Background An infection (COVID-19) without any specific cure makes the people more vulnerable to get affected due to insufficient knowledge and unhealthy practices. In this scenario, healthcare students can act as reliable information providers. This study aimed to assess the knowledge and perception about COVID-19 among medical and allied health science students. Methods A web-based cross sectional survey was conducted during February and March 2020. A 24-item survey was developed and randomly distributed among the study population. Descriptive statistics was applied to represent participant characteristics and Chi-square test was used to evaluate the level of association among variables with a significance level of p < 0.01 . Results Total, 97.95% (715/730) participants completed the survey. High proportion of students were from pharmacy (45.73%) followed by medical (22.52%), physiotherapy, nursing and dental background. Majority of participants were having adequate knowledge while about 18% had partial knowledge about the symptoms of severe COVID-19 cases. Students have shown a positive perception of COVID-19 prevention and control while few invalid responses related to the use of herbal medicines or garlic were noted. About 50% had rightly stated that, the antibiotics and vaccine are not effective in COVID-19 infection at present. Conclusion As the COVID-19 cases are rapidly increasing w orldwide, it is essential to improve the knowledge and beliefs among general public to prevent its spread. Health care students with their education background and basic understanding about COVID-19 can play a significant role by making community people aware about the seriousness of this pandemic situation.

Objective: The axial spondyloarthritis (axSpA) mainly affects young population and often leads to reduced mobility, but less is known about the impact it has on mental health. The objective of this study was to determine the prevalence of symptoms of anxiety and depression among axSpA patients and explore the underlying associated factors. Methods: A cross sectional survey-based study was conducted from a single center. A convenient sampling was done to include 100 patients. We included questions about disease activity, sleep, fatigue, quality of life (QoL), and work productivity. All patients were asked to fill the patient health questionnaire-9 (PHQ) for depression and general anxiety disorder-7 (GAD) for anxiety. A multivariate binomial logistic regression analysis was performed to determine associations between PHQ-9 and GAD-7 scores with various socio-demographic factors, disease activity scores, and other variables. Results : Clinically significant symptoms of anxiety and depression were present in 38% and 36% patients, respectively. Both were significantly associated with younger age at disease onset ( P < .05), high disease activity, sleep disturbances, fatigue, poor QoL, and high impact on work productivity. Misbeliefs that “doctors hide side-effects of medicines” and “all modern medicine used in treatment of axSpA causes side-effects” were also related to higher anxiety and depression scores. Depression was also found to be associated with female patients. Conclusion: Anxiety and depression are common in axSpA. They are associated with high disease activity and reduced work productivity. Patients should be regularly screened for these symptoms.

Objective: This study aims to determine the pattern of antibiotic utilization at the surgery department of a tertiary care hospital.Methods: A prospective observational study was conducted over a period of 6-month in surgical ward at Bharti Hospital and Research Centre, Pune, a 1000 bedded teaching hospital. Patients above 18 years and receiving antibiotic therapy pre-and post-surgery were included in the study.Results: A total of 160 patients with surgical operations were included in the study. The disease spectrum was classified into respective system-wise surgical procedures of which 49.37% cases are skin and soft tissue infections, 25.62% cases of general surgical procedure, 12.5% cases of gastrointestinal surgical procedure, 11.25% cases of urinary system, and 1.25% case of head-neck system. 20.62% of the study patients had hernia, 18.12% patients had cellulitis, 16.87% patients had diabetic foot ulcer, 16.25% patients had abscess, and 10.62% patients had appendicitis and cholelithiasis. In this study, it was found that 471 antibiotics were used in total of 160 patients, among which highest group of antibiotics prescribed were third generation cephalosporin (28.23%) followed by penicillins (23.56%). The most frequently prescribed antibiotics were metronidazole -19.74% among the nitroimidazoles followed by ceftriaxone -19.53% of the class cephalosporins. Conclusion:The rate of prescribing of broad-spectrum antibiotics has increased demonstrably which may result in the development of bacterial resistance; however, development of guidelines for an antibiotic prescription and use of appropriate drugs for the diseases can minimize the unfavorable use of antibiotics and cost of health care.

Background: Sepsis can be defined as the body's response to an infection. Sepsis in children remains a significant cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide.

No abstract