Care seeking behavior of the victims of unintentional injuries: A community-based study in a community development block of Purba Bardhaman District, West Bengal.

Background: Care-seeking after injury episodes is generally associated with major uncertainties concerning its incidence, care, and cure/disappearance, and the price of care. Though the utilization pattern of the population is shaped by social, economic, cultural and political factors, it varies widely for the rich and the poor. With this background, a community-based epidemiological study was conducted to determine the care-seeking behavior of victims of unintentional injuries. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted from May 2023-September 2023 in the Bhatar block of Purba Bardhaman district, West Bengal. Cluster random sampling was applied to select a required sample of 555 individuals from 24 villages. Study tools used were predesigned and pretested schedules developed by the researchers with the help of guidelines for conducting community surveys on injuries provided by the World Health Organization (WHO). The study had approval from the Institutional Ethics Committee. Descriptive statistics were performed using SPSS V16. Results: Out of 49 injury episodes, 51.0% had received first aid. Out of 39 injury episodes seeking medical attention, a traditional practitioner, healer or bone setter was the type of first medical contact in the case of the majority of injury episodes (38.5%), followed by a hospital (35.9%). Conclusion: Low utilization of government healthcare facilities is a cause for concern. Reliance on unqualified informal healthcare providers is also a cause for concern. Our findings will help design community interventions to increase the provision of appropriate first aid in unintentional injuries.

Early Stage Preclinical Formulation Strategies to Alter the Pharmacokinetic Profile of Two Small Molecule Therapeutics.

Early stage chemical development presents numerous challenges, and achieving a functional balance is a major hurdle, with many early compounds not meeting the clinical requirements for advancement benchmarks due to issues like poor oral bioavailability. There is a need to develop strategies for achieving the desired systemic concentration for these compounds. This will enable further evaluation of the biological response upon a compound-target interaction, providing deeper insight into the postulated biological pathways. Our study elucidates alternative drug delivery paradigms by comparing formulation strategies across oral (PO), intraperitoneal (IP), subcutaneous (SC), and intravenous (IV) routes. While each modality boasts its own set of merits and constraints, it is the drug's formulation that crucially influences its pharmacokinetic (PK) trajectory and the maintenance of its therapeutic levels. Our examination of model compounds G7883 and G6893 highlighted their distinct physio-chemical attributes. By harnessing varied formulation methods, we sought to fine-tune their PK profiles. PK studies showcased G7883's extended half-life using an SC oil formulation, resulting in a 4.5-fold and 2.5-fold enhancement compared with the IP and PO routes, respectively. In contrast, with G6893, we achieved a prolonged systemic coverage time above the desired target concentration through a different approach using an IV infusion pump. These outcomes underscore the need for tailored formulation strategies, which are dictated by the compound's innate properties, to reach the optimal in vivo systemic concentrations. Prioritizing formulation and delivery optimization early on is pivotal for effective systemic uptake, thereby facilitating a deeper understanding of biological pathways and expediting the overall clinical drug development timeline.