Public Health articles list

The main aim of rehabilitation is vocational independence and community integration. Rehabilitation is complete with the person being a productive member within the community. But this is quite a challenging task as can be vouched by any of the professionals working in this field. What are the barriers and facilitators towards employment or return to work in case of persons living with mental illness? Literature shows that multiple factors are governing the ability to take up gainful employment. Most of this literature is about the western world where the social fabric is more supportive of individual autonomy. India lags in its rehabilitation efforts for mental illness. There is still stigma and lack of awareness about mental illnesses. This increases the problem of unemployment within persons living with mental illness manifold. There are very few detailed investigations into the vocational status of persons with mental illness and almost negligent literature existing in the Indian context. Hence, the current review article tries to examine the factors prevailing in the Indian scenario that influences the employment status.

Gita

India is a country of immense diversity. It is home to people of many different racial, languages, ethnic, religious, and national backgrounds. Groups of people in India differ from each other not only in physical or demographic characteristics but also in distinctive patterns of behavior and these patterns are determined by social and cultural factors like language, region, religion, and caste. Apart from behaviour, economic development, level of education and political culture of the people in various social segments differ from region to region. More you can say that economy and cultures have been enriched by the contributions of migrants from round the globe. In an increasingly globalised world, migratory movements is continuously shaping the countries all over the world. Some countries like India and Ireland, which set the example of economic development and social integration, have the positive impact of the migration by globalisation and some countries like USA, which recently witness racism, xenophobia and discrimination have the negative impact on the migrants. It does not mean India do not face fragmentation and USA do not have cohesion. USA have many stories which show successful integration process, that facilitated the lives of immigrant communities, but being a developed country it still suffers from cultural alienation. In these countries, borders are built within borders to create cultural divides that do not allow people to integrate. Recently, this problem has become more prominent due to the rise of terrorism, clash of cultures in the world, leading to the glorification of stereotypes. People are becoming less accepting towards anyone who does not belong to their region. Migration does not stop after people move from one place to another place. The main question start after that ‘now what’ they will do. That is why this topic needs to be discussed thoroughly in order to find better solutions. This paper will begin with an analysis of different approaches to Migration, discuss the target groups for integration policies, provide indicators of the current situation of migrants and proceed to an analysis of integration tools: legislation, social policies and participatory processes. It will focus not only on the impact of migration but also on social integration, mix culture like indo-western culture in a comparative basis.

Ekta Meena

India is a country of immense diversity. It is home to people of many different racial, languages, ethnic, religious, and national backgrounds. Groups of people in India differ from each other not only in physical or demographic characteristics but also in distinctive patterns of behavior and these patterns are determined by social and cultural factors like language, region, religion, and caste. Apart from behaviour, economic development, level of education and political culture of the people in various social segments differ from region to region. More you can say that economy and cultures have been enriched by the contributions of migrants from round the globe. In an increasingly globalised world, migratory movements is continuously shaping the countries all over the world. Some countries like India and Ireland, which set the example of economic development and social integration, have the positive impact of the migration by globalisation and some countries like USA, which recently witness racism, xenophobia and discrimination have the negative impact on the migrants. It does not mean India do not face fragmentation and USA do not have cohesion. USA have many stories which show successful integration process, that facilitated the lives of immigrant communities, but being a developed country it still suffers from cultural alienation. In these countries, borders are built within borders to create cultural divides that do not allow people to integrate. Recently, this problem has become more prominent due to the rise of terrorism, clash of cultures in the world, leading to the glorification of stereotypes. People are becoming less accepting towards anyone who does not belong to their region. Migration does not stop after people move from one place to another place. The main question start after that ‘now what’ they will do. That is why this topic needs to be discussed thoroughly in order to find better solutions. This paper will begin with an analysis of different approaches to Migration, discuss the target groups for integration policies, provide indicators of the current situation of migrants and proceed to an analysis of integration tools: legislation, social policies and participatory processes. It will focus not only on the impact of migration but also on social integration, mix culture like indo-western culture in a comparative basis.

Ekta Meena

In this paper, investigations are made to analyze the human body temperature during wound healing process due to surgery. Wound is considered after the skin graft. Skin graft is a technique used in plastic surgery. Skin is the first line of defense between the human and environment, it is very susceptible to damage. Internal body or core temperature (Tb) is one of the clinical vital signs along with pulse and respiratory rates. Any disturbance in body temperature will drive complexities in wound healing process. These studies are important in the mechanism of establishing the limits of thermal regulation of human body during the healing process in different situations and conditions. The Finite element method is used to analyze tissues temperature for normal tissues (donor site) and abnormal tissues (tissues after surgery). Appropriate boundary conditions have been framed. Numerical results are obtained using Crank Nicolson Method.

Manisha Jain

Purpose – The purpose of this review is to critically analyse the extant research and help readers understand the ways the school-based comprehensive sexuality education (CSE) can contribute towards youth development and urge policymakers to implement nationwide good-quality, scientific, culturally relevant, age-appropriate and holistic school-based CSE. Design/methodology/approach – This literature review has been designed using the extant information available on Google Scholar, Web of Science (WoS) and PubMed. Findings – The findings of this review inform that there is a significant need amongst the youth of the day for good-quality, scientific, culturally relevant, age-appropriate and holistic school-based CSE. Also, the findings suggest that there are significant associations between school-based CSE and youth development. Research limitations/implications – This research paper although draws from extant literature about sexuality education and its delivery across the globe, it applies the sexuality education scenario in India. Practical implications – The findings of this review aim to implicate nationwide policy-level changes to implement CSE in the school curricula. There are more practical behavioural changes that CSE could foster amongst students, which are discussed in the review. Social implications – Due to the behavioural changes that CSE could foster amongst students, it may help in the upbringing of responsible citizens who are free of health complications, who can make independent health related decisions and look after each other in the community. Originality/value – This review is an original contribution from the author. Whilst there is extant literature about CSE and youth development, this article fills the void by investigating the interdependent contributions that both the concepts can make to one another and encourages more research on this topic.

Hari Hara Sudhan R

Physically unclonable function (PUF) is a hardware security module preferred for hardware feature based random number and secret key generation. Security of a cryptographic system relies on the quality of the challenge-response pair, it is necessary that the key generation mechanism must unpredictable and its response should constant under different operating condition. Metastable state in CMOS latch is undesirable since it response becomes unpredictable, this feature used in this work to generate a unique response. A feedback mechanism is developed which forces the latch into the metastable region; after metastable state, latch settle to high or state depends on circuit internal condition and noise which cannot be predicted. Obtained inter hamming variation for 8 PUF is 51% and average intra hamming distance is 99.76% with supply voltage variation and 96.22% with temperature variation.

Abhishek Kumar

One of the unique features of Indian society is prevalence of caste system which was originated thousands of years back to demarcate the people engaged in different occupation or jobs. Initially it was not much rigid but gradually people belonging to upper castes for their own selfish means to maintain their monopoly made this arrangement hereditary and started treating people of lower castes disgracefully. For preservation of this system, people started controlling their women to prevent inter-caste marriages and the concept of endogamy came up. This robbed away many types of freedom from women. For women belonging to lower castes, this situation is worse as they are doubly subjugated on the basis on caste as well as gender. Men belonging to their own caste treat them as secondary beings. This paper throws light on this intersection. How intersection of these two kinds of inequalities place them at the lowest position in Indian society. Dr. B.R. Ambedkar rises as their leader who all his life worked for empowerment of downtrodden section of society. He argues that education is the primary tool for evading these differences among people. He further emphasizes to adopt the concept of exogamy to break the backbone of Indian caste system and to immediately leave a religion or culture which legitimizes such system of inequality among people of the same land.

Swati sharma

One of the unique features of Indian society is prevalence of caste system which was originated thousands of years back to demarcate the people engaged in different occupation or jobs. Initially it was not much rigid but gradually people belonging to upper castes for their own selfish means to maintain their monopoly made this arrangement hereditary and started treating people of lower castes disgracefully. For preservation of this system, people started controlling their women to prevent inter-caste marriages and the concept of endogamy came up. This robbed away many types of freedom from women. For women belonging to lower castes, this situation is worse as they are doubly subjugated on the basis on caste as well as gender. Men belonging to their own caste treat them as secondary beings. This paper throws light on this intersection. How intersection of these two kinds of inequalities place them at the lowest position in Indian society. Dr. B.R. Ambedkar rises as their leader who all his life worked for empowerment of downtrodden section of society. He argues that education is the primary tool for evading these differences among people. He further emphasizes to adopt the concept of exogamy to break the backbone of Indian caste system and to immediately leave a religion or culture which legitimizes such system of inequality among people of the same land.

Swati sharma

Background:Calcium, the very important mineralhelps in growth and development ofinfants.Calcium helps in building strong bones, teeth,proper functioning of nerves and muscle, blood clot and in activating the enzymes that convert food into energy. Infants and Children are growing new bone all the time, they need continuous supply of calcium to support the healthy growth.Milk is the only food for infants which is richest source of calcium. Some infants are sensitive to lactose in milk because they have Lactose Intolerance. The present study aimsto develop an alternate milk forlactose intolerance infants with finger millet and pearl millet.Method:Traditional methods were used to process the milletswhich help in retaining and increasing the nutritional content in millets.The millet milk was analyzed for calcium content using the ICPMS.The millet milk was supplemented for 6 weeks to albino rats in comparison with cow milk. The tibia weight and length were measured and calcium content in tibia was analyzed. Result:The calcium content of the millet milk was 80mg/100mlwhere as in cow milk it was 120mg/100ml.The mean calcium content of the tibia inalbino rats was15.35±3.50mg/dl fed with millet milkand20.40±3.74mg/dl in rats fed with cow milk.Conclusion: The developed millet milk contain good amount of calcium on par with cow’s milk, it can be used as substitute milk for lactose intolerant infants.

Kimeera Ambati

During the last few years, the pharmacy profession has expanded significantly in terms of professional services delivery and now has been recognized as an important profession in the multidisciplinary provision of health care. The paper highlights the current scenario of The Pharmacy profession in the health care system. The pharmacist is a backbone that strengthens to the health care system. Different roles of Pharmacist in different sectors of the pharmacy profession like Industrial, academics, community health, clinical research, drug design and discovery, developing NDDS etc. In nutshell, pharmacist plays an integral part in the health care system. “Physician gives medicine to the patients but life to the medicine given by pharmacist”. Role of Pharmacist in Health Care System

Kamal Singh

Background: Scabies is characterized by the presence of burrows, erythematous papules, and generalized pruritus which is usually worse at night. Recently an upsurge in the incidence of scabies has been reported in many settings, including the area of the study. The study aimed to determine if there is a nexus between scabies and climate change as a risk factor. Methods: This was a case-control study carried out in a Cottage Hospital. Case files of 18, 000 patients who attended the hospital between 2016 and 2019 were reviewed. The diagnosis was mainly clinical, i.e. based on the presence of itching in the typical scabies locations, presence of scabies burrows and history of similar itching in the other members of the patient’s household. 112 cases of scabies were diagnosed within this period. Results: From 2016 to 2019, the incidence of scabies rose from 3 to 50. Prevalence among males was 59.8%, and in females 40.2%, although the difference was not significant (p=0.0.53). Compared to other age groups, prevalence was highest in the 6-17 years age group (37.5%), but the difference among the age groups was also not significant (p=0.84). Conclusions: Within four years (2016-2019), the incidence of scabies had risen from 3 to 50 in the area of the study, being higher in males (59.8%) than females (40.2%), and in children less than 18 years (37.5%). Community survey, prompt diagnosis, adequate treatment and avoidance of overcrowding might help to stem the observed rising incidence of the disease.

Emmanuel Umegbolu

Background: Hospital acquired infections (HAIs) are infections that patients acquire while receiving treatments for other conditions. Studies have shown that stethoscopes and sphygmomanometers can act as potential sources of these infections in patients accessing treatment in healthcare facilities. This study aimed to increase awareness among health workers in Nigeria of the potentials of stethoscopes and sphygmomanometers to transmit HAIs. Methods: Moist swab sticks were used to collect samples from 38 randomly selected stethoscopes and sphygmomanometers from some departments of four district hospitals. Collected samples were cultured using standard microbiological techniques. In addition, self-designed questionnaire was used to assess the knowledge and practice of doctors and nurses on the roles of stethoscopes and sphygmomanometers in HAIs. Results: About 83.8% of the health workers demonstrated some awareness of the roles of stethoscopes and sphygmomanometers in HAIs. 42.5% cleaned their stethoscopes, while 5% their sphygmomanometers. Staphylococcus aureus, (65.9% of stethoscopes), proteus mirabilis, Pseudomonas aeruginosa (67.6% of sphygmomanometers), Streptococcus and Coliform species were isolated. There was no significant difference between the contamination of stethoscopes and sphygmomanometers by the isolates, except for Pseudomonas aeruginosa (t=3.49, p=0.04). Conclusions: Awareness did not match practice in cleaning the stethoscopes and sphygmomanometers in the four facilities. Staphylococcus aureus and Pseudomonas aeruginosa were the two most common organisms isolated with a significant difference (t=3.49, p=0.04) between stethoscopes and sphygmomanometers in isolation of Pseudomonas aeruginosa. To curb HAIs, health workers need to improve on their practice of cleaning stethoscopes and sphygmomanometers.

Emmanuel Umegbolu

Background: E-waste, is the waste generated from used electrical and electronic devices that are no longer fit for their original intended use. Currently e-waste comprises more than 5% of total municipal waste flow, equivalent to 20-50 million tonnes annually worldwide. In 2014, Nigeria generated about 219 kilo tonnes of e-waste. The study aimed to increase public awareness on the need for proper management of e-waste because of its hazardous nature. Methods: This was a cross-sectional study in Enugu West Senatorial District of Enugu State comprising Oji-River, Ezeagu, Udi, Awgu and Aninri Local Government Areas with a population of 980,988. An adaptation of the UNEP, EMPA and Basel convention questionnaire, administered to 400 households was used for data collection. Results: The potential e-waste generation in the study area was 0.05 kg per inhabitant. 76% of the households were aware of the hazards of e-waste. 64% were willing to give out their e-waste to waste collectors. Only 26% of the e-waste were collected with the general waste. The correlation between awareness of the hazards of e-waste and willingness of the households to give out their e-waste was positive, moderate, and insignificant (r= 0.43, p=0.47). Conclusions: Although 76 per cent of the households were aware of the hazards of e-waste, with 64% willing to give out their e-waste, only 26% of the e-waste were eventually collected together with the general waste. There is a need to create a separate e-waste collection system.

Emmanuel Umegbolu

Background: The significance of healthcare wastes (HCWs) consists in their hazardous component, which constitutes real danger to public health. In Nigeria, healthcare waste management (HCWM) has remained a problem yet to be properly recognized and so addressed. The study aimed to sensitise health workers and the public on the need for proper management of HCWs, considering the public health implications of not doing so. Methods: The waste management systems of ten healthcare facilities (HCFs) were assessed, using a modification of the WHO rapid assessment tool. In each HCF, segregated wastes were collected daily for ten days and quantified by weighing, using a spring balance. Results: Administratively, the HCWM system was poor in the ten HCFs (40.6%). 70% of them had satisfactory waste segregation, 81%, good waste treatment, and 26.7% adequate transportation methods for waste. None of the HCFs had budget allocation for HCWM, and 90% had inadequate storage facilities. Mean waste generation was 1.81 kg/day, 0.23 kg/patient/day, 0.16 kg/bed/day, and proportion of infectious wastes 16.8%. Correlation between the number of patients and proportion of infectious waste, was positive, strong and significant (r=0.80, p=0.01), and between bed occupancy rate and proportion of infectious waste, was positive too, but weak, and insignificant (r=0.34, p=0.34). Conclusions: In view of the identified weaknesses of the ten HCFs in HCWM, budget allocations for HCWM, improving waste storage facilities and transportation, with strengthening of waste segregation, collection, and treatment, would help to ensure adequate HCWM in the HCFs.

Emmanuel Umegbolu

Background: From the public health point of view, the microbiological properties of domestic water supply are the most important parameters of domestic water supply because of the propensity for microbial water-related diseases. In Enugu State, statistics have shown that reported cases of waterborne diseases (including typhoid fever) have been on the increase since 2003. The aim of the study was to determine the bacteriological qualities of domestic water supply and prevalence of typhoid fever in five communities of Enugu State in connection with the rising incidence of typhoid fever in the state. Methods: This was a cross-sectional study of sources of domestic water supply and prevalence of typhoid fever in five rural communities of Ezeagu Local Government Area. 297 copies of structured questionnaire, 10 grab water samples analysed using the membrane filtration method and 227 blood samples collected for Widal test were used to generate the data for the study, analysed as frequency distributions, t-test of means difference and Pearson product moment correlations using MaxStat (version 3.60) statistical software. Results: 2 (40%) of the 5 communities complied with the WHO standard for faecal coliform counts. Prevalence of typhoid fever was high in all the communities (71.4%-100%). Only faecal coliform counts correlated positively and strongly (r=0.69) with prevalence of typhoid fever. Conclusions: Since faecal coliform counts correlated positively and strongly (r=0.69) with prevalence of typhoid fever, improving the bacteriological qualities of domestic water supply may help to reduce the prevalence of typhoid fever.

Emmanuel Umegbolu

The ability of antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) for effective binding to multiple target microbes has drawn lots of attention as an alternative to antibodies for detecting whole bacteria. We investigated pathogenic Escherichia coli (E. coli) detection by applying a microfluidic based biosensing device embedded with AMP-labeled beads. According to a new channel design, our device is reusable by the repeated operation of detection and regeneration modes, and the binding rate is more enhanced due to even distribution of the bacterial suspension inside the chamber by implementing influx side channels. We observed higher binding affinity of pathogenic E. coli O157:H7 for AMP-labeled beads than nonpathogenic E. coli DH5α, and the fluorescence intensity of pathogenic E. coli was about 3.4 times higher than the nonpathogenic one. The flow rate of bacterial suspension should be applied above a certain level for stronger binding and rapid detection by attaining a saturation level of detection within a short time of less than 20 min. A possible improvement in the limit of detection in the level of 10 cells per mL for E. coli O157:H7 implies that the AMP-labeled beads have high potential for the sensitive detection of pathogenic E. coli at an appropriate flow rate.

Myung-Suk Chun

With the expansion of human societies, extending up to almost every corner of the earth, transforming it to be as per their condition, humankind has proved their extraordinary dominance on the earth. The dominating attitude of humans has not resulted pleasantly every time. Poverty is one such curse that has shamed the progressing world community. Christianity has dedicated a large portion of its ministerial approach towards the underprivileged. This paper presents a missiological approach to uplift the slum dwellers in the city of Pune with education and health reforms. A similar project was experimented in 2014 among homeless people. The project did well and the results were significantly progressive and potential. It is assumed that this paper will bring an insightful approach that benefits the slums in Pune and enhance the “serving the humanity” aspect of the Christian mission.

Santosh kumar

This study investigated the practice of artificial fruit ripening among fruit vendors of banana, plantain, mango and pawpaw in Rivers State. The study adopted a descriptive cross-sectional survey design. Two objectives, corresponding research questions and null hypotheses guided the study. The population for the study comprised all the accessible 1,810 fruit vendors in Rivers East senatorial district. A sample size of 472 fruit vendors was drawn using multi-stage sampling procedure. A validated self-structured questionnaire titled ‘Practice of Artificial Fruit Ripening’ with inter-scale reliability co- efficient of 0.896 was used as instrument for data collection. The descriptive statistics of mean and standard deviation were used to answer the research questions, while inferential statistics of Z-test and One-Way Analysis of Variance were used to test the hypotheses at 0.05 alpha level. It was found that fruit vendors in Rivers State sometimes practiced artificial fruit ripening using chemical and non-chemical methods. It was also discovered that regardless of their level of education and years of experience in the fruit business, the fruit vendors sometimes indulged in unhealthy practice of artificial fruit ripening. More so, the study revealed significant difference in practice among the fruit vendors in Rivers State based on level of education and years of experience. Based on the findings, it was concluded that the current practice of artificial fruit ripening in Rivers State is not in tandem with global best practices and therefore portend danger to the wellbeing of Rivers people and other Nigerians. The study therefore recommended among others that; community health workers should carry-out regular and effective health awareness campaigns concerning the dangers of using chemicals to ripen fruits. The Government of Rivers State through the Ministry of Agriculture should organise training programmes for fruit vendors on faster, safer, and economically feasible methods of fruits ripening and other post-harvest management techniques

FXintegrity Publishing

This comparative study was conducted between local (Libyan) and imported (Chinese) garlic to evaluate their antibacterial activity against some isolated gram-positive and gram-negative bacteria. The study was carried out by using the agar well diffusion method at different aqueous extract concentrations (25%, 50%, 75% and 100%). The results showed that distinct antibacterial effects on both types of garlic with some differences between local and imported garlic. However, the zone of inhibition was more against Staphylococcus aureus, Klebsiella pneumonia and Escherichia coli, respectively. Furthermore, the antibacterial activity increased with the increase of concentration. So, this study recommends that garlic should be used against bacterial infection and more studies may be done against other bacterial species, especially multidrug-resistance strains.

Mediterranean Journal of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences

Colon is part of the digestive system in the human body responsible for absorbing water and nutrients from food residues. There are many problems affecting the colon including irritable bowel syndrome, constipation, hemorrhoids, anal fissures, abscess, colitis and colon cancer which considered one of the most common diseases among the Libyan community. The aim of this study was to search the presence of colonic disease and the tendency of those diseases to transform into colonic cancer at Benghazi medical center in Benghazi-Libya. A survey was comprised of 15 questions concerning colon diseases, proper diagnosis and treatment type. The survey was distributed to the physician specialized in medicine at Benghazi medical center and they fill it voluntary. The initial part of the questionnaire designed to obtain demographic data concerning the physicians who diagnose the colon illness. The rest part of the questionnaire was concerning special questions to define frequency of the diagnosed disease. There were 20 participants at this study. The response to all questionnaires were collected and analyzed for drug use, patients and disease distribution. In conclusion, this study demonstrates that the correct diagnosis, prescribing the appropriate treatment for the colon disease and using the medicine properly is one of the most important things that help in treating the disease and reducing its exacerbation. In some cases, eradication procedures may be required if the medicine is not sufficient to treat the disease without the need for operations

Mediterranean Journal of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences