Omicron: The new variant of concern needs preparedness, not panic

SARS-CoV-2 continues to be a Public Health Emergency of International Concern. On November 26, the World Health Organization (WHO) labeled the omicron type as a covid-19 variant of concern, prompting travel restrictions, a rush to accelerate booster immunization programmes, and new attempts to address vaccination disparities. According to the WHO, omicron is a "very high" concern throughout the world, and preliminary research indicates that it may be a more transmissible type, leading to infection surges (1,2). The Indian government keeps a close eye on the issue and gives appropriate guidelines as needed. Omicron threat will depend on its transmissibility, Virulence, and capacity to evade immunity in those previously vaccinated or infected. Even if the disease is milder, the rapid onslaught of the virus could overwhelm health care systems (doubling time of 2.5 days means 50X increase in 2 weeks) (3). We should ensure mitigation plans are in place to maintain essential health services and that necessary resources are in place to respond to potential surges

Ebola Virus Disease – An Update

Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) is a severe, haemorrhagic febrile disease, often fatal in humans, caused by a non segmented, negative sense RNA virus of the family Filoviridae and genus Ebolavirus. It is also known as Ebola Haemorrhagic fever. There are five species of Ebolavirus, namely Bundibugyo ebolavirus, Zaire ebolavirus, Reston ebolavirus, Sudan ebolavirus and Tai Forest ebolavirus. The Zaire species has caused multiple large outbreaks with mortality rates of 55 to 88 percent since first appearance of the disease whereas the Sudan virus has been associated with an approximate 50 percent case-fatality rate in four known epidemics: two in Sudan in the 1970s, one in Uganda in 2000, and another in Sudan in 2004 [1-5]

Mental health in India: Challenges ahead

With the advent of latest technologies and rapid industrialization human beings have made advancement to a great extent, in the materialistic world. He has mechanized his instruments in such a sophisticated way so as to carry out complicated and heavy tasks in comparatively lesser time and utilizing lesser manpower. In this pursuit of progress, he became more and more ambitious which further led him to stressful life and to make compromises with his other aspects of life intentionally and sometimes unintentionally. One has to consider all the aspects of individual’s physical, mental, social and psychological angles which play an important role in maintaining the individual’s overall personality development as well as wellbeing so that he may lead a productive life. These factors along with the environmental and surroundings influences the behavior of individual. In the present day life though human beings may have progressed socially, economically and also intellectually but somewhere he tended to neglect his emotions, feelings, tolerance and above all there is a growing concern of loneliness amongst all age groups. There is an imbalance between the amount of stress a person takes up with the amount he can cope up with, which has led to increase in behavioral and mental health problems. Burden of mental disorders had risen over last few decades in general mental health is often equated with the cognitive and emotional wellbeing - it is all about the way one thinks, feels and behaves. Mental health, can also mean an absence of a mental disorder. Various factors which has led to the rise in mental health problems are - growing population, continuous stress, over exertion, high ambition, socioeconomic conditions, loneliness, drug abuse, expectations, competitions and failures etc. The list is unending. It has been observed that there is a growing concern worldwide among developed as well as developing nations regarding the rise in behavioral and mental health disorders. According to the World Health Organization, mental health is “a state of well-being in which every individual realizes his or her own potential, can cope with the normal stresses of life, can work productively and fruitfully, and is able to make a contribution to her or his community. WHO estimated that globally over 450 million people suffer from mental disorders. Currently mental and behavioral disorders account for about 12 percent of the global burden of diseases. This is likely to increase to 15 percent by 2020. Major proportions of mental disorders come from low and middle income countries. (1) In 2010, a study conducted in NIMHANS, Bangalore reported that the burden of mental and behavioral disorders ranged from 9.5 to 10.2 per 1000 population which is very low compared to western countries mainly due to underreporting. (2)&nbsp

Strategies to provide care to Non-COVID Patients in the COVID Era: An Experience from a Tertiary Care Institute in Northern India

With the COVID-19 pandemic the health system is facing dual burden of cases, one being the COVID-19 or Severe Acute Respiratory Illness (SARI) cases and the second being the other Non-COVID cases. The Non-COVID cases due to the burden of the SARI cases became almost neglected by the Health System increasing the sufferings of the Non-COVID cases. In the current COVID times All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Gorakhpur continued to provide the health care to the Non-COVID cases. The current manuscript provides the detailed strategy and results of the various strategies used to provide care to such Non-COVID patients with minimum risk to the healthcare staff

A morphomertic study of dry human typical thoracic vertebral body in coastal region, Andhra Pradesh

Background: The frequent surgical interventions of the thoracic spine are more common due to a wide array of traumatic, degenerative, and neoplastic diseases. For successful surgical management of these conditions, detailed anatomical knowledge of the thoracic vertebrae is required. Previous studies in the past about morphometry of thoracic vertebrae mainly focused on pedicle diameters and their angulations. The vertebral body was not studied particularly in the coastal region, Andhra Pradesh which is the reason the present study has given importance to the morphometry of the vertebral body. Aim was to measure the various parameters of the vertebral body in typical thoracic vertebrae.Methods: 82 dry human typical thoracic vertebrae from the department of anatomy, Andhra Medical College, Visakhapatnam were studied for the various morphometric parameters.Results: The antero posterior distance of the vertebral body in typical thoracic vertebrae ranged from 14.5-27.5 mm with a mean of 21.77 mm. The vertebral body superior transverse diameter ranged from 18.1-38.7 mm with a mean of 28.22 mm. The vertebral body inferior transverse diameter ranged from 22.6-41.2 mm with a mean of 31.3 mm. The anterior height of the body ranged from 10.2-24.1 mm with a mean of 18.17 mm. The right and left lateral height of the body ranged from 9.0-24.7 mm with a mean of 18.4 mm.Conclusions: The results provide information for more accurate modelling and design of vertebral body implants and instrumentations for the Indian population

Challenges of Second-hand Smoke: Are We Asking the Right Questions?

Second-hand tobacco smoke as defined by WHO is the smoke emitted by a smoker or released from a burnt cigarette or any tobacco product. It is highly prevalent all over the globe but its serious health implications are often neglected by the public and the scientific community alike. Second-hand smoke has everlasting impact on all the body’s major organs, especially among the vulnerable population of children, pregnant ladies, people with chronic diseases and senior citizens. Although India started its war against this menace earlier than other counties, all its efforts remain bootless as its approach and implementation have a wide range of lacunae. This review aims to give a big picture of second-hand smoke, highlighting its pathophysiological changes in the body, socioeconomic impact, various strategies, and the gap that prevents these strategies from finding a favorable result in India. It becomes all the more important to reduce its impact owing to the increase in prevalence among youth reducing their vitality, derailing the society and the nation. It is recommended that the health authorities approach this health problem with utmost seriousness as a laid-back approach could welcome this silent killer’s known and unknown repercussions

Traditional method or online teaching; which method students prefer: an observational study

Background: An unexpected global pandemic broke out in initial months of 2020 i.e., COVID-19 which drastically brought a difference in the progress of education in various institutions, especially the medical field where we study about life was also made online. This study aims to conduct a comparative analysis of students ‘opinion regarding which is the better, traditional teaching or online live teaching.Methods: Survey was conducted among two group of students, 2019 (both online and offline teaching) and 2020 (online teaching with offline practical) batches of Andhra Medical College, Visakhapatnam. A questionnaire was circulated to students regarding the class experience, interest of attending the class, learning effect and clarity of the lecture. Results: Students expressed their views that overall teaching experience and learning effect of offline methodology is superior to online approach, so the traditional offline style or the blend of online and offline modes are apt for teaching.Conclusions: The study is focused on the way in which the teaching and learning approach is delivered which is favoured by the medical practitioners, the qualitative data suggesting required modifications for further improvement in the delivering method to produce qualified medical practitioners to meet the current and imminent situations. This study suggests that a intermingled learning approach is an effective method for anatomy learning, and this approach mainly inculcates self-directed study through online learning

Risk of secondhand smoke exposure and severity of COVID-19 infection: multicenter case–control study

IntroductionExposure to secondhand smoke (SHS) is an established causal risk factor for cardiovascular disease (CVD) and chronic lung disease. Numerous studies have evaluated the role of tobacco in COVID-19 infection, severity, and mortality but missed the opportunity to assess the role of SHS. Therefore, this study was conducted to determine whether SHS is an independent risk factor for COVID-19 infection, severity, mortality, and other co-morbidities.MethodologyMulticentric case–control study was conducted across six states in India. Severe COVID-19 patients were chosen as our study cases, and mild and moderate COVID-19 as control were evaluated for exposure to SHS. The sample size was calculated using Epi-info version 7. A neighborhood-matching technique was utilized to address ecological variability and enhance comparability between cases and controls, considering age and sex as additional matching criteria. The binary logistic regression model was used to measure the association, and the results were presented using an adjusted odds ratio. The data were analyzed using SPSS version 24 (SPSS Inc., Chicago, IL, USA).ResultsA total of 672 cases of severe COVID-19 and 681 controls of mild and moderate COVID-19 were recruited in this study. The adjusted odds ratio (AOR) for SHS exposure at home was 3.03 (CI 95%: 2.29–4.02) compared to mild/moderate COVID-19, while SHS exposure at the workplace had odds of 2.19 (CI 95%: 1.43–3.35). Other factors significantly related to the severity of COVID-19 were a history of COVID-19 vaccination before illness, body mass index (BMI), and attached kitchen at home.DiscussionThe results of this study suggest that cumulative exposure to secondhand cigarette smoke is an independent risk factor for severe COVID-19 illness. More studies with the use of biomarkers and quantification of SHS exposure in the future are needed