Social distancing refers to a host of public health measures aimed at reducing social interaction between people based on touch or physical proximity. It is a non-pharmaceutical intervention to slow the spread of infectious diseases in the communities. It becomes particularly important as a community mitigation strategy before vaccines or drugs become widely available. This essay describes how a protracted adherence to social distancing guidelines could affect the Indian society. Changes are expected in some of the prevalent cultural norms such as personal space and common good. Gender relations within the family are likely to change in favour of greater sharing of domestic responsibilities between men and women. Older adults may particularly experience stress due to social distancing because of their physical dependency and emotional vulnerability. Working patterns are likely to become more flexible and promotive of social distancing. Human interaction based on digital technology is likely to increase. The implications for public health in India due to such changes are also discussed.

Background: Visual impairment disproportionately affects people in the low-income countries. A high proportion of visual impairment can be prevented or cured. Yet, care seeking for eye health is restricted for women and older adults. This article uses the intersectionality approach to understand how eye care seeking behaviour changes in men and women with increase in age and visual impairment in a poor and underserved region of India. It brings forth the commonalities and differences between the various groups. Methods: The article is based on qualitative data. Persons aged 50 years and more are categorized into young-old, middle-old and old-old. Men and women with low vision/ high visual impairment have been selected from each of the three age groups. In-depth interviews have been carried out with 24 study participants. Data saturation has been attained. The JHPIEGO Gender Analysis Framework underpins the study. The narrative data has been coded in NVivo 10 software. Results: Various symptoms are associated with visual impairment. The young-old with low vision do not report much difficulty due to visual impairment. Study participants with high visual impairment, and in the older age groups do. Difficulty in the discharge of regular chores due to visual impairment is rarely reported. Impaired vision is considered to be inevitable with advancing age. Care seeking is delayed for eye health. Typically, outpatient care from nearby health care facilities has been sought by men and women in every group. Inpatient care is limitedly sought, and mostly restricted to men. Eye care seeking behaviour changes among men with increase in age and visual impairment. Women consistently seek less care than men for both outpatient and inpatient eye care. Study participants of both genders become dependent with increasing age and visual impairment. Traditional patriarchal privileges enjoyed by men (such as mobility and economic independence) decrease with age. The vulnerability of women gets compounded with time. Conclusions: The article presents a granulated understanding of eye care seeking behaviour among older adults in India. Such differentials need to be taken cognizance of in programmes promoting universal access to health care. Existing conceptualizations on access to health care need to be revisited.

No abstract

Dengue fever (DF) is increasingly recognized as one of the world's major vector borne diseases and causes significant morbidity & mortality in most tropical & subtropical countries of the world & had become the most common arboviral diseases of human. Dengue fever is endemic in most part of India & continues to be a public health concern. Dengue vector, human knowledge & human behavior each have been reported to play an important role in the transmission of the diseases. OBJECTIVES: 1. To determine the level of knowledge, attitude & practices regarding Dengue fever among nursing student. 2. To study the relationship of level of knowledge & attitude with preventive practices for dengue fever. METHOD & MATERIAL: A cross sectional study was carried out in nursing student of tertiary care hospital during September to October2012. A prestructured & selfadministered questionnaire was used to collect data regarding dengue fever knowledge, attitude & practices from nursing students. STATISTICAL ANALYSIS: Data was analyzed using SPSS version 20 statistical software. Appropriate statistical test was applied to calculate P-value. RESULT: Almost all the participants have heard of DF (94%), the media being the most quoted source of information. Nearly 80.6% participants were aware transmission of Dengue Fever is by mosquito bite. Practices based upon preventive measures were found to be predominantly focused towards prevention of mosquito bites rather than elimination of breeding places. CONCLUSION: Although the knowledge regarding DF & mosquito control measure was quite high among the nursing student but this knowledge was not put into practice.

No abstract