Background: Voluntary, non -remunerated blood donation is the foundation for safe and sustainable blood supply. Health care providers, especially non physician personnel or paramedical personnel, play an important role in motivating and promoting blood donation as they come more in contact with public as representatives of the health system and hence need to possess a comprehensive and accurate knowledge regarding blood donation. Methodology: A Cross-sectional study was conducted to assess the knowledge of blood donation among 285 paramedical personnel working in Hassan institute of medical sciences, Karnataka which is a tertiary care teaching hospital. A pretested Questionnaire regarding blood donation KAP (knowledge, attitude and practice) were administered to all the paramedical personnel who consented to take part in the study after adequate sample size estimation. Results: More than 90% of staff had good knowledge regarding the blood groups and the eligibility criteria. 253 (88.8%) respondents considered blood donation as good and 205(71.9%) believed it was safe to donate blood but in practice only 116(40.7%) had ever donated blood. Male workers were more likely to donate blood (p<0.0001) Conclusion : It was observed that although there is a reasonably good level of knowledge and positive attitude among the paramedical personnel, the practice of donating blood was not adequate, especially that of regular voluntary donation. Hence it is important to conduct sensitization programs to improve practice of blood donation and various incentives as suggested by the staff themselves and several international bodies maybe considered to promote blood donation among them.

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Background: STI/RTIs have been recognized as major public and reproductive health challenges worldwide. In developing countries, RTI/STIs are the second or third most common public health problem of young people. A variety of factors that put women at risk of reproductive tract infection, such as socio-economic, demographic, sexual, medical, behavioral practices, personal hygiene behavior have not been adequately explored in India. An objective of the study was to estimate prevalence of STI/RTI among married reproductive age group women in selected CHCs/PHCs of Hassan District and to understand the influence of various factors on STI/RTI among women. Methods: A community based cross sectional study undertaken over a period of 3 months from May 2016 to July 2016, in rural areas of Hassan. Total of 400 married women in the age group 15-49 years were included in the study. Household survey was done in the selected clusters till 20 women per cluster were identified. Married women of reproductive age group of 15 to 49 years, residing in the study area for past 6 months were included in the study. Results: The prevalence of STI/RTI among married reproductive women was 32%. Prevalence of vaginal discharge decreased with an increase in age, level of education and income. RTI/STI was observed to be higher in scheduled castes and tribes (35.8% and 33.3%) respectively. Conclusions: Health education regarding the risk factors of unhygienic menstrual practices, non-institutional deliveries and illegal abortions must be imparted to the women in the study area in order to bring about a behavioral change to protect them from RTI/STI.

BACKGROUNDUncorrected refractive errors are the most common cause of visual impairment in school children in India.

Background: With the availability of highly effective antiretroviral treatment, HIV is transforming into a chronic condition, whose management is now experiencing problems of other chronic diseases, where quality of life (QOL) has become an important component of overall assessment of health care and management. This study was conducted with the objective of assessing the QOL and factors influencing it in HIV infected people on antiretroviral therapy (ART).Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted at district ART center, Hassan. Purposive sampling was used to identify 148 HIV infected people on antiretroviral therapy, who were interviewed using a pretested questionnaire, assessing QOL with the World Health Organization (WHOQOL) HIV‑BREF.Results: The average age of the study population was 37.69 years. Majority of them were males 54.7% compared to 45.3% of females. Most of them resided in rural areas (87.8%). The educational status of the subjects was poor with 33.8% of them being illiterates. The mean score was highest for spirituality and social relationships domain and least for psychological domain. Age, education and socioeconomic status did not have any influence on the QOL. There was significant difference between QOL scores and clinical stages. Individuals in stage I and II had better scores compared to stage 3 and 4. QOL scores decreased with decreasing CD4 count.Conclusions: Our findings suggest that patient-reported measures of health status and related concepts may help provide a feasible, reliable and valid method to assess the impact of HIV/AIDS improve patient outcomes.