Potential for establishing an injury surveillance system in India: a review of data sources and reporting systems.

BACKGROUND: Unintentional injuries account for 10% of deaths worldwide; the majority due to road traffic injuries, falls, drowning, poisoning and burns. Effective surveillance systems provide evidence for informed injury prevention and treatment and improve recovery outcomes. Our objectives were to review existing sources of unintentional injury data, and quality of the data on the burden, distribution, risk factors and trends of unintentional injuries in India and to describe strengths and limitations of health facility-based data for potential use in injury surveillance systems. METHODS: We searched national and international organisations' websites to identify unintentional injury-related mortality and morbidity data sources in India. We reviewed and evaluated data collection methods for surveillance attributes recommended by World Health Organization (WHO). We visited health facilities at all levels from public and private sectors, emergency transport centres, insurance offices and police stations in settings reporting significant number of injuries. In these sites, we interviewed key stakeholders using an explorative approach on current data collection processes and challenges to establishing an injury surveillance system based on WHO guidelines. RESULTS: Major gaps were highlighted in injury mortality and morbidity data in India, including ill-defined causes of injury deaths and lack of standardisation in classification and coding. Site visits revealed that reporting standards of injuries varied, with issues around clarity of definitions, accountability, time points and lack of reporter/coder training. Major challenges were lack of dedicated staff and training. CONCLUSIONS: There is an important need to build human resource capacity, integrate data sources, standardise and streamline data collected, ensure accountability and capitalise on digital health information systems including insurance databases.

Fatty acid amide hydrolase (FAAH) inhibitors exert pharmacological effects, but lack antinociceptive efficacy in rats with neuropathic spinal cord injury pain.

Amelioration of neuropathic spinal cord injury (SCI) pain is a clinical challenge. Increasing the endocannabinoid anandamide and other fatty acid amides (FAA) by blocking fatty acid amide hydrolase (FAAH) has been shown to be antinociceptive in a number of animal models of chronic pain. However, an antinociceptive effect of blocking FAAH has yet to be demonstrated in a rat model of neuropathic SCI pain. Four weeks following a SCI, rats developed significantly decreased hind paw withdrawal thresholds, indicative of below-level cutaneous hypersensitivity. A group of SCI rats were systemically treated (i.p.) with either the selective FAAH inhibitor URB597 or vehicle twice daily for seven days. A separate group of SCI rats received a single dose (p.o.) of either the selective FAAH inhibitor PF-3845 or vehicle. Following behavioral testing, levels of the FAA N-arachidonoylethanolamide, N-oleoyl ethanolamide and N-palmitoyl ethanolamide were quantified in brain and spinal cord from SCI rats. Four weeks following SCI, FAA levels were markedly reduced in spinal cord tissue. Although systemic treatment with URB597 significantly increased CNS FAA levels, no antinociceptive effect was observed. A significant elevation of CNS FAA levels was also observed following oral PF-3845 treatment, but only a modest antinociceptive effect was observed. Increasing CNS FAA levels alone does not lead to robust amelioration of below-level neuropathic SCI pain. Perhaps utilizing FAAH inhibition in conjunction with other analgesic mechanisms could be an effective analgesic therapy.

Role of common mental and physical disorders in partial disability around the world.

BACKGROUND: Mental and physical disorders are associated with total disability, but their effects on days with partial disability (i.e. the ability to perform some, but not full-role, functioning in daily life) are not well understood. AIMS: To estimate individual (i.e. the consequences for an individual with a disorder) and societal effects (i.e. the avoidable partial disability in the society due to disorders) of mental and physical disorders on days with partial disability around the world. METHOD: Respondents from 26 nationally representative samples (n = 61 259, age 18+) were interviewed regarding mental and physical disorders, and day-to-day functioning. The Composite International Diagnostic Interview, version 3.0 (CIDI 3.0) was used to assess mental disorders; partial disability (expressed in full day equivalents) was assessed with the World Health Organization Disability Assessment Schedule in the CIDI 3.0. RESULTS: Respondents with disorders reported about 1.58 additional disability days per month compared with respondents without disorders. At the individual level, mental disorders (especially post-traumatic stress disorder, depression and bipolar disorder) yielded a higher number of days with disability than physical disorders. At the societal level, the population attributable risk proportion due to physical and mental disorders was 49% and 15% respectively. CONCLUSIONS: Mental and physical disorders have a considerable impact on partial disability, at both the individual and at the societal level. Physical disorders yielded higher effects on partial disability than mental disorders.

Therapeutic response of a brother and sister with xeroderma pigmentosum to imiquimod 5% cream.

BACKGROUND: Xeroderma pigmentosum (XP) is an autosomal recessive disease marked by solar sensitivity, photophobia, early onset of freckling, and solar-induced cutaneous neoplastic changes. These patients can often develop hundreds of cutaneous tumors, making surgical therapy difficult. Imiquimod 5% cream has been shown to have activity in treating various cutaneous malignancies. OBJECTIVE: To examine the effectiveness and tolerability of imiquimod 5% cream in treating facial basal cell carcinomas (BCCs) in a brother and sister with XP. These patients were developing skin cancers faster than could be managed surgically and had failed 6 months of chemoprophylaxis with isotretinoin. METHODS: Imiquimod 5% cream was applied to the faces of these two patients as frequently as tolerated, with the goal of gaining control over the many clinically evident BCCs present on the faces of these siblings. We also examined whether we could reduce the rate of new neoplasm development. RESULTS: The brother in our study tolerated imiquimod 5% cream twice a day every day with minimal inflammatory response. He had clinical resolution of many of the BCCs present within the treatment area as well as shrinking of many of the remaining lesions. He has continued to produce new tumors at a substantially reduced rate relative to his pretreatment baseline. The sister in our study exhibited a severe inflammatory response to imiquimod 5% cream, with facial swelling and erosion of the treated area with application as infrequent as three times a week. In spite of the vastly different inflammatory response, her cutaneous tumors responded favorably to therapy as well. CONCLUSION: Imiquimod 5% cream was effective in treating facial BCCs in these siblings with XP. As well, we have noted a significant reduction in the development of new tumors within the imiquimod-treated area. The inflammatory response to this medicine was at opposite extremes among these two siblings. However, this did not appear to alter the therapeutic benefit of this therapy.