Shrinking labour geographies: Transport access for paid work in later ages

Background and objectives In developing countries, a substantial share of the older population is employed (WHO, 2007), which is anticipated to triple between 2020 and 2050, bolstered by the rise of bridge employment in later life. Bridge jobs are part-time, informal work arrangements that serve as a transitional phase between full-time employment and retirement. While transport access for older adults is a primary policy concern in the age-friendly cities framework, their experiences of encountering and negotiating labour geographies, particularly transport systems to access bridge employment, are understudied. Research design and methods This paper used a qualitative and interpretative approach to analyse how older adults engage in nonlinear work patterns and commute to workspaces. We use a combination of visual mapping, observations, and in-depth interviews with older adults in Bengaluru, an urban metropolis in southern India. Results Older workers engage in regular mobility routines to access informal bridge jobs. Our results suggest that the precarity of their bridge jobs permeates into their mobilities. Class, gender, and spatialities create additional layers of barriers to their already constrained transport resources. Economically disadvantaged older individuals encountered shrinking labour geographies due to unaffordable public transportation and first-and-last-mile journeys. For reasons of safety, older women were forced to depend on shared and public transport options, which were often unreliable. Lastly, older workers residing in geographically marginalised areas find more difficulty in organising transport to bridge jobs. Discussion and implications Bridge jobs in informal arrangements are important means of livelihood for older persons in countries like India. Apart from the already precarious working conditions, the weak systemic transport support induces strain on the working conditions of older workers. From the purview of labour geography, adding to the natural limits of ageing, induced limits such as ageism and precarity at workplaces and non-age-friendly transport infrastructure create situations of vulnerable employment among older adults in the cities of the Global South

Review of clinical profile, risk factors, and outcome in patients with Tuberculosis and COVID -19

Coronavirus disease (COVID 19) has involved millions of people all over the world. Tuberculosis (TB) continues to affect millions of people every year with high mortality. There is limited literature on the occurrence of COVID 19 in patients with TB. We reviewed the available data on various clinical details, management, and outcome among patients with COVID-19 and TB. 8 studies reported a total of 80 patients with this coinfection. These patients were reported from ten different countries, with Italy reporting the largest number of cases. Migrant, males constituted a major proportion of cases. Most reported patients were symptomatic. Fever, dry cough, and dyspnea were the most commonly reported symptoms. Bilateral ground glass opacities were more common in COVID 19 infection and cavitary lesions were more common in patients with TB. Most reported TB patients had been found to have mycobacterium tuberculosis from sputum culture in the background of pulmonary TB. Most patients of TB were treated with multidrug regimen antitubercular therapy. In all 8 studies, COVID 19 was treated as per the local protocol. Mortality was reported in more than 10% of patients. Mortality was higher in elderly patients ( \u3e 70 years) and amongst patient with multiple medical comorbidities

Mechanisms of neurological injury in COVID-19

We read with much interest the article “Neurological Impact of Coronavirus Disease (COVID 19): Practical Considerations for the Neuroscience Community” by Werner et al. published in your esteemed Journal. Authors have described the various neurological details of COVID-19 in detail.1 We believe this topic is important and is continuously evolving. We have the following comments as an addition to the article

Cerebrovascular events in COVID-19 patients

Neurological manifestations in patients with COVID-19 are more frequently being reported. Cerebrovascular events have been reported in around 3% of patients. In this review we summarize the published literature on cerebrovascular events in patients with COVID-19 as available on the PubMed database. So far, 3 studies have reported cerebrovascular events. Cerebrovascular events were identified on screening patients with decreased consciousness or in the presence of focal neurological deficits. These events were common in elderly, critically ill patients and in patients with prior cardio-cerebrovascular comorbidities. The diagnosis of cerebrovascular events was confirmed with computed tomography of the brain in most studies reporting neurological events. Multiple pathological mechanisms have been postulated regarding the process of neurological and vascular injury among which cytokine storm is shown to correlate with mortality. Patients with severe illness are found to have a higher cardio- cerebrovascular comorbidity. With an increasing number of cases and future prospective studies, the exact mechanism by which these cerebrovascular events occur and attribute to the poor outcome will be better understood

Prescription pattern of antimicrobial agents in a teaching hospital of South India

Background: Use of irrational and unnecessary antimicrobials remains common in the developing countries. The present study was conducted to evaluate the use of antimicrobial agents in the tribal district hospital of Andhra Pradesh India.Methods: In this retrospective study, 200 hospitalized cases from medicine, surgery, obstetrics and gynaecology and paediatrics departments were randomly selected. Results: Most common diagnosis was febrile illness (15%) followed by gastroenteritis (10%) and malaria (8%). Antimicrobials were used in 57% cases. All the cases were managed by empirical treatment. Cefixime (40%) was the most common antimicrobial followed by ampicillin (32.50%), metronidazole (30%) and ciprofloxacin (26.50%). Use of antimicrobial monotherapy (41.67%) and 2 drug therapy (36.46%) was common. Conclusion: Empirical use of higher antimicrobial agents is routine and cheap antimicrobials like ampicillin are still most useful drugs in the region. There is a need of specific essential drug list for the region

Assessment of age-at-onset criterion for adult attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder

To investigate the accuracy of the age-at-onset criterion in those who meet other DSM-5 ADHD criteria (N=138), using a prospective population cohort, we compared four different approaches to asking those at age 25 years when their symptoms started. Receiver Operating Characteristic curves showed variation between the approaches (χ((3)))=8.99, p=0.03); all four showed low discrimination against symptoms that had been assessed when they were children (area under the curve 0.57-0.68). Asking adults to recall specific symptoms may be preferable to recalling at what age symptoms started. However limitations to retrospective recall add to debate on the validity of ADHD age-at-onset assessment