening of Six Antigens for potential MHC class II restricted epitopes and evaluating its CD4+ T-Cell Responsiveness against Visceral Leishmaniasis

Visceral leishmaniasis is one of the most neglected tropical diseases for which no vaccine exists. In spite of extensive efforts, no successful vaccine is available against this dreadful infectious disease. To support the vaccine development, immunoinformatics approach was applied to search for potential MHC-classII restricted epitopes that can activate the immune cells. Initially, a total of 37 epitopes derived from six, stage dependent over expressed antigens were predicted, which were presented by at least 26 diverse MHC class II alleles including: DRB10101, DRB10301, DRB10401, DRB10404, DRB10405, DRB10701, DRB10802, DRB10901, DRB11101, DRB11302, DRB11501, DRB30101, DRB40101, DRB50101, DPA10103-DPB10401, DPA10103-DPB10201, DPA10201-DPB10101, DPA10103-DPB10301_DPB10401, DPA10301-DPB10402, DPA10201-DPB105021, DQA10102-DQB10602, DQA10401-DQB10402, DQA10501-QB10201, DQA10501-DQB10301, DQA10301-DQB10302 and DQA10101-DQB10501. Based on the population coverage analysis and HLA cross presentation ability, six epitopes namely, FDLFLFSNGAVVWWG (P1), YPVYPFLASNAALLN (P2), VYPFLASNAALLNLI (P3), LALLIMLYALIATQF (P4), LIMLYALIATQFSDD (P5), IMLYALIATQFSDDA (P6) were selected for further analysis. Stimulation with synthetic peptide alone or as a cocktail triggered the intracellular IFN-γ production. Moreover, specific IgG class of antibodies was detected in the serum of active VL cases against P1, P4, P and P6 in order to evaluate peptide effect on humoral immune response. Additionally, most of the peptides, except P2, were found to be non-inducer of CD4+ IL-10 against both active VL as well as treated VL subjects. Peptide immunogenicity was validated in BALB/c mice immunized with cocktail of synthetic peptide emulsified in complete Freund’s adjuvant/incomplete Freund’s adjuvant. The immunized splenocytes induced strong spleen cell proliferation upon parasite re-stimulation. Furthermore, an increased IFN-γ, IL-12, IL-17 and IL-22 production augmented with elevated NO synthesis is thought to be play a crucial role in macrophage activation. Moreover, a significantly reduced parasite load in immunized group indicates the potentiality of polytope driven vaccine candidate against Visceral leishmaniasis

Green Synthetic Approach: An Efficient Eco-Friendly Tool for Synthesis of Biologically Active Oxadiazole Derivatives

Green synthetic protocol refers to the development of processes for the sustainable production of chemicals and materials. For the synthesis of various biologically active compounds, energy-efficient and environmentally benign processes are applied, such as microwave irradiation technology, ultrasound-mediated synthesis, photo-catalysis (ultraviolet, visible and infrared irradiation), molecular sieving, grinding and milling techniques, etc. Thesemethods are considered sustainable technology and become valuable green protocol to synthesize new drug molecules as theyprovidenumerous benefits over conventional synthetic methods.Based on this concept, oxadiazole derivatives are synthesized under microwave irradiation technique to reduce the formation of byproduct so that the product yield can be increased quantitatively in less reaction time. Hence, the synthesis of drug molecules under microwave irradiation follows a green chemistry approach that employs a set of principles to minimize or remove the utilization and production of hazardous toxic materials during the design, manufacture and application of chemical substances.This approach plays a major role in controlling environmental pollution by utilizing safer solvents, catalysts, suitable reaction conditions and thereby increases the atom economy and energy efficiency. Oxadiazole is a five-membered heterocyclic compound that possesses one oxygen and two nitrogen atoms in the ring system.Oxadiazole moiety is drawing considerable interest for the development of new drug candidates with potential therapeutic activities including antibacterial, antifungal, antiviral, anticonvulsant, anticancer, antimalarial, antitubercular, anti-asthmatic, antidepressant, antidiabetic, antioxidant, antiparkinsonian, analgesic and antiinflammatory, etc. This review focuses on different synthetic approaches of oxadiazole derivatives under microwave heating method and study of their various biological activities

Hospital-Based Contact Tracing of Patients With COVID-19 and Health Care Workers During the COVID-19 Pandemic in Eastern India: Cross-sectional Study

BackgroundThe contact tracing and subsequent quarantining of health care workers (HCWs) are essential to minimizing the further transmission of SARS-CoV-2 infection and mitigating the shortage of HCWs during the COVID-19 pandemic situation. ObjectiveThis study aimed to assess the yield of contact tracing for COVID-19 cases and the risk stratification of HCWs who are exposed to these cases. MethodsThis was an analysis of routine data that were collected for the contact tracing of COVID-19 cases at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Bhubaneswar, in Odisha, India. Data from March 19 to August 31, 2020, were considered for this study. COVID-19 cases were admitted patients, outpatients, or HCWs in the hospital. HCWs who were exposed to COVID-19 cases were categorized, per the risk stratification guidelines, as high-risk contacts or low-risk contacts ResultsDuring contact tracing, 3411 HCWs were identified as those who were exposed to 360 COVID-19 cases. Of these 360 cases, 269 (74.7%) were either admitted patients or outpatients, and 91 (25.3%) were HCWs. After the risk stratification of the 3411 HCWs, 890 (26.1%) were categorized as high-risk contacts, and 2521 (73.9%) were categorized as low-risk contacts. The COVID-19 test positivity rates of high-risk contacts and low-risk contacts were 3.8% (34/890) and 1.9% (48/2521), respectively. The average number of high-risk contacts was significantly higher when the COVID-19 case was an admitted patient (number of contacts: mean 6.6) rather than when the COVID-19 case was an HCW (number of contacts: mean 4.0) or outpatient (number of contacts: mean 0.2; P=.009). Similarly, the average number of high-risk contacts was higher when the COVID-19 case was admitted in a non–COVID-19 area (number of contacts: mean 15.8) rather than when such cases were admitted in a COVID-19 area (number of contacts: mean 0.27; P<.001). There was a significant decline in the mean number of high-risk contacts over the study period (P=.003). ConclusionsContact tracing and risk stratification were effective and helped to reduce the number of HCWs requiring quarantine. There was also a decline in the number of high-risk contacts during the study period. This indicates the role of the implementation of hospital-based, COVID-19–related infection control strategies. The contact tracing and risk stratification approaches that were designed in this study can also be implemented in other health care settings