Background Stigma is a major barrier to health care access and impacts the quality of life for individuals affected by tuberculosis (TB). Assessing TB stigma is essential to addressing health disparities. However, no such instrument was available in Mexico at the time of our study. This study examined the adaptability of the TB and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) stigma scales previously used in Thailand. Methods The original scale, developed in English, was linguistically adapted to Spanish and administered to 217 individuals affected by TB in five states in Mexico. The TB-HIV stigma subscales were designed to assess individual and community perspectives. Additional data collected included general information and socio-demographics. Assessment of psychometric properties included basic statistical tests, evaluation of Cronbach's alpha and factor analysis. Results We found no significant statistical differences associated with higher stigma scores by location, age, marital status, education and stigma scores. Factor analysis did not create any new factors. Internal consistency reliability coefficients were satisfactory (Cronbach α = 0.876–0.912). Conclusion The use of the stigma scales has implications for 1) health improvements, 2) research on stigma and health disparities, and 3) TB and HIV stigma interventions. Further research is needed to examine transferability among larger and randomly selected Spanish-speaking populations.

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Background: Self-medication is very common in our day to day life which is an unhealthy and risky practice. Present study was done to determine the knowledge, attitude and practice among second professional medical students.Methods: A questionnaire related to self-medication with consent was prepared and distributed among the students of second professional. Data was collected and analysed the results expressed as counts and percentages.Results: Total 100 students participated in the study for taking self-medication and was no need to visit the doctor for minor illness. In maximum students, source of information of the drugs used for self-medication pharmacological based and learning process in the college. The source of drug was medical store. Most of the students took self-medication for loose motion and headache followed by cough, cold and fever. Out of total 100 students most of the students took paracetamol tablet as self-medication.Conclusions: This study showed that second professional medical students after studying pharmacological books they do not use any wrong medicine as self-medication. High level of awareness of second professional students has minimized self medication.