Impact of mass drug administration on elimination of lymphatic filariasis in Surat city, India.

Lymphatic filariasis (LF) is one of the major public health problems in some of the endemic districts in India including Surat city of Gujarat province. Historical data reveals that in 1960s, Surat city had infection rate of about 23% and infectivity rate of 1.6%. Since then, Surat city has been reporting the cases of Lymphoedema and hydrocele. Filaria Control Unit was established under National Filaria Control Programme to detect and provide treatment to the cases. Based on the reports of NFCP, Surat City has been considered as LF endemic. During 2004, the country launched campaign of Elimination of Lymphatic Filariasis through Mass Drug Administration (MDA) with annual single dose of 6 mg/kg body weight of DEC tablets in all LF endemic districts including Surat city. Four rounds of MDA (2004-2007) had shown 41% reduction in mf rate, with drastic reduction in infection rate of 88% and 100% in infectivity rate. Serious adverse effect (SAE) after 4th round of MDA was insignificant (< 0.5%) during 2007. An assessment by surveying 5058 people in different parts of Surat city revealed the drug distribution coverage of more than 95% but actual drug compliance between 70-90%. Analysis of the data revealed that though the overall Microfilaria rate has been reduced due to MDA, higher Microfilaria rate was noticed in North zone of city where the migrant populations influx is higher. The observation and analysis of the data in Surat city towards elimination of Lymphatic filariasis has been discussed in this paper.

Epidemiological and entomological investigation in dengue outbreak area of Ahmedabad district.

Epidemiological and Entomological investigations conducted in seven affected villages of Sanand and Viramgam Talukas of Ahmedabad district revealed that all age groups and both the genders were affected. 33.33% blood samples of patients showed seropositivity suggesting dengue infection Similarly, Dengue virus antigen was detected in 7 Females Ae. aegypti out of 2 Males and 26 Females tested by indirect immunofluroscent technique. Aedes aegypti population measured by various parameters i.e. Premise index (32.16%), Receptacle index (26.15%) and infested receptacle index (0.36%) were above the critical limit. Aedes aegypti population is susceptible to 5% Malathion. The findings suggest the fever outbreak was of dengue. Co-related evidences indicated the possible role of dengue 2 virus in the outbreak.

The Children's Affective Lability Scale: a psychometric evaluation of reliability.

The Children's Affective Lability Scale (CALS) is a 20-item parent report measure developed to assess affect regulation in children aged 6-16. It was normed with school children in regular education classrooms and with children hospitalized in a psychiatric facility. Internal-consistency reliability, split-half reliability, and two-week test-retest reliability were excellent. Staff interrater reliability in the psychiatric sample was acceptable. Higher CALS scores were observed in an in-patient psychiatric sample than in either an out-patient or a normative sample. A principal components factor analysis yielded two components for the normative sample.

Psychometric characteristics of the Children's Motivation Scale.

A 16-item Children's Motivation Scale (CMS) was developed to evaluate level of motivation in children and adolescents. The study population consisted of a normative sample of 290 school children and a clinical sample of 165 child and adolescent psychiatric patients. Test-retest, internal consistency, and interrater reliability were fair to good for both samples. Validity of the CMS was demonstrated by its ability to differentiate clinical from normative samples according to the level of motivation, by a significant correlation of the CMS with an independent measure of withdrawal, and by its lack of correlation with an independent measure of depression. Principal components analysis identified a three-component structure. These findings support the conclusion that the CMS accesses a clinically important but often overlooked psychiatric construct.

Neuroleptic malignant syndrome: life-threatening complication of neuroleptic treatment in adolescents with affective disorder.

Neuroleptic malignant syndrome (NMS) is an uncommon, potentially fatal side effect of neuroleptic treatment characterized by hyperthermia, rigidity, rhabdomyolysis, and delirium. In recent clinical studies of adults it was suggested that affective disorder is a risk factor for the development of neuroleptic malignant syndrome. The cases of two adolescents with neuroleptic malignant syndrome who were treated with neuroleptic therapy because of psychotic symptoms in association with primary affective disorders are reported. The occurrence of these cases, as well as the observations in adults, suggests that attention to the primary psychiatric diagnosis is important in neuroleptic usage and that physicians should be vigilant to the occurrence of neuroleptic malignant syndrome in the pediatric population.

The Johns Hopkins Depression Scale: normative data and validation in child psychiatry patients.

With a newly devised 38-item symptom checklist based upon DSM-III criteria for major affective disorder, normative data were obtained on 1,004 school children, aged 5 to 13 years. The items on the checklist were scored on a severity scale of 0 to 4 with a maximum score of 152. The average raw scores in this population was 31.2, SD +/- 2.4. Of 57 inpatients, 27 met DSM-III criteria for a major affective disorder and obtained mean raw scores of 66.8, SD +/- 13.4. The 30 nondepressed inpatients had scores of 36.4, SD +/- 5.3. The differences in the raw scores between the depressed inpatients and normal controls, and depressed and nondepressed inpatients were found to be statistically significant (p less than 0.01). The new checklist can serve as a potential screening instrument, is not time consuming, and has been standardized on a large normal control population for age and sex.

Low-dose neuroleptic therapy for children with childhood-onset pervasive developmental disorder.

An open study of the therapeutic effects of low-dose neuroleptic treatment was performed on 12 consecutively hospitalized children, aged 7-11, who satisfied DSM-III criteria for childhood-onset pervasive developmental disorder. While receiving an average dose of 0.04 mg/kg per day of haloperidol or fluphenazine hydrochloride, the patients exhibited significant reductions in hyperactivity and aggressive symptoms and significant improvement in peer relations. This dose of neuroleptic was associated with minimal side effects. The authors conclude that low doses of potent neuroleptics may be effective treatment for some patients suffering from childhood-onset pervasive developmental disorder.