Pneumonia is an infection of pulmonary parenchyma. 1 It is a major cause of morbidity and mortality with an incidence of 20-30% in the developing countries and 3-4% in developed countries.2 Since pneumonia is not a reportable illness its incidence is based on crude estimates. It is estimated that

Introduction and Objectives: Chronic kidney disease is an increasing health problem worldwide and the burden of such patients is increasing in developing countries like Nepal as well. The final treatment for End Stage Renal Disease is only renal replacement therapy. The objective was to study the demographic and clinical profile of patients with End Stage Renal Disease undergoing haemodialysis. Methods: This was a prospective, observational study carried out in a tertiary hospital after obtaining ethical consent from the Institutional Review Board. The study period was from June 1st to August 31st, 2019. Thirty seven patients, older than 15 years who were on maintenance haemodialysis on regular basis in the hospital for at least 3 months were selected for the study. Patient’s records were used for the data collection as well as direct questionnaire to the patients on follow up for routine haemodialysis. Data were entered into Statistical Package for the Social Sciences 21 and descriptive analysis was done. Results: Twenty-six patients were under 50 years with male: female ratio of 1.64:1. Mean duration of haemodialysis of patients was 3.82 years. Most common cause for end stage renal disease was hypertension followed by idiopathic cause. Anaemia and hypocalcaemia were found to be the common complications associated with the patients. Conclusions: Prevention and early treatment may be the key to decrease the incidence of chronic kidney disease patients and also halt the progression to End stage renal disease.

IntroductionDengue is an important infectious disease. This disease is prevalent in the terai belts of Nepal mainly. But in the last few years, the cases are in increasing trend in the hilly areas of Nepal also. Hence this study was done in an aim to study the clinical and haematological profile of the dengue cases.MethodsThis was a retrospective cross-sectional quantitative study done at a tertiary teaching hospital of Pokhara, Nepal after obtaining ethical approval from the institutional ethical committee. The data of serologically confirmed dengue cases, during the period of August 2019 to December 2019, of age above 15 years, were collected and analysed using SPSS 20. Descriptive analysis in terms of mean, median, percentage as well as t-test for nominal and chi-square tests were used to compare different parameters. P-value≤ 0.05 was considered statistically significant.ResultsOut of 922 patients, approximately one-half (50.5%) cases were seen during the month of September. Most (82.8%) were the inhabitants of Kaski district. Median age of presentation was 29 years with slightly more cases of males (52.4%). Three hundred and forty seven patients were admitted. Fever (96.5%) and headache (40.6%) were the most common symptoms on presentation of admitted cases. Leukopenia (55.3%) was more common than thrombocytopenia (47.6%) in the admitted cases. On comparison between admitted patients with warning signs and those without signs, no significant variation was seen in terms of age, total leukocyte count and total platelet count.ConclusionDengue is common in young population. Fever, headache and gastrointestinal symptoms are common among dengue patients. Leukopenia and thrombocytopenia are common laboratory features of dengue.

Introduction: With occurrence of COVID-19, many countries have initiated lockdown in an effort to control the pandemic. These measures can only be effective when the people co-operate. The awareness and health-related behavior have a major role in determining society’s response. Meanwhile adolescents are at the risk of deviating from disciplined health-related behaviors due to turbulence arising from their hormones despite of their awareness. This study aims to study COVID-19 awareness and its impact on health-related behavior of adolescents. Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional web-based online study of 299 adolescents enrolled in various educational programs, between ages 13 to 19 years was conducted between June 18, 2020 and July 11, 2020 in Nepal. The questionnaire consisted of demographic characteristics, 16 items on knowledge and 40 items on behavior. Descriptive statistics, chi-square tests and binary logistic regression were conducted in Statistical Package for the Social Sciences. Results: A total of 299 adolescents were enrolled in the study. Majority (92.6%) of the adolescents had adequate awareness. Positive health-related behavior was seen in 72% of the adolescents. Spiritual behavior was the most affected in comparison to physical, social and psychological behavior. Adolescents with adequate awareness on COVID-19 were 10.67 times more likely to perform positive health related behavior (P=0.005; 95% CI=2.01-56.47). Conclusion: Majority of the adolescents had adequate awareness. Significant percentage of adolescents had positive health-related behavior. Positive behaviour was not proportionately in level with adequate awareness. Effective health programs and policies are needed to transform adequate awareness into positive health-related behaviour for effective control of disease.

Introduction: Dengue is an infectious disease. This disease is prevalent mainly in the terai belts of Nepal. But in the last few years, the cases are in increasing trend in the hilly areas of Nepal. The aim of this study was to find out the prevalence of admitted dengue cases among adult dengue-positive cases in a tertiary care centre. Methods: This was a descriptive cross-sectional study done at a tertiary teaching hospital after obtaining ethical approval from the Institutional Review Committee (Reference number: 063/2077/2078). Convenience sampling was used. The data of serologically confirmed dengue cases, during the period of 1 August 2019 to 1 December 2019, of ages above 15 years, were collected from the hospital records. Point estimate and 95% Confidence Interval were calculated. Results: Out of 922 adult dengue-positive patients, 347 (37.63%) (36.04-39.22, 95% Confidence Interval) were admitted. Among them, 154 (44.38%) cases were seen during the month of September. A total of 264 (76.08%) were the inhabitants of the Kaski district. A total of one hundred seventy eight (51.29%) cases were males. The most common symptoms seen were fever among 335 (96.54%) patients and headache among 141 (40.63%) patients. Leukopenia was seen in 192 (55.33%) patients and thrombocytopenia was seen in 165 (47.55%) of the admitted cases. Conclusions: The prevalence of admitted dengue cases was higher as compared to other studies done in similar settings.