Background:Elderly population in India is increasing fast which indicates a growing share of population with more special needs for health and support. Understanding the morbidities and health-seeking behavior of elderly is essential for strengthening geriatric health-care services delivery.Objectives:The objective of this study was to study the morbidity profile of elderly in urban slum areas and assess their health-seeking behavior.Methodology:A cross-sectional study was conducted in urban slums of Jorhat district of Assam, among 125 elderly selected by simple random sampling.Statistical Analysis Used:The statistical analysis was performed by Chi-square and proportions.Results:The most common morbidity found was arthritis (70.4%) followed by visual impairment (58%). Majority (83.7%) were seeking treatment for their health problems. Among those elderly who did not seek treatment, the most common reasons given were “lack of money” (81.2%) and “not feeling necessary to go to doctor as conditions were age related” (62.5%).Conclusions:More than two-third of slum-dwelling elderly in the present study were suffering from chronic morbidities; a few could not afford proper health care due to lack of money and self-medication practices were prevalent among some. This stresses the need to provide suitable health facilities and affordable health care to the elderly in slum areas to ensure their active aging. Living arrangement of the elderly was found to have significantly influenced their health-seeking behavior. Strategic implementation of policies focusing on the problems and beliefs of slum-dwelling elderly which prevent them from seeking healthcare is the need of the hour.

INTRODUCTIONMore than 500,000 mother's die each year because of pregnancy and pregnancy related complications (WHO). It was found that about 88%-98% of all maternal deaths could be avoided by proper care and handling during pregnancy and labor.1 As per WHO recommendations 4-visit ANC should be necessary for lowering the risk of pregnancies. Antenatal care (ANC) services are considered to be the key element in the primary health care delivery system of a country, which aims for a healthy society. Over the past sixty years, the maternal health situation in the country has been staggering despite several changes in a rapidly evolving socioeconomic environment. As deadline for Millennium Development Goals is approaching, the need for improving the standard of maternal care is more than ever. In the last decade, as per the National data, health indicators including utilization of antenatal care services were as poor as 60% in rural India.2 Women's age plays an important role in utilization of antenatal care services. Age of the mothers may sometimes serve as a reflection ABSTRACT Background: Utilization of antenatal care services is very essential for reducing maternal mortality in a country like India which is experiencing high maternal mortality especially in the state of Assam being at the top position. Almost 90% of the maternal deaths can be prevented by timely medical interventions. However, adequate utilization of antenatal care (ANC) services is far away from WHO recommendations. The objective is to assess the utilization of antenatal care services and also to determine the underlying factors influencing the utilization of antenatal care services in rural areas of Assam. Methods: A cross sectional study was conducted from September-December 2015. Eight villages were selected randomly and sample size was calculated as 300.All currently married women having children of less than one year of age comprised of study population. Results: Out of 300 women all were registered during antenatal period and among them 53% were registered during first trimester. Among them 68.7% women had more than three antenatal visits, 90% were immunized with TT and 71.6% had consumed 100 or more IFA tablets. The utilization of antenatal care services were found to be significantly associated with the age of the women , religion, caste, socioeconomic class, place of delivery, mode of delivery, parity (P<0.05). Conclusions:The present study revealed that factors like age, religion, caste, socioeconomic status, place of delivery, parity were associated with utilization of antenatal care services. Government should make effort to increase the level of awareness and knowledge among the women about the adequate utilization of antenatal care services.

Availability of good quality stock, in right quantity, at right place and time and at right cost is the essence of inventory control, which in turn is mandatory for smooth functioning and service delivery of any health care facility. Various techniques are available for inventory control, based on cost, criticality and other factors for e.g., ABC analysis, VED analysis, ABC-VED matrix, FSN analysis, SDE analysis etc. Each technique has its own strength and weakness in its applicability. Economic considerations are also imperative for logistic management of any health facility, as any cost savings could be spent more gainfully in some other way and thus more lives could be saved, reduced morbidities and overall positive impact. Future healthcare managers will have to utilize scientific methods of inventory management and the role of an efficient hospital logistics system cannot be ignored anymore. Inventory control is an important component of hospital management. It provides significant improvement in patient care, customer relationships and optimal use of resources.  The objective of this paper is to present an up-to-date review of inventory control and critically appraise its various techniques, various costs associated with it and methods of indenting stock. This review will benefit post-graduate students and public health workers in understanding the concepts and principle of inventory control and applying the same in their practice.

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SUMMARY: Studies carried out in the states of Maharashtra, Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh and Union Territory of Delhi after the bubonic plague outbreak during 1994 revealed the presence of seven species of rodents, viz. Rattus rattus, R. norvegicus, Mus. musculus, Tat era indica, Suncus murinus, Bandicoota bengalensis and B. indica. The flea species encountered were Xenopsylla cheopis and X. astia. The X. cheopis and X. astia index recorded in different areas of Beed district of Maharashtra; Surat, Vadodra and Baruch districts in Gujarat and Varanasi district in Uttar Pradesh and their implications have been discussed. Insecticide suspectibility tests carried out against DDT, dieldrin, malathion and deltamethrin with X. cheopis collected from Maharashtra, Delhi and Varanasi revealed that this vector species is resistant to DDT and dieldrin but susceptible to malathion and deltamethrin. The prevalence and distribution of rodents species, high cheopis index and prevalence of Tatera indica just at the door steps of houses in village Mamla of Beed district provides highly congenital conditions for the intermingling of wild and domestic rodents and transfer of flea population from wild to domestic rodents and vice-versa. These conditions were found to be highly supportive for bubonic plague transmission in the district. The presence of Yersinia pestis antibodies in Rattus rattus collected from Beed, Surat and Varanasi areas are also indicative of bubonic plague in Beed and Varanasi and pneumonic plague in Surat during 1994.97