A total of nearly 1,000 persons belonging to a number of caste, religious and tribal groupings in Kerala and the Nilgiri Hills of South India have been tested for genetic variation in 4 blood group, 5 serum protein and 17 enzyme systems as well as haemoglobin. The distribution of blood groups, serum protein and enzyme groups is similar to that reported for other South Indian populations. Of particular interest is the presence of LDH ‘Calcutta-1 variants in three of the Hindu and Muslim communities, as well as in two of the tribal populations. At locus 1 of phosphoglucomutase a new allele of the ‘slow’ variety was detected in more than 10% of the Malayarayan, in Kerala, but no examples of this variant were found in neighbouring populations. Abnormal haemoglobins were detected in several populations, HbS being present in more than 20% of the Irula and Kurumba in the Nilgiri Hills. In the Kerala populations there were 4 examples of Hb AD and 1 of Hb AE. Genetic distance estimates using the gene frequency data indicate that the closest groups are the Nayar and Izhava and the Brahmin and Nayar. The tribal populations are approximately twice as far from the Nayar as they are from the Izhava. The Todas of the Nilgiri Hills are somewhat closer to the Brahmin of Kerala than they are to the other tribal populations.

Background:  Patient satisfaction is as important as other clinical health measures and is a primary means of measuring the effectiveness of health care delivery. Patient-centered outcomes have taken central stage as the primary means of measuring the effectiveness of health care delivery. To evaluate the level of patient satisfaction with OPD services in terms of describing the experience of patients about medicine OPD services and accessibility to services among the patients who attended the medicine OPD of Jaiprakash hospital.Methods: As a cross -sectional descriptive study, we have taken patients who were registered in Medicine outpatient department of Jaiprakash Hospital of Bhopal over a period of two months. The research instrument for a data collection was a structured questionnaire for assessing the patient satisfaction. The experience and accessibility were categorized into good and poor while satisfaction into high and low using best criteria. Statistical analysis: Convenience sampling done for selection of patients registered in Medicine OPD. The data was analysed on statistical software SPSS VS.20.Results: The patients had the highest level of experience from medicine department OPD about helpfulness of nurses, about light and ventilation inside the OPD and about the good communication from the pharmacist. The poor experience was from the number of doctors in OPD and about the diagnostic place. As far as accessibility is concerned, 66% of patients had good accessibility towards medicine OPD while remaining 34% had poor accessibility towards Medicine OPD.Conclusions: Maximum number of respondents had very good experience while just small number of respondents had poor experience and majority of the patients had good accessibility regarding waiting time, service process and working hours.

A population genetic study among the Kota of the Nilgiri Hills, South India, involved tests for abnormal haemoglobins, 5 red cell antigen systems, 4 serum protein and 13 red cell enzyme systems. Twelve systems are invariant in the Kota. The most distinctive characteristics are extremely low frequency of the A₁gene and complete absence of A₂in the ABO system, r(cde) in the Rh system, LDH^Cal-1among the enzyme systems as well as absence of abnormal haemoglobins. A comparison of gene frequencies in those systems, which show variation, suggests that the Kota are more similar to the Toda than to any other tribal or caste population of the area. Genetic distance as well as principal component analysis also reveals that the Toda and Kota are close to each other, in agreement with tradition.

Background: Paediatric tuberculosis (TB) indicates presence in the community of sputum -positive pulmonary tuberculosis, presence of childhood risk factors for disease and stage of epidemic. This "orphan disease" exists in the shadow of adult TB and is a significant child health problem, but is neglected. As a result both research and surveillance data in the field of childhood TB has been greatly limited. Objective of the study was to find out the socio-demographic profile of paediatric TB patients registered under RNTCP in Bhopal city.Methods: A study was conducted in all tuberculosis treatment units (TU) of Bhopal city. All paediatric patients in the age group of 0 to 14 years diagnosed as TB and registered under RNTCP and fulfilling inclusion criteria during January to June 2013 (six months) were included in the study. The data was analysed on statistical software SPSS VS.20.Results: The maximum numbers of patients (66.06%) were in the age group of 1-10 years. More than half of the mothers and fathers of paediatric patients are either illiterate or having low educational status. In our study 92.72% of patients belonged to low socio economic status and also 69.09% of paediatric patients lived in overcrowded households and were malnourished.Conclusions: The study concluded that tuberculosis in children affects mainly the age group of 1-10 years and is more common in females. Poor housing conditions contribute to tuberculosis incidence as majority of the paediatric patients lives in semi Pucca and Kaccha house and gave a history of dwelling in overcrowded houses. Majority of children were malnourished.

Background: It is an established fact that healthy children build healthy nation. Proper management of Paediatric Tuberculosis is very essential for the control of tuberculosis as children also act as a source of infection within a community. The objective of the study was to determine the treatment outcome of paediatric TB patients registered under RNTCP in Bhopal city and to determine the relationship of socio-demographic profile and other selected factors with treatment outcome in Paediatric TB patients registered under RNTCP in Bhopal city.Methods: In this longitudinal study, data of all the paediatric TB patients (0 to 14 years of age group) diagnosed as TB and registered under R.N.T.C.P and fulfilling inclusion criteria during January 2013 to June 2013 were collected after obtaining informed consent from parents/guardians by using a structured questionnaire during their visit to designated microscopic centre (DMC) cum DOTS centre. The data was analysed on statistical software SPSS VS.20.Results: In our study 93.33% of paediatric patients were treatment completed, 4.84% were declared cure and 0.60% patients each were transferred out, declared treatment failure and died respectively. Educational status of mothers of paediatric patients (X2=40.569 and p=0.019, df=24), BCG vaccination (X2=11.299 and p=0.023, df=4) and nutritional status of children (X2=26.342 and p=0.049, df=16) are significantly associated with treatment outcome.Conclusions: Majority of paediatric patients were declared cured or treatment completed depending upon the result of sputum examination. In our study educational status of mothers of paediatric patients, BCG vaccination and nutritional status of children are significantly associated with treatment outcome. No association of treatment outcome was found with other selected factors such as age, gender, religion, type of family and socio economic status of paediatric patients.