Background and objectivesTo prevent the spread of infections in all healthcare settings, hand hygiene must be routinely practiced. Appropriate hand hygiene techniques can go a long way in reducing nosocomial infections, cross-transmission of microorganisms and the risk of occupational exposure to infectious diseases. World Health Organisation (WHO) has taken an incredible approach called “My Five Moments for Hand Hygiene" which defines the key moments when health-care workers should perform hand hygiene. We thus carried out a survey to assess knowledge of hand hygiene practices among undergraduate medical students. Materials and methodsA cross-sectional survey was conducted among 523 Indian medical undergraduates. The questionnaire used was adapted from the WHO hand hygiene knowledge questionnaire for health-care workers and was distributed both, in print and online formats. The response to each question was examined using percentages.ResultsNearly 57% (n=298) of medical students who participated in this study did not receive any formal training in hand hygiene. Only 27% (n=141) students knew that the most frequent source of germs responsible for health-care associated infections were the germs already present on or within the patient. Nearly 68.6% (n= 359) students were unaware of the sequence of hand washing and hand rubbing. Although 71.9% (n=376 ) students claimed that they use an alcohol-based hand rub routinely, only 36.1% (n=189 ) students knew the time required for a hand rub to kill the germs on the hands. Overall hand hygiene knowledge was low in 6.9% (n=36), moderate in 80.9% (n=423) and good in 12.2% (n=23) of respondents. ConclusionsThe awareness about hand hygiene practices among medical students is low. Nearly 57% (n=298) of the respondents never received any formal training in hand hygiene throughout their course of medical undergraduate study. To prevent the spread of infections in healthcare settings, medical students should be given proper training in hand hygiene practices right from the first year of the medical curriculum. This should be done by running workshops and annual seminars on hand hygiene practices and making it a requisite for clinical skills assessment.
Between 7-18 million Americans suffer from sleep disordered breathing (SDB), including those who suffer from obstructive sleep apnea (OSA). Despite this high prevalence and burden of OSA, existing diagnostic techniques remain impractical for widespread screening. In this study, we introduce a new model for OSA screening and describe an at-home wearable sleep mask (named ARAM) that can robustly track the wearers' sleep patterns. This monitoring is achieved using select sensors that enable screening and monitoring in a form-factor that can be easily self-instrumented. Based on feedback from sleep doctors and technicians, we incorporate the most valuable sensors for OSA diagnosis, while maintaining ease-of-use and comfort for the patient. We discuss the results of preliminary field trials, where both our sleep mask and a commercially available device were worn simultaneously to evaluate our device's robustness. Based on these results, we discuss next steps for the design of the screening system, including analyses techniques that would provide more efficient screening than existing systems.
We report the systemic and ophthalmic findings in a female patient with mixed connective tissue disease (MCTD) who subsequently developed retinal vasculitis following coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) reinfection. The patient was a known case of MCTD maintained in remission on immunosuppressive treatment. She subsequently developed retinal vasculitis with areas of capillary non-perfusion in the right eye. This was a finding not seen previously. She was started on an enhanced immunosuppressive regimen along with scatter laser photocoagulation. COVID-19 has been reported to lead to the development of autoimmune disease, both de novo as well as the worsening of pre-existing disease. The onset of retinal vasculitis may potentially be due to a post-COVID-19 exacerbation of her pre-existing MCTD. Physicians should be aware of this possibility and screen for the same.
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