Prevention of healthcare-associated infections: protecting patients, saving livesSir,Healthcare-Associated Infections (HAIs) are those infections which the patients acquire during the course of receiving treatment and are not present or incubating at the time of admission. It also includes infections which appear after discharge and occupational infections among healthcare staff. 1 These infections are mostly caused by viral, bacterial or fungal pathogens and the most common types of HAIs include: blood stream infections, pneumonias (e.g. ventilator-associated pneumonia), urinary tract infections and surgical site infections.

Background: Owing to growing epidemic of non communicable diseases (NCD), identification of risk factor profile is one of the high-priority actions required in reducing NCDs. Further, fishermen community possesses unique characteristics of a folk society despite the urban environment around it. Since major portion of the life of fishermen is spent at sea with bizarre sleep and eating pattern, their risk profile for non-communicable disease are different from general population. The objectives of the study were to assess the prevalence of risk factors for non-communicable diseases (NCDs) among fishermen community in Kancheepuram district, Tamil Nadu; to identify the association of the NCD risk factors with socio-demographic and occupational characteristics of the study participants. Methods: This was a descriptive cross sectional study conducted among 210 adult male Fishermen community of Kovalam, Kalpakkam and Mahabalipuram, of Kancheepuram district, Tamil Nadu during May to October, 2016 using a semi-structured questionnaire and all the participants were motivated to undergo laboratory investigations. Results: Prevalence of smoking tobacco form, smokeless tobacco use and alcohol use were 17.1%, 22.9% and 61.4% respectively. Mean blood pressure observed in our study was 120.14/77.86 mm Hg. Prevalence of hypertension was 39.05% and 13.3% were having abdominal obesity. Conclusions: NCD risk factors like hypertension, alcohol use was quite high in this fishermen community and it needs further evaluation.

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