Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Violation of Drug and Magic Remedies Act India

Country is trapped in false beliefs and religion. Unfortunately not many people with high degrees coming forward to stop this menace. Today news is that Uncle burns two small boys (3 years and 18 months old) in Ghaziabad to rid them of demonic presence. On sunday, the family had organized a hawan at their house after suggestion of a Pundit to rid of demonic effect leading to recurrent illness among family members. The small children were forced to get the cleansing effect of sacred fire of hawan when both burnt. Interesting thing is that instead of rushing to hospitals the family members immediately too the children to Kalkaji Temple in Delhi bypassing almost 4-5 big hospitals believing that only goddess Kali could save them but that didn't work. After that they rushed the kids to a sufi saint's mosque in Deoband near Saharanpur. But before reaching to that destination children died in the way. Although later on three people wee arrested including Pundit. Such incidences are common features of newspaper in India. (Source Mail Today 25th Jan 2011)

We have legislation "The Drugs and magic Remedies Act 1955" which prohibit such practices carried out by Pundits, Ojhas, Maulvis, faith-healers, and hundred thousands of quacks who has magic remedies for almost all illnesses and advertised on prime TV channels and leading newspapers. All are violating this legislation and liable for punishment. Magic remedies includes a talisman, mantra, kavacha, and any other charm of any kind which is alleged to possess miraculous powers for or in the diagnosis, cure, mitigation treatment or prevention of any disease in human beings or animals or for affecting or influencing in any way the structure or any organic function of the human or animal body. Advertisement of such remedies is banned and contravention of any provision of this Act shall be punished with imprisonment, which may extend to 6 months or 1 year in second or subsequent violation, or with fine or with both.

Wednesday, January 19, 2011

Occupational Stress Amongst Nurses from Two Tertiary Care Hospitals in Delhi

Nirmanmoh Bhatia, Jugal Kishore, Tanu Anand, Ram Chander Jiloha

Background: Nursing is known to be a stressful profession. Nursing staff working at the bottom of the hierarchy and in public hospitals are the ones who are more stressed out. There is a
paucity of data on prevalence of stress amongst nurses in the Indian setting. The individual contribution of various stressors, operational in nurse’s personal and professional life, to the overall stress levels also needs to be studied.
Method: A hospital based cross sectional study was carried out on 87 randomly selected staff nurses working in two tertiary care teaching hospitals of Central Delhi. Data was collected using
pre-tested and self-administered questionnaire. Sociodemographic profile, stressors in daily life, stressors at workstation and total stress level was also assessed. The data was fed and analysed using WHO’s EPI-INFO 2005 software.
Results: 87.4% of nurses from the sample reported occupational stress. The prevalence of occupational stress amongst nurses was 87.4%. ‘Time Pressure’ was found to be the
most stressful whereas ‘Discrimination’ was the least stressful of the given possible sources of stress in everyday life. Other highly stressful sources were: handling various issues of life simultaneously with occupation such as caring for own children/parents, own work situation and personal responsibilities. ‘High level of skill requirement of the job’ was the most important stressor and ‘helpfulness of supervisors/senior sisters’ was the least significant stressor
directly related to nursing profession. Other significant work related stressors were: the fact that their jobs required them to learn new things and that they had to attend to, too many patients at the same time.
Conclusion: High prevalence of stress was found amongst nurses, and suggests the need for stress reduction programmes targeting specific important stressors.
Key Words: Nurses, Stress, Occupational Stress, Tertiary Care Hospitals, India
Australasian Medical Journal AMJ 2010, 3, 11, 731-738 (http://www.amj.net.au/index.php?journal=AMJ&page=search&op=titles&searchPage=10)

Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia: Health Seeking Behaviour of patients at a tertiary care hospital. Aman Deep Dr. Gopal Krishna Ingle Dr. Jugal Kishore

Background: Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia is a widely prevalent condition
affecting elderly men throughout the world. With increasing
life expectancy, there has been a rise in the percentage of
elderly men and so for this disease across the globe. There is
lack of information about health seeking behaviour of patients
with Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia. Therefore the study was
designed with the objectives of assessing health-seeking
behaviour and the effect of literacy on it among adult and
older subjects suffering from Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia
attending a tertiary care hospital.
Method: A series of 81 patients suffering from Benign Prostatic
Hyperplasia above the age of 50 years, attending surgical Out
Patient Department of a tertiary care hospital in Delhi, were
assessed for their health seeking behaviour using a pre-tested
and a modified questionnaire designed for assessing health
seeking behaviour.
Results: Positive health seeking behaviour of patients was observed in
44%, who reported to a doctor within a month of noticing
their problem. A greater proportion of the literates was aware
about the symptoms suggestive of enlarged prostate and
consulted a qualified health care practitioner as their first
action. More literates approached the higher level of health
care facility on being referred and had maximum faith in
allopathic system of medicine. Also, lesser number of literates
had performed pooja (Hindi word for worship) or other
traditional rituals for relief of their problems.
Conclusion: We concluded that majority of subjects suffering from
Benign Prostatic Hypertrophy were not aware of their
disease and their health-seeking behaviour was poor and
could be related to literacy. Our data highlights the need
for public awareness program targeting the younger male
population so that early detection and treatment can be
offered.
Key Words: Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia, Health Seeking Behaviour,
Awareness.
Australasian Medical Journal AMJ 2010, 1, 3, 213-216 (http://www.amj.net.au/index.php?journal=AMJ&page=article&op=view&path%5B%5D=166.)

Self Reflection

Self-Reflection on yesterday    My birth took place in a house of Masih Garh village of Delhi in 1967 covered with the dusty sand of poverty...