Introduction: The emergence of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 pandemic is critically challenging the whole world. The real-time reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction is the most widely used confirmatory test for COVID-19 detection. This study aimed to find out the prevalence of COVID-19 infection detected by gold standard reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction test in a tertiary care center of Nepal. Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted in Karnali Academy of Health Sciences from May to August 2020 after taking ethical approval from the Institutional Review Committee of Karnali Academy of Health Sciences, Jumla. Convenient sampling was used. A total of 361 participants enrolled in this study who have done real-time reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction for screening of COVID-19 infection. Also, a designated questionnaire was obtained from persons with a travel history and close contact. Statistical Package for the Social Sciences software was used for the statistical analysis. Point estimate at 95% Confidence Interval was calculated along with frequency and proportion for binary data. Results: The prevalence of COVID-19 was 167 (46.3%) (95% Confidence Interval= 41.16-51.44) by real-time reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction test. Out of 361 samples, 339 (93.9%) were male and 22 (6%) were female. The highest frequency of the participants belongs to the age groups of 20-40 years. Conclusions: The findings showed a high prevalence of COVID-19 detected by reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction test. Further studies are necessary to improve the precision of prevalence estimations.

Background: Hepatitis B Virus (HBV) infection is a foremost global health problem. In the context of Nepal, the prevalence of HBV infection is found to be low, 0.9% (1.1% in males and 0.5% in females), though a high prevalence of ≥8% is shown among the population in the mountainous region by several studies. The epidemiology of HBV infection in the population of Jumla is not well-known. This study aimed to find out the seroprevalence of HBV surface antigen (HBsAg) in patients visiting Karnali Academy of Health Sciences Teaching Hospital (KAHS-TH), Jumla, Nepal. Methods: The cross-sectional study was conducted in people visiting KAHS-TH, Jumla for testing HBsAg from 1st April 2018 to 31st March 2019. The samples collected were tested for HBsAg by using the Rapid HBsAg test kit. All positive cases were further tested by the Chemiluminescence (CLIA) method for HBsAg. The data entry was done in Microsoft Excel. After transferring the data into SPSS version 16, data analysis was done.Results: In this study, 1704 individuals were screened during the period. Overall 53 (3.11%) were HBsAg positive. Among the total of 506 males and 1198 females, 22 (4.34%) males and 31 (2.58%) females were positive for HBsAg. The highest prevalence (8.1%) was observed in the age group of 40– 45 years. But the prevalence rate is zero in 0-5 years age group and above 65 years of age. Conclusion: The HBV infection was higher in Jumla as compared to that of the overall prevalence of Nepal. Males were highly infected than females and the middle age group was at the high-risk of HBV infection.

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Background: Acute appendicitis is the most common cause of surgical acute abdomen. It contributes for 40 % of all emergency performed abdominal surgeries in western world and 26 % it accounts for in Nepal. The treatment of acute appendicitis remains a health problem and considerable morbidity and mortality are still associated with it. Perforation, abscess formation, appendicular lump and surgical site of infection are well reported morbidities. Late arrival in hospital and use of inadequate dose of antibiotics in local might have association in increasing morbidities. The aim of the study is to observe the morbidity and mortality in appendicitis patients belonging to this Midwestern region of Nepal. Methods: This retrospective cross sectional study was carried out in the Karnali academy of health sciences, Jumla Nepal. The data includes the 5 years period from Jan 2014 to March 2020. The parameters included admission of acute appendicitis, age, gender, post-operative findings and complication. Results: There were 186 cases collectively. 175 cases of appendicitis were recorded. The mean age was 31±15.16. Ninety two (52.6%) were female; 83(47.4%) were male. 119(68%) had appendectomies. 56(32%) were treated conservatively. 29(51.78%) were appendicular lump and 27(48.2%) were suspected appendicitis. Five were found to have perforation of appendix. Two had abscess in 29 cases of appendicular mass. 2 had surgical site infection. Conclusion: Among patients who were admitted in the hospital with diagnosis of acute appendicitis, the commonest complication is the appendicular lump, which might be due to late hospital arrival or early antibiotics use impulsively at local level, followed by perforation appendix. The result supports both appendectomy and conservative treatment are equally feasible for acute appendicitis accordingly the cases presented in the hospital.

Introduction: Glucose -6- phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PD) a housekeeping enzyme found in the mitochondria of all cells of the body plays a crucial role in preventing cells from oxidative damage by reactive oxygen species (ROS). As Red Blood Cell (RBC) lacks a sub-cellular structure like mitochondria, it is most vulnerable due to the lack of G6PD enzyme resulting in mild hemolytic jaundice to fetal death. The Prevalence of neonatal jaundice is most common but due to  lack of newborn screening for the G6PD test, neonates are misdiagnosed and the whole treatment becomes worthless. The main aim of this study was to evaluate the level of G6PD in normal early neonates. Methods: This was a cross-sectional study conducted on 43 normal early neonates of the Indian sub-population from January to June 2019 at the Laboratory Department, Padmashree institute of clinical research, Bangalore, India. Blood parameters like G6PD levels, direct and total bilirubin, and hemoglobin levels of the normal neonates were measured. This study was approved by the ethical board of the hospital. Results: The bilirubin level (direct and total), and hemoglobin level were found within the established normal reference interval. The observed G6PD levels in normal healthy full-term neonates against the available various reference intervals were established. In this study the cut-off value of G6PD enzyme activity was determined as 8.05 ± 1.2 U/g Hb and this in-house obtained reference interval level was significantly (*p< 0.05) lower than that of other reference intervals such as Kit insert Ref. Interval (9.55 ± 4.6 U/g Hb) and Ref. interval (12.5 ± 2.3 U/g Hb) as inferred by other studies. Conclusions: In conclusion, we found evidence for a newly established reference interval for normal neonates between the ages of 1 to 11 days and the reference value is remarkably lower than the available reference interval.