Background: Leprosy is often referred to as the oldest disease known to man. Leprosy as a social disease has been a major public health problem because of the social stigma and ignorance attached to it. India achieved elimination status for leprosy in 2005; however, the reported prevalence continues to be high in some of the states. Leprosy understood as God’s retribution, has been present since the colonial times. Stigma attached to leprosy is typically a social process, experienced or anticipated, characterized by exclusion, rejection, blame or devaluation that result from experience, perception or reasonable anticipation of an adverse social judgment about a person or group. Objective was to study the demographic and epidemiological features of leprosy in the post-elimination era.Methods: A retrospective descriptive study was conducted from July 2019 to September 2019. Case records of newly diagnosed leprosy patients were included in the study. The secondary data was collected from district leprosy society Kathua retrospectively for a period of nine and half years (from April 2010 to September 2019). Data was entered in Microsoft excel and Descriptive statistics were analysed.Results: In our study, 154 total leprosy cases were registered from April 2010 to September 2019. Among the demographic details of leprosy cases, maximum number of cases were in the age group of 31-40 years (38.31%) and childhood leprosy cases were 1.94%. Majority of cases were females as compared to males. Out of 154 cases, 35 cases were outsiders registered in the Kathua district. The treatment completion rate was 100%, no defaulter cases were reported from the past decade.Conclusions: Leprosy continues to be a communicable disease of concern in the post-elimination era. This alarms the need to strengthen contact screening, early case detection, referral activities and even more focus on the pediatric population to sustain elimination.
A BSTRACT Introduction: To complement the Swachhata Abhiyaan effort, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, initiated “KAYAKALP.” Kayakalp is an initiative to improve the cleanliness, hygiene, and sanitation of public health facilities by recognizing and giving awards to those who exhibit a high level of cleanliness, hygiene, and infection control. Our study aimed to assess the level of cleanliness, hygiene, and infection control practices in the health care facility after undertaking by the department of Community Medicine of a medical college. Methodology: A retrospective comparative observational study was conducted at RHTC in the Kathua district of UT J and K. We compare the level of cleanliness, hygiene, and infection control practices using the Kayakalp scoring tool before and after taking over by the department of Community Medicine of a medical college. The scoring for various areas of concern is based on a checklist for quality assessment which includes facility upkeep, sanitation and hygiene, waste management, and infection control. Results: The total scores vary before and after undertaking of a Primary Health Center (PHC) by the Community Medicine Department of new medical college of J and K. Overall scores vary from the baseline score of 56% before to 84% now after 2 years of the undertaking. Conclusion: Resource management and capacity building under the guidance of public health professionals can result in a significant increase in hygiene, cleanliness, and infection control. So integrated approach involves public health specialists and other medical professionals like medical officers, field workers, sanitary inspectors. etc., can be helpful in recognizing the challenges and barriers.
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