Background: Defaulting from treatment is an important challenge for tuberculosis (TB) control. As per the Revised National Tuberculosis Control Programme quarterly reports of Kamrup District (Assam), among the registered cases default rate was 13.3%(2008) & 13.1 % (2009). Objectives: To elicit reasons & factors responsible for interruption of treatment from a cohort of TB defaulters of urban & rural areas in Kamrup District. Methods: The cross-sectional study was conducted among 1/3rd of all defaulters who were put on Directly Observed Treatment Short-course chemotherapy in 2011 under 1 urban Tuberculosis Unit (TU) & 2 rural TUs of Kamrup District. From these 3 TUs, total 210 patients interrupted treatment in 2011; so 70 defaulters (35 from 1 urban TU & 35 from 2 rural TUs) were interviewed in their residences by using a pretested and predesigned schedule. Study was conducted in January - June, 2012. Results: Majority of the defaulters was illiterate (51.4%) in rural areas but in urban areas majority studied upto high school level (37.1%). Maximum defaulters were in the age group 25-44 years (55.7% in urban areas & 62.9% in rural areas). The number of defaulters decreased uniformly with increasing income in the rural areas & but not so in urban areas. More number of new cases defaulted in rural areas (82.8%) compared to urban areas (57.1%). Improvement in symptoms was found to be the most common reason (45.7% in urban areas & 40 % in rural areas), leading to treatment interruption. Conclusions: Early improvement in symptom was the most common reason leading to treatment interruption. Continuous health education should be provided to TB patients emphasizing the need to continue treatment despite early improvement in symptoms.

Background: Infant mortality rate (IMR) is an important indicator of health status and socioeconomic progress of a country. Assam is one of the states of India with a high Infant mortality rate. Information regarding neonatal or infant death mostly is gathered from hospital based studies or large nationally representative studies. Information at the district level is obtained only from the various annual health surveys or the routine reporting system. However these studies do not report health seeking behaviour. In this background, the present study was undertaken to know causes of neonatal deaths as well as health seeking behaviour of families in Barpeta district. Methods: All neonatal deaths occurring in the district in the first quarter of 2016 were identified. Verbal autopsy was conducted within a month of reported death by using predesigned pretested verbal autopsy questionnaire. A sample size of 90 was purposively selected. Secondary records available with the family were examined. Results: One fourth of deaths took place on day 1 and 80% died within the first week. Infection namely pneumonia and septicaemia accounted for 47.7% of death followed by asphyxia and respiratory distress syndrome. About 46% of mother had history of prolonged or complicated delivery. Around 54% deliveries were conducted in institutions and only 59% of neonates were taken for treatment. Conclusions: Infection, asphyxia and low birth weight were most common causes of neonatal death. Early identification of complication and prompt referral has to be promoted by increasing home visit by community workers and removing bottlenecks in transportation.