MMJ - A Journal by MIMER Medical College, Pune, India

Original Article TITLE: BASIC HEALTH EVALUATION OF COMMUNITY HEALTH WORKERS IN FIELD PRACTICE AREA OF URBAN HEALTH TRAINING CENTRE OF A MEDICAL COLLEGE IN WESTERN MAHARASHTRA

2024-06-27T06:38:05+00:00

Introduction:

Community Health Workers are the primary field-level frontline workers who come into direct contact with the population. They provide promotive, preventive, curative and rehabilitative healthcare services to their own Community and are vital to improving access to primary health care. ^(1,2)

It is necessary to evaluate the general health status of CHWs to improve their efficiency in providing basic healthcare services to society and make necessary changes in the future ⁽³⁾

Aim & Objectives:

1.Basic health evaluation of CHWs in field practice area of UHTC of a Medical

College in Western Maharashtra.

Materials and Methods: A cross- sectional study was done using convenience sampling. Data was collected in all CHWs in field practice area of UHTC of a Medical College in Western Maharashtra. Sample size was 49.The current health – status of CHWs was assessed by a pre-tested, structured questionnaire and basic health investigations were done.

Data analysis was done using MS excel.

Results : Out of total 49 CHWs, 34.69% belonged to age group of 36-40 years,40.81% completed high school. The general health status of CHWs was good. 67.34% had haemoglobin above 11gm%. 53.1% of CHWs had a high BMI. 18.36 % suffered from Hypertension and 6.12 % had Diabetes Mellitus. Despite knowing positive benefits of PAP smear, only 8% had undergone screening for Cervical Cancer, which shows hesitancy .

Conclusion: The study shows, there is a need to educate the CHWs about Chronic diseases and benefits of regular screening and exercise.

Letters to the editor Why Indian postgraduate students are moving to foreign journals?

2024-09-06T10:17:24+00:00

Last 2-3 decades, we are observing that Indian authors specifically medical teachers and students have a craze to publish their works in foreign journals compare to Indian journals. As per the opinion of some reviewers, very few Indian journals had more than 6 issues in a year. Even those Indian journals have long waited or processing times with high rejection rates. Many postgraduate students want to work and settle in western countries. To make their profile stronger and to get placement, publication in high-impact factor journals gives more priority. Medical colleges’ numbers and students’ enrolment capacity is increasing day by day in India but the numbers of journals specifically indexing journals with good impact factors are not as added. Due to the constant chopping and changing of indexing bodies required for promotion in medical college, puts a burden on the medical faculties. As of now, we conclude that in today’s scenario, foreign journals are helpful to fulfil the requirement for promotion or exams due to a lack of indexing Indian journals with high impact factors but after 1-2 decades maybe we have enough numbers of indexing Indian journals with good impact factor for publications.

Case reports A rare case of Suppurative Bacille Calmette-Guerin (BCG) lymphadenitis

2024-10-01T17:58:45+00:00

ABSTRACT

Title- A rare case of Suppurative Bacille Calmette-Guerin (BCG) lymphadenitis

Dr. Pratik P Kamlik¹,Dr. Gauri Metkar², Dr Smita Bhide³, Dr. Harsha Dangare³, Dr. Mangala Nagare⁴, Dr. Swapnil More⁵, Dr. Rajendra Zope⁶

Introduction:

The Bacillus Calmette Guerin (BCG) vaccine is live attenuated Mycobacterium bovis vaccine, first introduced in 1921 to prevent tuberculosis. In 1974 WHO expanded the program on Immunization so that all children should have the BCG vaccine intra-dermally.

Case History:

We are presenting a rare case of a 9 months old female child with fever, cold, and tender cervical lymphadenopathy with no past or family history of tuberculosis. Patient had acute onset cervical lymphadenopathy on the same side (ipsilateral) as that of BCG vaccination. Size of enlarged lymph node was 5 x 5 cm. On FNAC, findings were of suppurative lymphadenitis with presence of acid fast bacilli. Ipsilateral location of cervical lymphadenitis, size > 1 cm and presence of acid fast bacilli, prove it to be BCG lymphadenitis.

Discussion:

BCG lymphadenitis is a lesser-known condition with incidence of 0.5-100 per 1000 vaccinations. Most common presentation of BCG lymphadenitis is non-suppurative ipsilateral axillary lymphadenitis with onset between 2 weeks to 6 months of age. Hence this is a rare case of BCG lymphadenitis with unusual features like suppuration, cervical lymph node involvement, and presentation at 9 months of age.

Conclusion:

BCG lymphadenitis is a rare complication of BCG vaccination most commonly affecting axillary lymph nodes. Present case highlights the importance of keeping this entity in differential diagnosis of childhood lymphadenitis. FNAC with AFB (20%) staining helps in diagnosis and timely treatment of this condition eliminating the need of surgical excision and un-necessary antibiotic treatment.

Key words: BCG, FNAC, Lymphadenitis, Suppuration

Editorial Nanozyme: New Horizons for Cancer Therapy

2025-01-31T14:11:02+00:00

Nanocatalytic medicine has attracted considerable
interest in recent years as it is progressively being
explored in cancer diagnosis and treatment,
inflammation, infectious diseases, and degenerative
disease.[1-4] The concept of nanocatalytic medicine
is centered on exploiting nanocatalysts to resolve
medical problems.[1,5,6] Catalytic therapies have
greatly benefited the growing field of nanomedicine
as they have provided effective strategies for tumor
therapy, antibacterial therapy, and anti-inflammatory
therapy.[1,2