COVID-19 Associated Reversible Cerebral Vasoconstriction Syndrome Successfully Treated with Nimodipine and Aspirin.

There have been limited cases linking SARS-CoV-2 infection with the development of reversible cerebral vasoconstriction syndrome (RCVS). We hereby report a rare case of RCVS in the setting of mild SARS-CoV-2 respiratory infection successfully treated with nimodipine and aspirin. SARS-CoV-2 attacks the ACE2-receptors, which are expressed in various body organs including the lungs, kidneys, and blood vessels. Vasoconstriction can result from down-regulation of the ACE2-receptors that can lead to sympathetic hypertonia of the cerebral blood vessel walls and/or over-activation of the renin-angiotensin axis.

Essential childbirth and postnatal interventions for improved maternal and neonatal health.

Childbirth and the postnatal period, spanning from right after birth to the following several weeks, presents a time in which the number of deaths reported still remain alarmingly high. Worldwide, about 800 women die from pregnancy- or childbirth-related complications daily while almost 75% of neonatal deaths occur within the first seven days of delivery and a vast majority of these occur in the first 24 hours. Unfortunately, this alarming trend of mortality persists, as 287,000 women lost their lives to pregnancy and childbirth related causes in 2010. Almost all of these deaths were preventable and occurred in low-resource settings, pointing towards dearth of adequate facilities in these parts of the world. The main objective of this paper is to review the evidence based childbirth and post natal interventions which have a beneficial impact on maternal and newborn outcomes. It is a compilation of existing, new and updated interventions designed to help physicians and policy makers and enable them to reduce the burden of maternal and neonatal morbidities and mortalities. Interventions during the post natal period that were found to be associated with a decrease in maternal and neonatal morbidity and mortality included: advice and support of family planning, support and promotion of early initiation and continued breastfeeding; thermal care or kangaroo mother care for preterm and/or low birth weight babies; hygienic care of umbilical cord and skin following delivery, training health personnel in basic neonatal resuscitation; and postnatal visits. Adequate delivery of these interventions is likely to bring an unprecedented decrease in the number of deaths reported during childbirth.

Essential pre-pregnancy and pregnancy interventions for improved maternal, newborn and child health.

The statistics related to pregnancy and its outcomes are staggering: annually, an estimated 250000-280000 women die during childbirth. Unfortunately, a large number of women receive little or no care during or before pregnancy. At a period of critical vulnerability, interventions can be effectively delivered to improve the health of women and their newborns and also to make their pregnancy safe. This paper reviews the interventions that are most effective during preconception and pregnancy period and synergistically improve maternal and neonatal outcomes. Among pre-pregnancy interventions, family planning and advocating pregnancies at appropriate intervals; prevention and management of sexually transmitted infections including HIV; and peri-conceptual folic-acid supplementation have shown significant impact on reducing maternal and neonatal morbidity and mortality. During pregnancy, interventions including antenatal care visit model; iron and folic acid supplementation; tetanus Immunisation; prevention and management of malaria; prevention and management of HIV and PMTCT; calcium for hypertension; anti-Platelet agents (low dose aspirin) for prevention of Pre-eclampsia; anti-hypertensives for treating severe hypertension; management of pregnancy-induced hypertension/eclampsia; external cephalic version for breech presentation at term (>36 weeks); management of preterm, premature rupture of membranes; management of unintended pregnancy; and home visits for women and children across the continuum of care have shown maximum impact on reducing the burden of maternal and newborn morbidity and mortality. All of the interventions summarized in this paper have the potential to improve maternal mortality rates and also contribute to better health care practices during preconception and periconception period.

Essential interventions: implementation strategies and proposed packages of care.

In an effort to accelerate progress towards achieving Millennium Development Goal (MDG) 4 and 5, provision of essential reproductive, maternal, newborn and child health (RMNCH) interventions is being considered. Not only should a state-of-the-art approach be taken for services delivered to the mother, neonate and to the child, but services must also be deployed across the household to hospital continuum of care approach and in the form of packages. The paper proposed several packages for improved maternal, newborn and child health that can be delivered across RMNCH continuum of care. These packages include: supportive care package for women to promote awareness related to healthy pre-pregnancy and pregnancy interventions; nutritional support package for mother to improve supplementation of essential nutrients and micronutrients; antenatal care package to detect, treat and manage infectious and noninfectious diseases and promote immunization; high risk care package to manage preeclampsia and eclampsia in pregnancy; childbirth package to promote support during labor and importance of skilled birth attendance during labor; essential newborn care package to support healthy newborn care practices; and child health care package to prevent and manage infections. This paper further discussed the implementation strategies for employing these interventions at scale.

Review of nutrition guidelines relevant for adolescents in low- and middle-income countries.

The economic and social well-being of any country will one day depend on its current adolescent population. To provide a good foundation for healthy adolescent development, healthy diet, along with physical activity and adequate nutrients, is necessary. Therefore, addressing the nutrition needs of adolescents could be an important step toward breaking the vicious cycle of intergenerational malnutrition, chronic diseases, and poverty. These problems could be addressed with timely recognition and appropriately delivered interventions. Our aim here is to review the existing guidelines on various aspects of nutrition interventions for adolescents and young women. We review all of the major existing guidelines on adolescent nutrition. We were able to find 18 guideline bodies that covered some form of nutritional advice in guidelines that targeted adolescents. Although the guidelines that focus specifically on this age group are limited in scope, we also extrapolated recommendations from guidelines focused on adults, women of reproductive age, and pregnant women, which were based on evidence that included populations of adolescent girls. We were able to extract and synthesize specific directives for nutrition in adolescents, macro- and micronutrient supplementation, exercise, obesity, and nutrition during preconception, pregnancy, and the postconception period.

Factors behind not using child restrain(t) among hospital employees and general population: A case control study.

BACKGROUND: Motor vehicle crash (MVC) related injury has been identified as a major public health concern. Child restrain (CR) seat belts can minimize the mortality and morbidity from MVC. The use for seat belts is substantially low in developing countries like Pakistan even though its use has been shown to decrease morbidity and mortality by a significant extent. METHODS: This was a case control study with cases from the general population (GP) and controls from the Aga Khan University (AKU) employees in a 3:1 ratio. The study questionnaire was based on parameters like gender, education level, awareness and presence of CR and also assessed the frequency of usage, reasons for not using CR and the source of knowledge regarding CR use. RESULTS: Out of 848 respondents, 212 were from AKU and 636 were from the GP. 96.7% from AKU had at least a bachelor's degree while less than half (42.6%) of those from the GP were graduate or above (P<0.001). A statistically significant difference was found between the two groups with drivers from AKU being generally more aware about CR and its use. 81.1% of the group from AKU compared to 59.7% from the general population were found to be aware of child restraint use (P<0.001). Media (40.6%) was found to be the most common source of information amongst the AKU employees. CONCLUSION: Most motor vehicle related injuries in children can be prevented or their severity may be reduced by the use of appropriate child restraint seat belts.