A 14-month-old male child presented with recurrent generalized seizures, spastic hemiplegia, microcephaly and had developmental delay in motor and speech domains. CT of the brain revealed characteristic features diagnostic of infantile type of cerebral hemiatrophy or Dyke-Davidoff-Masson syndrome.

The present study aimed to assess the prevalence of psychological distress, associated lifestyle behaviors, and associated coping strategies among the students of healthcare profession. A total of 588 medical, dental, and nursing students studying in institutes of health sciences, KIIT University, Bhubaneswar, India participated in this cross-sectional online survey during September–October, 2020. A semi-structured questionnaire, DASS-21questionnaire, and Brief COPE were used to collect relevant information. The proportion of students experiencing symptoms of depression, anxiety, and stress was 26.2%, 27.7%, and 9.7%, respectively. Body mass index, presence of comorbidity, and soft drink consumption were significantly associated with psychological distress. Students experiencing psychological distress were applying emotion-focused coping behaviors (venting, acceptance, self-blame, substance use, religion) and avoidant coping behaviors (self-distraction, behavioral disengagement, denial). The prevalence of psychological distress among the students of health profession studying in KIIT University of Bhubaneswar during the period of Covid-19 pandemic is low and it can be further lowered by designing appropriate interventions incorporating healthy lifestyle behaviors and suitable coping strategies thereby ensuring sound mental health of these students.

Rapidly growing rate of infection among health workers during the current COVID-19 pandemic, is posing a serious challenge to global health systems. Lately, India is also witnessing an intensifying COVID-19 disease burden and its impact on health workers. This paper aims to discuss the challenges to health worker protection in India and the possible ways forward. Given the inadequate and unequally distributed healthcare workforce, it is highly essential for the country to strategize prompt measures for ensuring occupational health and safety of its health workers. Information for this paper were gathered by searching PubMed and Google Scholar databases using “COVID-19”, “Infection Control”, “Health worker”, “India” as search keywords in different combinations. In addition, websites of Government of India, relevant UN agencies and leading news agencies were also searched manually for related reports and publications. India must take timely measures in rapid manufacturing and procurement of essential personal protective equipment (PPE) to ensure adequate stockpiling to meet the rising demands. Comprehensive and repeated training with sharply focussed content including usage of PPE kits as well as active surveillance of adherence to recommended protocol are critical in protecting health workers especially the primary care physicians and frontline health staff from the deadly COVID-19 infection. The provision of psychological and financial support for health workers and their families is absolutely critical in building trust and dedicated work efforts by the health workforce for a continuous fight against the deadly disease.

Background: Menarche and menstrual experiences play a critical role in adolescent girls' life. These not only significantly influence their sexual and reproductive health but also possess much social and educational impact. This study qualitatively explores the perceptions, practices and experiences related to menarche and menstruation among rural Indian adolescent girls which has been less studied in the past literature.Methods: A convenience sampling method was used to select 32 adolescent girls (eight girls who did not reach menarche and 24 girls who attained menarche) from rural Maharashtra in India. Information about the perceptions, practices and experiences of menarche and menstruation among the participants was obtained through focus group discussions and was analyzed using thematic analysis.Findings: Most of the participants, especially girls without menarche lacked adequate knowledge about menstruation and its processes. All communications regarding menstruation were between friends, whereas mothers were found to be playing a limited role. Some of the girls were using sanitary pads, while most girls still use old cloths. Financial concerns and difficulty in obtaining sanitary pads were major obstructions for their use. Lack of awareness and appropriate care for menstrual morbidities were reported among these girls, which put impact on their educational attainment.Conclusions: Suitable strategy needs to be developed for providing correct knowledge about menstruation among adolescent girls, such as inclusion of adolescent friendly services in school curriculum and training of mothers and teachers to provide friendly counselling to the girls. Further, menstrual pad vending machines could be installed in schools and colleges, for easy access of sanitary pads at subsidized rate. Special care and support during menstruation can prevent several adverse events from occurring in adolescent girls' lives.