Background: Young girls up to 20 years of age comprise a quarter of Indian female population. A vast majority of adolescent girls in India are affected by reproductive health issues and menstrual problems are one of them. These problems arise mostly due to false beliefs & poor awareness regarding menstrual cycle. The objective of the study was to assess knowledge, attitude and practices towards menstrual cycle and its problems among school girls. Methods: A cross sectional study among 250 girls (age 13-19 years) each from government and non-government schools of Jodhpur City was carried out by interviewing them with predesigned & pretested questionnaire. Results: Most of the girls of non-government schools considered menarche as a different experience of life (34.8%) and unhygienic (27.6%) while 41.6% of government school girls were scared due to menarche and 30% considered it as unhygienic. 59.6% of non-government school girls knew about menstrual cycle before menarche while 48.8% of government school girls had such knowledge. Mother was the commonest channel of information in both study groups. 12-14 years was the most common age groups in which menarche occurred in both study groups. About 2/3 of non-government school girls were using sanitary pads while only ¼ of government school girls had such practice. High cost was the major reason for not using sanitary pads in Govt. school girls. Pain Abdomen was the commonest complaint faced during menstrual cycle followed by backache. About 4/5th of non-government school girls and about 2/3rd of government school girls attended school during menstrual cycle. All subjects faced some kind of domestic restriction due to disbelief in relation to menstrual cycle. Irritability was reported as most common psychological problem during menstrual cycleConclusions: There is a need for adolescent girls to have accurate and adequate information about menstruation appropriate sanitary and hygienic management.

Introduction: COVID-19 vaccines have been found to be efficacious for preventing severe disease, yet breakthrough infections and deaths have occurred in a small proportion of vaccinated individuals. This study aimed to describe the vaccination status and comorbidities of COVID-19 all-cause deaths.Methods: This descriptive observational study was conducted at a tertiary care center in western India. A total of 310, RT-PCR positive COVID-19 deaths, aged 45 years and above irrespective of the cause of death (all-cause mortality), were included in the study. Death after breakthrough infection was defined as death in patient with disease onset after 14 days of the second dose of vaccine.Results: Diabetes was the most common comorbidity found in 17.1% of the deaths, followed by hypertension. Cardiovascular disease and renal disease were other common comorbidities seen in 8.7% and 4.83% deaths respectively. Other less common comorbidities include neurological disorders, HIV, autoimmune disorders. Out of these 310 deaths, 21.4% of patients developed disease within 14 days of the first dose. Death after true breakthrough infection (after 14 days of both doses) was seen in only two patients (0.6%). One of these two patients was aged 60 years and had diabetes, while the other was aged 72 years and had a history of smoking.Conclusion: Diabetes and hypertension were the most common comorbidities, indicating a higher risk of mortality among comorbid patients. Only a small proportion of deaths (0.6%) occurred after breakthrough infection beyond 14 days of two doses. COVID-19 vaccines have shown promising efficacy against severe disease, thus high vaccination coverage needs to be achieved to prevent morbidity and mortality.

Background: Anxiety and depression are worldwide problems which reflect the mental health of the population. A lot of researches have reported anxiety and depression among medical students as they are going to suffer from academic stressors such as information input overload, lack of leisure time and academic evaluation. The present study was aimed to assess the prevalence of anxiety and depression in undergraduate medical students; to find association between presence depression/anxiety and socio-demographic factors; to find correlation between depression and anxiety scores. Methods: The cross-sectional study was carried out at Dr. S. N. Medical College, Jodhpur. 426 undergraduate students were selected by simple random sampling. After obtaining informed written consent, students were given self-reporting questionnaire which included socio-demographic details, PHQ-9 and GAD-7. Results: 247 (57.98%) students were found to have depression. 103 (24.17%) students scored ≥10 on PHQ-9 indicating a need for further clinical evaluation. Anxiety was found to be present in 202 (47.41%) students. Presence of depression was associated with history of mental illness in family, any co-morbidities present in student and type of family. Anxiety was associated with medium of language students studied until senior secondary education and type of family. Significant positive correlation was observed between depression and anxiety scores. Conclusions: There is a need for conducting regular psychiatric evaluations and counselling for medical students so that presence of mental disorders can be detected early in their course prompting immediate treatment.

Introduction: Mucormycosis is a serious but rare fungal infection that showed a sharp surge during the second wave of coronavirus disease 2019 in India. This study aimed to describe the epidemiological aspects of mucormycosis cases presenting to a tertiary care centre of Western Rajasthan, India, as well as to identify potential risk factors for Mucormycosis.Methods: This cross-sectional descriptive study included 55 patients admitted with a diagnosis of mucormycosis between May and June, 2021, covering the second wave's post-COVID-19 period. Data was collected using a pre-designed, semi-structured questionnaire and hospital case sheets.Results: The mean age of the patients was 54.4±12.53 years, with a male-to-female ratio of 1.89:1. Of the patients, 49% were obese and had no prior history of diabetes. Most COVID-19 patients (54.6%) were treated at home and did not require oxygen support during their COVID-19 course. The majority (89%) were on steroid medication, which was mainly intravenous (93.8%) and lasted 5-10 days in most patients. Rhinoorbitocerebral mucormycosis was the most common type seen in this setting, with symptoms appearing 15-30 days after the onset of COVID-19 symptoms. During the fungal infection, about 61.8% of patients had random blood sugar readings of more than 140 mg/dl. Mortality occurred in 14.5% of patients with mucormycosis. Mortality was observed to be associated with high BMI, raised glycated haemoglobin (HBA1C), and urban residency.Conclusion: Mucormycosis appears to be caused by impaired glycemic control due to pre-existing or newonset diabetes, which may be exacerbated by unintentional glucocorticoid use. It is necessary to use steroids with caution and maintain care for at least 15-30 days after the onset of COVID-19 symptoms.

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