Although India has achieved national level elimination of leprosy in December 2005, it reports highest number of leprosy cases in the world. Incidence of leprosy amongst young children indicates ...active foci of transmission in the community, making it a robust epidemiological indicator to assess the progress of leprosy control programs.
To study prevalence, clinical spectrum, patterns of extracutaneous involvement, reactions, relapse, demographic profile, anthropometric characteristics of children with leprosy.
A prospective observational study of children younger than 14 years old with clinical signs and symptoms of leprosy, including cases diagnosed from October 2018 through September 2020 at a tertiary hospital in Eastern India.
Childhood leprosy constituted of 10.4% of total new leprosy cases. Mean age observed was 11.14 ± 1.5 years. 30.4% were females and 69.6% were males. The mean average duration was 9.95 ± 12.3 months. 82.1% of children belong to below poverty line (BPL) status. 19.6% of children had malnourishment/stunting/thinness, and 55.4% had anemia. 84.1% presented with skin discoloration. The most common site affected was upper limb (57.1%). 29.2% had contact history. A single case of relapse (1.7%) was reported. Most common peripheral nerve involved was ulnar nerve (67.8%). 8.9% of children had type 1 lepra reaction, and 1.7% had type 2 lepra reaction. 73.21% presented with borderline tuberculoid clinical type of leprosy. 19.6% showed slit skin smear positivity.
Pockets of high endemicity of childhood leprosy as detected in the current study point toward the unmet need of better healthcare facilities along with increased awareness, campaigns, and school surveys for early diagnosis and treatment for the prevention of complications and spread in community.
Possible involvement of the antioxidative enzymes in salt tolerance was investigated in three submerged aquatic macrophytes, viz.
Hydrilla verticillata,
Najas indica and
Najas gramenia, which ...differed in their tolerance to salinity. NaCl in light resulted in significant decrease in the chlorophyll
a/
b ratio in
H. verticillata, which was significantly neutralized by the presence of DABCO (diazabicyclo2.2.2octane), sodium benzoate or mannitol along with the NaCl in the exposure medium indicating induction of oxidative stress upon salt treatment. All the three test species showed enhanced activity of superoxide dismutase (SOD; EC 1.15.1.1) and peroxidases (EC 1.11.1.7) upon exposure to either NaCl or SWS (seawater salinity); the increases in their activity in response to NaCl were positively correlated with the salt tolerance of the plants. Only
N. gramenia showed considerable increase in the activity of catalase (EC 1.11.1.6), while only
H. verticillata exhibited significant increase in the activity of ascorbate peroxidase (EC 1.11.1.11) in response to the salt treatment. A higher constitutive level of the antioxidative enzymes in the salt-tolerant
N. gramenia than in the salt-sensitive
H. verticillata coupled with significant increase in the activity of these enzymes, particularly of catalase and SOD, in the former upon salinity treatment suggested their active involvement in salt tolerance. The oxidative stress induced upon the salt treatment also indicated a possible involvement of the antioxidative enzymes in the process. The ion interaction study revealed significant modifying effect of Ca
2+, and also of Mg
2+ and K
+, on the changes induced by Na
+ in the activity of catalase and SOD suggesting that relative build-up of these ions inside cells could be of much importance in regulation of synthesis of antioxidative enzymes.
Background and Aims: Depression accounts for the greatest burden of all mental health problems, and is expected to become the second-highest among all health problems by 2020. Postpartum depression ...(PPD) is a major public health problem with a peak incidence at 4-6 weeks postpartum, affecting 22% of women within a year of childbirth in India. It has an impact on the mother, her partner, the family, mother-baby bonding and the long-term emotional and cognitive development of the baby. The aim of the study was to: 1.To find out the prevalence of depression among women during the postpartum period 2.To identify the factors associated with depressive symptoms among them. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted in an urban slum of Bhubaneswar from July 2017 to January 2018, among a sample of 60 postnatal mothers who had delivered in the last six months; selected by simple random sampling technique. Edinburgh Postnatal depression scale (EPDS) was used to identify mothers at risk of postnatal depression. A score of ≥13 was considered as positive for depressive symptoms. Results: The prevalence of PPD was found to be 8.57%. Religion was found to be a statistically significant factor associated with PPD. Other factors like literacy status, socio-economic status, high parity, sex of the newborn, mode of delivery were also found to have an association with PPD. Conclusion: This study identified certain socio-demographic and obstetric risk factors for postnatal depressive symptoms in a community setting of an urban slum; screening of risk factors will help in designing preventive strategies for identifying PPD.
This paper focuses on the removal of salt and pepper noise from a contaminated image. A Probabilistic Decision Based Improved Trimmed Median Filter (PDITMF) is proposed here. The proposed PDITMF ...algorithm resolves the conflict regarding an even number of noise free pixel of Trimmed Median Filter. The proposed algorithm makes use of two estimation techniques for de-noising, namely, Improved Trimmed Median Filter (ITMF), and Patch Else Improved Trimmed Median Filter (PEITMF) depending upon noise density. The algorithm experiments with many standard sample images. Simulation results show the proposed algorithm is capable of de-noising the image very efficiently. The algorithm has a better visual representation and it outperforms the existing well-known algorithms in context to peak signal-to-noise ratio (PSNR) as well as image enhancement factor (IEF) with lower execution time (ET) at all noise densities.
Few researchers believe that various risk factors may complicate the course of dermatophytosis and/or develop various dermatoses unrelated to fungal infection at the previous lesion site. However, ...there is a paucity of studies that analyzed the diagnosis of lesions that recurred at the treated site of dermatophytosis.
A prospective observational study was conducted on 157 cases of dermatophytosis with positive fungal test results. A fixed dose of 100 mg of oral itraconazole once daily was administered to all patients for 2 weeks. At the end of 2 weeks, patients were assessed for clinical cure and recurrence. Recurred cases were assessed for mycological profile using a fungal test (potassium hydroxide mount and/or fungal culture) for identifying fungal infection.
Only eight (5.36%) patients showed clinical cure, and 141 (94.63%) patients developed recurrence after therapy. Of the 141 cases with recurrence, only 47 (33.33%) patients were positive for fungus. Eight (5.09%) patients were lost to follow-up. Frequently encountered risk factors in the study were topical steroid use, disease in family, associated atopic dermatitis and contact with pets.
This is the first study that described the clinical diagnosis and mycological profile of the various lesions recurring at the previous tinea infection site in patients with dermatophytosis. Such patients presented not only with recurrent lesions of fungal infection but also developed various dermatoses unrelated to fungal infection at the sites of previous tinea infection. Various factors, which could have resulted in the observed changes, are reinfection by dermatophytes at the sites of previous tinea infection, inadequate antifungal therapy or antifungal resistance; or due to the effects of various topical steroid formulations used by the patients, such as anti-inflammatory or immunosuppressive effects or shift in immunity. Hence, diagnosis of the recurrent lesion at the site of previous dermatophytosis must be individualized and should be based on 1) duration of antifungal therapy received, 2) associated risk factors, 3) response to antifungal therapy, 4) evolution of the recurrent lesion, and/or 5) fungal tests.
This paper focuses on the evaluation of the biomass production of a novel native microalgal strain
Chlorella sorokiniana
using centrate from municipal wastewater as the sole source of nutrients and ...six different temperatures. The experiments were performed in semi-continuous cultures using Bold’s Basal Medium and centrate separately, modifying the temperature (25–50 °C). The study aimed to elucidate whether a thermotolerant strain can be used for both the production of biomass and the removal of nutrients from wastewater. It was observed that
C. sorokiniana
biomass can be produced using centrate as the sole nutrient source. The highest biomass yield, for both culture media, was achieved at 35 °C showing maximum values for centrate (1.0 g
biomass
·L
−1
, 0.20 g
biomass
·L
−1
·day
−1
dry weight), surpassing the productivity obtained when using Bold’s Basal Medium (BBM) (0.60 g
biomass
·L
−1
; 0.13 g
biomass
·L
−1
·day
−1
dry weight). Variable chlorophyll fluorescence confirmed that the excess of ammonium (601 mg
NH4
·L
−1
) did not inhibit the growth of
C. sorokiniana
, and thus, the biomass productivity was not affected. The maximum nutrient removals reached for BBM and centrate were 96% and 61.5% for nitrogen, 53.2% and 61% for phosphorus, and 93% and 0.18% for total carbon, respectively. Fatty acids accumulating in the microalgal biomass were mainly composed of arachidonic, oleic, and eicosatetraenoic acids. Consequently, it is demonstrated that microalgae native to desertic areas can be used to produce microalgal biomass using centrate from wastewater treatment plants as the exclusive nutrient source, reaching high productivities.
Strongyloides stercoralis is a common intestinal pathogen, which often causes disseminated infection in patients on long term immunosuppressive therapy. The features of this syndrome range from ...subtle abdominal discomfort to fatal infection. Many of the immunologically mediated dermatological conditions need prolonged treatment with Immunosuppressants. Hence there is increased risk of this infestation. In dermatology in-patients, strongyloides stercoralis hyperinfection can be confused with a number of conditions, such as steroid-induced gastritis, corticosteroid withdrawal, electrolyte imbalance, lepra reactions, and erythrodermic enteropathy. In a country like India, where barefoot walking is still prevalent, this condition has been reported less often. We report a series of five patients who were diagnosed with strongyloides hyperinfection syndrome during their admission in the dermatology department during the last year. This case series aims at creating awareness among the dermatologists, so that, this, potentially fatal but easily preventable and treatable condition, can be managed properly.
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