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A second dose of measles vaccine boosts the measles antibody status in the study population as compared to those who receive only a single dose.

INTRODUCTIONInjection is a skin piercing procedure performed with a syringe and needle to introduce a substance for prophylactic, curative or recreational purposes. Injection is one of the most common health care interventions globally.1 It is estimated that globally 16 billion injections are administered each year. The majority (90%-95%) of these injections are administered for curative purposes.Prophylactic injections (Immunization) accounts for around 5% of all injections.2 Estimates suggest that at least 50% of the world's injections administered each year are unsafe, particularly in developing countries. A majority of curative injections have been judged to be unnecessary, ineffective or inappropriate.3 Also in some countries of South-East Asia the proportion of unsafe injections is 75%. 4 Unsafe injections can transmit bacterial, viral and parasitic (malaria) infections. 5ABSTRACT Background: Estimates suggest that at least 50% of the world's injections administered each year are unsafe, particularly in developing countries. Unsafe injection practices put patients and healthcare providers at risk of infectious and non-infectious adverse events, sound knowledge of healthcare providers is vital to break the chain of blood borne diseases transmission caused by unsafe injection practices. Methods: Cross sectional observational questionnaire based study was carried out amongst 152 injection providers of 40 healthcare facilities of two districts of Kashmir valley (one rural and one urban) selected purposively. Results are summarised and presented in the form of tables and chi (x 2 ) test was used for test of association with statistical significance set at p-value of less than 0.05. Results: In this study out of 152 injection providers, majority (81.57%) were in the age range of 21-40 years and 74.3% were females. 43.4% of the participants were FMPHWs, 30.9% were nurses and 13.8% pharmacists. Overall 65.8% and 67.1% of injection providers had correct knowledge regarding WHO definition of safe injection and infections transmitted by unsafe injections respectively. Majority (90.8%) were aware about the biomedical waste management rules. Conclusions: We conclude that over all the knowledge of different aspects of injection safety was good among the participants except the poor knowledge ofpost exposure prophylaxis and disposal of injection related waste despite the use of color coded bags at the sites of waste generation.

Objective: To compare two methods of tubal sterilization; modied Pomeroy and a modication added to modied Pomeroy's method, in a low resource setting. In this prospective study conducted fromMethods: 2019 to 2021 in one thousand women, we compared Pomeroy's method with an other method in which a slight modication in the original modied Pomeroy's technique was introduced, in a very low resource rural community hospital with only basic operation theater facility. In modied Pomeroy's method, a loop of fallopian tube is resected and transxed with 2-0 chromic catgut surgical suture material. In our study we added another modication to the modied Pomeroy's method, wherein the proximal end of the fallopian tube was additionally ligated with a 2-0 silk suture. The patients were followed up from 6months-2 years. A failure rate of 0.4% was observed in women who underwent Modied Pomeroy's method in contrast to noResults: failure in women in whom the proximal end of the tube was additionally ligated. Additional modication to theConclusion: original modied Pomeroy's method of sterilization can be potentially promising in reduction of sterilization failure rate in parts of world where salpingectomy is less readily accepted.

Introduction: Hypertension, also known as high or raised blood pressure, is a global public health issue. It’s among the top ten leading causes of death in the world. Poor compliance to anti-hypertensive therapy is usually associated with bad outcome of the disease and wastage of limited health care resources. Objectives: To assess the prevalence, socio-demographic correlates and treatment compliance of the hypertensive patients. Method: This community based cross sectional study was conducted in a peri-urban area in the month of May 2019.This study was conducted in relation to May Measurement Month, an Initiative which was first observed by international Society of Hypertension in May 2017. This area is divided into six Mohallas from which two Mohallas were selected randomly. All households from the selected Mohallas were included in this house to house survey. A total of 1076 subjects above the age of 15 years participated in the study. The analysis of data was done using SPSS version 20.00 and standard statistical test like chi square (x2) was applied where ever required. Results: Over all prevalence of high blood pressure was found to be 28.8% in study population with 82.6% known hypertensives and 17.4% detected with raised BP for the first time. The overall compliance to treatment in known hypertensives was 34.4%. Conclusion: A very low treatment compliance level was observed in the study participants which needs redressal by way of mass awareness campaigns, as well as individual counseling for Behaviour Change Communication.

Background: Adverse events following immunization (AEFI) is an event of unexpected medical emergency occurring after vaccination without any causal association with vaccination. It can be any unintended, abnormal laboratory finding or anything. The present study was conducted to evaluate the incidence and severity of AEFI associated with the COVID-19 vaccines. Methods: All the beneficiaries who had received two doses of Covishield and Covaxin vaccine from SKIMS Soura and provided consent were included in this prospective study. Each beneficiary was contacted telephonically. A self- designed questionnaire was used to interview them. The beneficiaries were contacted twice. The data was entered into and analysed using SPSS version 20. Results: A total of 267 participants (52.3%) reported at least one of the AEFI following Covaxin vaccine. It was found that participants with AEFIs following the first dose had more chances to develop them following its second dose and this difference was found to be statistically significant (OR=6.8, p=0.0001). A total of 670 participants (38.0%) reported at least one of the AEFI following Covishield vaccine. The incidence of AEFIs was more after the first dose (31.6%) than that of the second dose (6.4%) and this difference was found to be statistically significant (p<0.0001). Conclusions: Most of the AEFI are minor and can be managed symptomatically. Therefore, these AEFIs should not be a hurdle for vaccination.

Background: Nutrition can be defined as the science that studies food and how food nourishes our body and influences our health. Proper nutrition can help us improve our health, prevent certain diseases, achieve and maintain a desirable weight and maintain our energy and vitality. Malnutrition is a broad term commonly used as an alternative to under nutrition (wasting, stunting and underweight) but technically it also refers to over nutrition (overweight and obesity). Nutrition is particularly important in early childhood when growth is most rapid. Assessment of nutritional status of under-5 children in block Hajin and to identify the factors associated with malnutrition in these under-fives.  Methods: This is a community based cross sectional study, conducted in health block Hajin on a random sample of 403 under five children using multistage sampling technique based on probability proportionate to size (PPS).  Results: depicts that most of the children belonged to age group 25-60 months (45.9%), there was female preponderance (54.1%) among the study subjects. Most of the study subjects were having birth order first (40.9%). Majority of the study population were having birth interval between 2 to 3 years (40.8%).   Conclusions: From the study it is concluded that prevalence of different forms of malnutrition was comparatively lower as compared to national data. Malnutrition was more in infants, female gender, under-fives belonging to nuclear families, having illiterate mothers and those belonging to lower socioeconomic status.