Background In late 2019, the world saw a viral outbreak of unprecedented scale that sent a significant fraction of humankind into either quarantine or lockdown. Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a respiratory tract infection caused by the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), which was first recognized in Wuhan, China, in December 2019. Methods We created and administered a 17-item questionnaire for health care professionals (HCPs) to assess their level of knowledge towards this ongoing and evolving pandemic. It was disseminated through Web- and mobile-based social networks. The questions were sourced and created from various standard national and international guidelines available at the time of writing. Results A total of 827 medical personnel participated in the study. Among them, 65.5% scored between 60% and 79%, indicating a moderate level of knowledge. There was no statistically significant difference in the scores of doctors, nursing officers and dental surgeons ( p = 0.200). Participants had good knowledge regarding clinical symptoms, mode of transmission and preventive measures. But the study identified some gaps in knowledge in the implementation of management protocols, handling of dead bodies and biomedical waste management of COVID-19 cases. Conclusion With this understanding, regular training, drills and knowledge dissemination along with skill development through learning correct practices focusing on HCP at all levels are the current needs.

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Context: Tobacco use is the leading single preventable cause of deaths worldwide. India is the second largest consumer of tobacco in the world. Aims: To study the prevalence of tobacco use among the adult population >15 years age of District Gautam-Budh Nagar and find the association of various socio-demographic factors with the tobacco usage. Settings and Design: Cross-sectional community-based study conducted in urban and rural areas of District Gautam-Budh Nagar, Uttar-Pradesh. Subjects and Methods: The study was conducted among 1461 adults aged 15 years and above in the District Gautam-Budh Nagar. Multistage sampling was used to select the study subjects. The questionnaire used for the interview consisted of questions related to socio-demographic profile, smoking habits and smokeless tobacco use, intention to quit and exposure to second-hand smoke. Statistical Analysis: The data were entered and analyzed in SPSS Software version 20.0. The prevalence of tobacco use was expressed in percentages. The association between various socio-demographic factors and tobacco use was assessed by Chi-square test. P value < 0.05 was taken as significant. Results: Prevalence of tobacco usage in this study was found to be 50.4% (65% among males and 28.8% among females). The prevalence of smoking and smokeless tobacco use in our study was 37.2% and 21.3%, respectively. Increasing age, male gender, and lower educational status were found to be significant risk factors for tobacco use in our study. Conclusions: India needs to gear up the efforts more and can still do more to make the proven tobacco control tools work for its citizens’ well-being.

Background – Diabetes mellitus (DM) has been broadly recognized as syndrome of hyperglycemia leading to various macro and microvascular complications. The different physiological systems that have been identified as a target of these injurious effects of hyperglycemia are excretory system, ocular system, central nervous system and cardiovascular system. Till date not much focus has been given to respiratory system as a possible target for deleterious effect of hyperglycemia.Objective – To assess the pulmonary functions in subjects with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) and compare them with age and sex matched healthy controls. Methods – This study was conducted on one hundred and twenty-five patients of type 2 diabetes Mellitus and a comparative number of age and sex matched non-diabetic individuals (control group) who met the inclusion and exclusion criteria. RMS Helios 401 computerized spirometer was used to assess pulmonary functions.Result – Results showed significantly lower values of FVC, FEV1, FEF25-75% and MVV among diabetic subjects as compared to controls (<0.05).Conclusion – We found that pulmonary function parameters in diabetic subjects were consistently lower than in healthy controls.