Background: In India, there is marked lack of awareness of health insurance in the rural and low socioeconomic sector due to reasons like the existing burden on the poor making them reluctant to think of the credit policies that are actually issued in their interest, illiteracy, lack of exposure and the growth of the private sectors has an upper hand over public sectors. Hence this study was done with the objective to determine the health insurance coverage and its awareness including perception among the rural population around Adichunchanagiri Institute of Medical Sciences, BG Nagara, Mandya.Methods: This cross sectional study was carried out among 295 households in the rural field practice area of Adichunchanagiri Institute of Medical Sciences, B G Nagara for a period of 3 months. Personal interview of the households was done using pretested semi structured questionnaire after obtaining the consent. Data was entered in MS excel and descriptive statistical measures like percentage, mean, and standard deviations were calculated. An inferential statistical measure like Chi square test was applied.Results: Among 295 households, Male constituted 49.5% and Hindus were 94.9%. 44.7% of the families were enrolled to health insurance schemes and 75.0% of them use to renew their health insurance scheme regularly. The factors which were significantly associated with health insurance enrollment and awareness were gender, education, occupation, hospitalization during last year and socioeconomic status. Only 173 (58.6%) of the respondents were aware of health insurance.Conclusions:More than half of the study population was covered by health insurance policies and majority of them were unaware of the available insurance schemes, risks and benefits of the same.

Background: Rabies is a zoonotic disease that is caused by a virus and is always fatal which can be prevented by timely and appropriate post exposure prophylaxis. The large number of deaths due to rabies can be attributed to the fact that in spite of availability of effective vaccination against rabies, people are unaware of various aspects of rabies and its prevention. Hence this study was conducted to assess the knowledge regarding rabies and its prevention among first year medical students.Methods: This descriptive cross sectional study was conducted among first year medical students of Mandya Institute of Medical Sciences, Mandya. The data was collected using pretested semi-structured questionnaire and analysed using descriptive statistics.Results: Of the total 80 students who were included, 90.0% knew that rabies is a disease caused by a virus. All of them knew that dogs transmit rabies. 96.3% were aware of the mode of transmission. 30.0% answered that rabies can be transmitted by scratch. 25% had the wrong perception that rabid person can present with epileptic features. 28.8% had given correct answer regarding the number of doses of vaccination. 86.3% knew that rabies can be prevented by vaccinating animal.Conclusions: Majority of the students had incomplete knowledge about rabies and its cause and mode of transmission and unaware of post exposure prophylaxis.

Background: Corona virus disease 19 (COVID-19) is an infectious disease caused by newly discovered corona virus. In order to reduce the cases of COVID-19, it is important to practice strict control measures. People adherence to control measures is affected by their knowledge, attitude and practices towards COVID-19. Hence, this study was conducted with an objective to assess the knowledge, attitude and practice towards COVID-19 in the rural community in the vicinity of Adichunchanagiri Institute of Medical Sciences (AIMS), B.G. Nagar.Methods: This cross sectional study was carried out among 572 households in the rural field practice area of AIMS, B. G. Nagar for a period of 3 months. Personal interview of the households was done using pretested semi structured questionnaire after obtaining the consent. Data was entered in MS Excel and descriptive statistical measures like percentage, mean, and standard deviations were calculated.Results: Among 572 households, more than half (53.9%) of the interviewed subjects were less than 40 years old. Majority, 94.6% of the respondents responded correctly that the spread of the disease is by close contact with an infected person and respiratory droplets, 96.2% knew correctly the early sign/s of COVID-19. 94.2% of them had the confidence that the world will win the battle against COVID-19. Most (98%) of the study subjects were taking proper preventive measures while leaving home.Conclusions: Majority of the study participants exhibited good knowledge, favorable attitude, and sensible practices regarding COVID-19. This good knowledge of the study population towards COVID-19 was mainly due to wide awareness created by the Government through various social media.

Background: Population stabilization leads to sustainable development and is achieved by family planning methods. Family planning is better accomplished by proper family welfare measures. These aspects are well encompassed with concept of unmet need for family planning. Identifying women with unmet need is essential, as they are more likely to accept a family planning methods. Objectives: 1. To estimate the prevalence of unmet need for family planning (UNFP) in the rural Mandya. 2. To determine influencing factors. Methodology: This cross sectional descriptive study was conducted among married women aged 15-49 years, from randomly obtained villages in the Rural Health Training Centre of Mandya Institute of Medical Sciences (MIMS), Mandya. House to house survey was conducted in each village and 2472 subjects were interviewed using pre-tested semi-structured questionnaire. Results: Prevalence of unmet need for family planning was 11.6%; 7.4 % for spacing and 4.2% for limiting. Factors like increase in age, lower educational status, working women, lower socio-economic-status, nuclear families, increase in duration of marriage and number of living children were associated with unmet need for family planning.

Background: Most cholera outbreaks are due to faecal contaminated drinking water. On 25 April 2015, Gulbarga district of Karnataka reported 82 diarrhoea cases in Biral B village. We conducted an investigation to identify risk factors for illness and to provide recommendations to control the outbreak and prevent future illness.Methods & Materials: We defined a suspect case of cholera as ≥3 loose stools in 24 hours in a resident of Biral B village between 19 April and 7 May, 2015. We identified cases by active surveillance through a house to house survey. We conducted a retrospective cohort study in every third household. We interviewed 565 persons in 177 households to assess illness status, socio-demographic characteristics, and potential risk factors including water sources and water treatment. We calculated relative risk (RR) and 95% confidence interval (CI). We collected five stools samples for testing of Vibrio cholerae at district referral laboratory. We assessed water sources, water distribution and tested all sources for faecal coliforms.Results: We identified 169 cases among 2495 villagers (attack rate = 7%). Three fourths (126) were hospitalized with no deaths. Illness onset dates ranged from 22 April to 7 May 2015. The median age was 25 years (range 1-85yrs) with the highest attack rate of 14% (33/235) among 26 to 35 years group and the lowest attack rate of 1.4% (8/561) among the age group 46 to 55 years. The attack rate was 16% (14/86) among persons using water from an unprotected, hand-dug well A for drinking or cooking (RR: 2.2, 95% CI: 1.2-3.8) compared to 10% (15/149) for a second unprotected hand-dug well B(RR: 0.8, 95% CI: 0.5-1.5) and 7% (28/380) for any of six tube-wells (RR: 0.6, 95% CI: 0.4-1.0). One of five stools samples was positive for Vibrio cholerae El Tor Ogawa by culture. Water samples from wells A and B, the six tube wells, overhead tank, and household taps had faecal coliforms and deemed not potable.Conclusion: This suspected cholera outbreak was from using non-potable water particularly from one unprotected well A for drinking or cooking. We recommend chlorination, protection, and regular testing of water sources, particularly well A.