Clinico-bacteriological study was done in 51 leprosy patients below 14 years of age. Majority of the patients were males in the age group of 11 -14 years. Nearly 84% had not received any prior treatment because of lack of awareness and financial constraints. Only 11.76% had a positive contact history. Skin lesions were present in all cases and 84.3% had lesions mainly on the exposed areas of the body and their number was found to increase significantly with advancing age (p < 0.005). These lesions were hypo-pigmented patches in 88% cases. 88% of cases had hypo-anesthesia and nerve thickening was observed in 24% cases. The most common type of skin lesion was borderline tuberculoid (BT) in 53% cases. Positivity of the skin smears increased significantly as the number of the skin lesions per patient increased (p < 0.001). Multibacillary cases were seen in 15.6% of cases and found only in the age group of 10 -14 years of age. No statistically significant association between BCG vaccination and prevention of leprosy was seen.

Background: The objective of this study is to evaluate sensitive pattern of causative organisms of neonatal sepsis with its clinical outcome in a tertiary neonatal care unit of eastern India.Methods: This retrospective observational cohort study was done in a tertiary care hospital of Odisha. All the blood culture positive neonatal sepsis cases, excluding neonates with multiple congenital malformations, diagnosed during January 2017 to December 2018 were analysed using descriptive summary statistics.Results: A total of 73 neonatal sepsis cases were diagnosed by BacT/Alert and VITEK-2 blood culture method. Among them, 50 (68%) babies had gram negative sepsis,14 (19%) cases of gram-positive sepsis and nine (13%) cases of fungal sepsis. In present study 38 (52%) cases were early onset sepsis, 38(52 %) babies were term, 55(75%) were male and 44 (60%) babies were out born. Klebsiella pneumonia and Acinetobacter were the most common organism in early onset and late onset sepsis respectively. Among gram negative organism (GNB), 66% were multi drug resistant. A fifty percent of gram-negative organism were sensitive to meropenem and 28% were sensitive to piperacillin/tazobactam. The sensitivity of GNB to colistin, ciprofloxacin, amikacin was 76%, 64% and 56% respectively. The sensitivity of gram-positive organisms to linezolid, vancomycin, teicoplanin and penicillin were 92%, 85%,85% and 20% respectively. Survival rate among culture positive sepsis was 83%.Conclusions: Multi drug organisms are emerging in modern neonatal care practice. Practice of antibiotic stewardship may save the babies from multidrug resistance organism in future.

Background: Several parasites are known to affect the eyes, some of them even causing blindness. Data on helminths infecting the eye are scant and mostly limited to case reports from different countries.Case: A 53 years old female presented with complaint of redness, foreign body sensation and diminution of vision in right eye since one month.Observations: On examination a live motile worm was found wriggling in the anterior chamber which was surgically removed. The microscopic findings were in favour of Dirofilaria. However, detailed histopathological examination and determination of species couldn’t be done.Conclusion: The occurrence of parasite in eye is an uncommon event. Most of these parasites are found in subconjunctival or subretinal regions. Those in anterior chamber is a very rare event. Recently Dirofilaria is being recognised as an emerging zoonosis.

IntroductionData are scarce on the hematological and biochemical changes caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) in neonates. This study aimed to compare hematological and biochemical parameters in SARS-CoV-2-positive neonates with healthy neonates born to mothers diagnosed with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and assess disease severity in both groups.

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The classical Bartter syndrome is an uncommon tubular disorder of autosomal recessive inheritance, characterized by early childhood onset of polyuria, polydipsia, vomiting, dehydration, constipation and salt craving habit. The long-term outlook for patients with Bartter syndrome is not certain. If not properly treated, it may lead to failure to thrive and growth retardation. We herein report a case of 18-month-old girl child who presented chronic diarrhea and failure to thrive and then was diagnosed as a case of classical Bartter syndrome. She was successfully treated with potassium supplementation and ibuprofen therapy.

Thyroid dysfunction is more common in preterm and low birth weight infants, and may be missed if thyroid function test (TFT) is not repeated. Thus, we attempted to study the pattern of thyroid function among very low birth weight (VLBW) infants with birth weight less than 1,500 g by serial TFTs. Serum free thyroxine (FT4) and thyrotropin (thyroid-stimulating hormone [TSH]) levels of VLBW infants were tested on fifth to seventh days of life and repeated after 4 weeks of age. Based on serial FT4 and TSH results, abnormal TFT was classified into four groups—transient hypothyroxinemia of prematurity (THOP), transient hyperthyrotropinemia (THT), delayed TSH rise, and overt congenital hypothyroidism (CH). Stata 15.1 (Stata Corp, Texas, United States) was used for analysis. Ninety-six VLBW infants were enrolled with mean gestational age of 30.5 ± 2.7 weeks and median (interquartile range) birth weight of 1,200 (317) g. Out of 96 cases, 30 (31.2%) infants had abnormal TFT. Ten (10.4%) infants had THOP, 7 (7.3%) infants had THT, 11 (11.5%) infants had delayed TSH rise, and 2 (2.1%) infants had overt CH. There were no significant differences in demographic profile and clinical characteristics between neonates with normal and abnormal TFTs. Five infants required levothyroxine supplementation (two infants with overt CH and three infants with delayed TSH rise). VLBW neonates have higher incidence of CH and delayed rise of TSH in this study. In resource-limited settings, repeating TFTs at least once after 4 weeks of age may be suggested to identify delayed rise of TSH which may need intervention.

Recording of end-tidal carbon dioxide (EtCO2) noninvasively reflects a real-time estimation of arterial carbon dioxide (PaCO2 [partial pressure of CO2]). However, as the EtCO2 is dependent on metabolism, perfusion, and ventilation, predicting PaCO2 from EtCO2 is not linear. The objective of the study was to find out the predictability of PaCO2 from EtCO2 in PICU and to evaluate the factors affecting the correlation of EtCO2 and PaCO2 in critically ill ventilated children. The design involved was prospective observational study. The setting discussed over here is that of pediatric intensive care unit (PICU) of tertiary care hospital. A total of 160 children between 1 month and 14 years received mechanical ventilation. EtCO2, PaCO2, PaO2/FiO2 (PF) ratio, oxygenation index (OI), and ventilation index (VI) are the factors involved in main outcome measures. A total of 535 pairs of EtCO2 and PaCO2 were recorded in 160 ventilated children during the stable hemodynamic state. Mean age and weight (Z-score) of patients were 31.15 ± 40.46 months and −2.10 ± 1.58, respectively. EtCO2 and PaCO2 differences were normal (2–5 mm of Hg) in 393 (73.5%) pairs. High gradient (>5 mm of Hg) was mostly found with children with pneumonia, prolonged ventilation, and pressure mode of ventilation (p < 0.05). EtCO2 had a strong positive correlation with PaCO2 (r = 0.723, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.68 and 0.76) and not significantly affected by PF ratio or OI. However, presence of pneumonia and high ventilation index (VI > 20) adversely affected the relationship with poor correlation coefficient (r = 0.449, 95% CI = 0.30, 0.58 and r = 0.227, 95% CI = 0.03, 0.41, respectively). EtCO2 reading showed good validity to predict PaCO2 and not affected by oxygenation parameters. The correlation was affected by the presence of pneumonia and high ventilation index; hence it is recommended to monitor PaCO2 invasively in these patients till a good correlation is established.