RESUMO
Objectives: With the introduction of antiretroviral treatment (ART), opportunistic infections (OIs) reduced a lot and most HIV-associated OIs are preventable and treatable with safe cost-effective interventions. But however, in order to prevent and early diagnosis, we need to have baseline estimation of OIs among HIV positive children and other factors associated, especially nutritional deficiencies. Methodology: A cross-sectional study was carried out in pediatric outpatient department (OPD) of a large multicentric hospital among 106 children. Data were collected by means of pretested predesigned semi-structed questionnaire prepared on consultation with experts in the subjects and clinical assessment was done in day light to detect signs of nutritional disorders. Institutional ethical clearance was taken, and strict confidentiality was maintained. Results: Majority (39.6%) of the children belong to 5-9 years. Children were equitably distributed between orphanage and family care giver. Bitot's spots, cheilosis, and gum bleeding were found to be more than twice as common in subjects living with family, as compared to those living in orphanage while aphthous ulcer, knock knee, bow leg were found to be more than twice as common in female subjects as compared males. The prevalence of Pneumonia, Mumps, Herpes zoster, Pulmonary Tuberculosis, Oral candidiasis, and recurrent upper respiratory tract infections (URTI) was found to be about twice as common in subjects living with family, as compared to those living in orphanage while males had more Chicken pox, Herpes zoster, Pulmonary Tuberculosis, Oral candidiasis, and Recurrent URTI as compared to those in females. Conclusion: Vitamin deficiencies and opportunistic infections were higher than the prevalence reported by the various studies done on normal children. All efforts to be made to improve adequate nutrition to HIV positive children and ensure protection against opportunistic infections especially for children in home-based care.
RESUMO
Context: Dengue, a mosquito-borne illness, is endemic over 100 countries around the world. Dengue cases have been on rise in India in the past decade. The present study was conducted to describe dengue cases of a ward in an urban area. Aims: To analyse the 5-year trend of cases of dengue fever, the 5-year trend of disease burden attributable to dengue as a proportion of all consultations, and the 5-year trend of mortality attributable to dengue as a proportion of all deaths in an urban area. Settings: The present study is a retrospective record-based study, carried out from January 2014 to December 2019. Material and Methods: Descriptive analysis was used to describe the cases. Standard statistical tools such as Chi square for linear trends were utilised for data analysis. Results: Except for a marginal dip in the year 2017, we observed that the trend of dengue significantly increased during the period of our study (Chi square for linear trend = 217.54; P = 0). We also observed a generally significantly increasing trend in burden of dengue as a disease, measured as a proportion of all consultations (Chi square for linear trend = 14302.72; P = 0). Mortality attributable to dengue measured as a ratio of deaths because of dengue and deaths because of all causes also shows a generally increasing trend with a slight decrease in 2018 (Chi square for linear trend = 371.24; P = 0). Conclusion: Dengue cases and the percentage of consultations attributable to dengue show an increasing trend over the past 5 years.