Presentation: a 72-year-old man complained of progressive dysphagia for solids associated with a sensation of foreign body in his throat for 2 years. A barium swallow showed a bridging osteophyte between C4 and C5 vertebrae indenting the oesophagus posteriorly and displacing it anteriorly. Outcome: he refused surgical intervention and was given dietary advice. After 6 months, his weight was steady and he was able to swallow semi-solid food without difficulty.

The objective of this study was to evaluate the utility of a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) assay in detecting Mycobacterium tuberculosis in bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) specimens of patients suspected of having active pulmonary tuberculosis (TB) but who were sputum smear-negative. Patients undergoing investigation for suspected pulmonary TB at the University Hospital, Kuala Lumpur, and who were sputum smear-negative underwent fibreoptic bronchoscopy and BAL. One portion of each lavage specimen was submitted for smear examination for acid-fast bacilli and mycobacterial culture and the other portion assayed by PCR for the presence of a 562-base pair DNA segment belonging to the insertion sequence IS986, unique to the M. tuberculosis complex. As controls, lavage specimens from patients with other lung lesions were also similarly tested. The PCR assay gave a positivity rate of 80.9% (55 of 68) compared with 8.8% of smear examination and 7.4% of culture for detecting M. tuberculosis in BAL specimens. The assay was positive in two of 45 BAL specimens from 35 control subjects. The PCR assay was more sensitive than smear and culture in detecting M. tuberculosis in BAL specimens of patients with sputum smear-negative pulmonary TB.

BACKGROUND: Malnutrition is the most widespread condition affecting the health of children. Children constitute a large and "vulnerable" or special risk group, as 50% of all deaths were occurring during the first 5 years of life in the developing world.48%, 43%, and 20% of children under 5 years of age stunted, underweight, and wasted, respectively. The proportion of children who are severely undernourished is also notable-24%, severely stunted and 16%, severely underweight. AIM: To assess the nutritional status of under 5 children residing in the tribal areas of Visakhapatnam district, Andhra Pradesh and to identify the factors influencing their nutritional status. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A community based cross-sectional study was conducted in tribal areas of Visakhapatnam district of Andhra Pradesh during 2014-15. A total of 236 under 5 children were studied from the three selected villages. Data was collected through a semi structured questionnaire. Anthropometry measurements like height/length and weight were measured. Waterlow's classification was used to grade stunting and wasting. Gomez classification was used to grade underweight for age. Every effort was made to get high order of accuracy in measurements. The data were compiled and statistical analysis was done using percentage and chi-square test. RESULTS: Out of the 236 children, 122(51.7%) were boys and 114(48.3%) were girls. Overall prevalence of underweight, stunting, and wasting was found to be 60.2%, 27.1%, and 31.3%, respectively. Severe underweight, stunting, and wasting was found in 12.7%, 2.5%, and 9.3%, respectively. Girls were found to be undernourished than boys for all forms i.e., stunting, wasting and underweight. CONCLUSION: The under nutrition rates reported in this study is still high which may have significant negative impact on health, education and productivity of the children. The problem of under nutrition amongst tribal children needs to be addressed through comprehensive preventive, promotive and curative measures. Appropriate nutritional programmes should be designed to meet the requirements.

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INTRODUCTIONSexually transmitted diseases remain a major public health problem in many parts of the world. 340 million new cases of curable STIS occur every year. 75 to 85% are seen in developing countries and rank second as the cause of healthy life lost among women of reproductive age group, after maternal morbidity and mortality. In India during [2001][2002][2003][2004][2005][2006][2007][2008][2009][2010][2011] 30 million STI/RTI's were reported contributing to major country's disease burden and has a high incidence of STD's with an estimated incidence rate of 40 million new cases per year.2 Any given point of time 40% of women has RTI/STI but only 1% completes the treatment of both partners. The "syndromic approach" is a simple practical tool to improve diagnosis and treatment. Under the syndromic approach, the diagnosis of STI is based on identification of consistent group of symptoms and easily recognized signs and provision of effective treatment that will deal ABSTRACT Background: Sexually transmitted diseases remain a major public health problem in many parts of the world. 340 million new cases of curable STIS occur every year. 75 to 85% are seen in developing countries and rank second as the cause of healthy life lost among women of reproductive age group, after maternal morbidity and mortality. Methods: The study was conducted at Rama Murthy Pantulu Peta in the field area of urban health centre of greater Visakhapatnam Municipal Corporation, Visakhapatnam during September 2015 to October 2016. The study design was a community based descriptive study. Based on the prevalence of STI as stated by National AIDS Control Organization, a sample of 1541 is calculated. Results: The overall prevalence of RTI/STI in our study is 18.88%. The prevalence of symptoms suggestive of STI/RTI among female respondents is found to be 27.97%. Majority of females complained of vaginal discharge (26.68%),vulvas itching (10%), lower abdominal pain (6.34%) followed by abnormal vaginal bleeding (5.91%).The prevalence of symptoms suggestive of RTI/STI is found to be 9.75% among male respondents and majority complained of Urethral Discharge (8.4%) followed by inguinal/scrotal swelling (5.2%). Conclusions: The prevalence of Reproductive tract infections is more in females when compared to males in our study. Health education regarding the sexual and personal hygiene should be targeted to both males and females so as to decrease the prevalence of Sexual transmitted diseases in the urban health centre areas of Visakhapatnam.