Objectives:To study the knowledge and practices related to newborn care in urban slums of Lucknow city, UP, and to identify critical behaviors, practices, and barriers that influence the survival of newborns.Materials and Methods:A cross-sectional study in urban slums of Lucknow city, UP, included 524 women who had a live birth during last 1 year preceding data collection. Data were analyzed using statistical software SPSS 10.0 for windows.Results:Study findings showed that about half of the deliveries took place at home. Majority (77.1%) of the mothers believed that baby should be bathed with warm water and dried with clean cloth and 79.7% mothers practiced it. Only 36.6% mothers initiated breast-feeding within 1 h of birth and 30.2% initiated after 1 day. The mothers who have not given colostrum to their baby, in majority the reason was customs.Conclusion:In majority of cases, correct knowledge and correct practices regarding newborn care were lacking among mothers and this should be promoted through improved coverage with existing health services.

Background:Under National Rural Health Mission (NRHM), ASHA (accredited social health activist) has been identified as an effective link to address the poor utilization of maternal and child health (MCH) services by rural pregnant women.Objective:To study the factors influencing utilization of ASHA services in relation to maternal health.Study Design:Cross-sectional.SettingPrimary Health Centre (PHC), Sarojininagar, Lucknow and its rural field area.Study Period:September 2007 to August 2008.Study Unit:RDW (recently delivered women) were considered as those who delivered a live newborn at PHC Sarojininagar, within a week of interview and belonged to villages within the confines of the PHC being served by ASHA.Materials and Methods:350 RDW were interviewed at their bedside, by a preformed and pretested schedule and then were followed-up after six weeks.Results:Utilization of ASHA services for early registration was significantly associated with age and religion of RDW. Young, educated and socio-economic class III RDW utilized ASHA services the maximum for early registration. Utilization of ASHA services for adequate ANC or antenatal care (100 iron and folic acid tablets, 2 tetanus toxoid injection and ≥3 antenatal visits) was also inversely associated with age of RDW. Young, Hindu, scheduled caste, middle school pass, Class III RDW and those with birth order one had high odds for utilization of ASHA services for adequate ANC. With regard to postnatal check-up, again young RDW with birth order one, Hindu RDW in reference to Muslim and RDW in socio-economic class III had higher likelihood for utilization of ASHA services. Caste-wise scheduled caste (SC) and other backward caste (OBC) RDW had higher odds for utilization of ASHA services. Educated RDW and those with educated husband had higher odds for utilization of ASHA services for postnatal check-up.Conclusion:Young, educated RDW with low parity, educated husband and belonging to higher socio-economic class had higher odds of utilization of ASHA services.

To address poor utilization of maternal and child health services by the rural community, the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) was launched in 2005 in India. Under NRHM, ASHA (Accredited Social Health Activist) was identified as an effective link between the government and poor pregnant women.  The aim of the present study was to examine the utilization of ASHA services under NRHM in relation to maternal health by the Recently Delivered Women (RDW) in the study area. A cross-sectional study was conducted at PHC Sarojini Nagar, Lucknow and its rural field areas. A sample of 350 RDW, chosen by simple random sampling, were interviewed at bedside by a preformed schedule and then were followed up after six weeks. Antenatal registration was reported by 97% RDW of which 73% registered early. About 53% RDW had three or more antenatal care visits. Two dose Tetanus Toxoid coverage was 92.9%. Receipt and consumption of iron and folic acid was low. ASHA was the major facilitator for higher utilization of antenatal care services, except for Iron and Folic Acid receipt/consumption.  Low utilization of postnatal care (21.5% RDW had at least one postnatal check-up) is a matter of concern. Knowledge and awareness of ASHA on importance of postnatal care needs to be enhanced via hands on training by specialists and regular orientation programs. Better and intense advocacy in the community regarding importance of availing services of ASHA in relation to maternal health needs to be addressed.South East Asia J Public Health | Jan-June 2012 | Vol 2 Issue 1 | 24-27 DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3329/seajph.v2i1.15261

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The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has caused the world to operate uncharacteristically for almost the last two years. Governments across the globe have taken different control measures to eradicate it. The Oxford provides open access data for different countries on 20 control measures, including numerous aggregated indices. This paper employs the modified Susceptible-Exposed-Infectious-Recovered (SEIR) epidemiology model to study the COVID-19 pandemic in Saudi Arabia. The modification has been achieved by including control measures and the infectiousness of exposed compartment. A hybrid approach has been used to estimate and incorporate control measures. Initially, a composite control measure has been derived from OxCGRT data to make an attempt to fit the COVID-19 pattern in Saudi Arabia. The derived model has proven to be satisfactory through statistical tests. Nonetheless, the model patterns do not resemble the reported patterns more closely. Hence, a second heuristic approach has been utilized to devise effective control measures from the reported pattern of COVID-19 from the Saudi government agency. A satisfactory model was derived utilizing this approach with successful validation through statistical tests. Also, the model patterns more closely resemble the reported patterns of COVID-19 cases. This hybrid approach proves more robust and ensures the validity of model parameters better. The R naught (R 0 ) value with the current control measures has varied from 0.515 to 1.892, with a mean value of 1.119, and is presently less than 1. The threshold herd immunity, in the absence of any control measure, is estimated to be 47.12% with an R 0 value of 1.89 and would end up infecting 76.32% of the population. The scenario analysis with gradual partial and complete relaxations up to December 31, 2021, shows that the peaks are likely to occur in 2022; therefore, Saudi Arabia must continue to inoculate its population to eradicate COVID-19.