Background:Construction sector is a booming industry and involves many hazardous activities. Migrant labor in the industry is susceptible to various health and occupational hazards. In a unique public–private partnership project, a medical team from a public sector teaching hospital in Mumbai provided comprehensive on-site health care services to the construction workers of a private construction company.Objective:To study socio-demographic profile and morbidity pattern of construction workers.Setting and Design:A cross-sectional study at construction site Vidyavihar (West), Mumbai, was carried out over the period of May to November 2010.Materials and Methods:A medical team provided comprehensive on-site health care services, and a Health Card was devised to maintain the record of socio-demographic, occupational details, and complete physical examination findings of the workers who participated in the study.Statistical Analysis Used:Statistical analysis was done using SPSS 15.0.Results:Of the 1337 workers (all males) examined, 1289 (96.4%) belonged to 15–45 years age group. The mean age of the workers was 26.25 ± 8.49 years. A third of the migrants belonged to West Bengal. The average number of health problems in the workers was 1.41. Regular consumers of tobacco and alcohol were 50.48 and 14.65%, respectively. Nearly one-fifth of the workers had febrile illness, of which 20.71% had suspected malaria; 12.6% had respiratory infections, while 3.4% were found to have hypertension. There was a statistically significant association (P < 0.05) between type of occupation and morbidity status.

Background: The aims and objectives were to study socio-demographic profile of people living with HIV/ AIDS; to assess quality of life of people living with HIV/AIDS (PLHA); to study factors affecting Quality of life (QOL) in people living with HIV/AIDS. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted which included 319 study subjects. Data on socio-demographic profile was collected using questionnaire and quality of life was assessed using WHO - brief questionnaire. Data was analysed using SPSS software and MS–Excel. Results: Majority of study population 52% were female & 40.8%belonged to 35-45 yrs age group. Out of 319 study subjects, 80.88% were literate and 19.1% were illiterates, 75.9% were married. 65.83% of the study subjects belonged to socio-economic class- II, 27.9% of the study subjects belong to class–I. Majority 52.98% study population had CD4 less than 300 and 47.02% had CD4 count more than 300 cells/mm3. Female have better QOl in comparison to male. Subjects >55 age group, illiterate, unemployed and CD4 count <300cells/mm3 have lower QOL (p<0.05) in comparison to their respective group. Conclusions: The most factors significantly associated with decreased quality of life of people living with HIV/AIDS in the present study include gender, literacy status, age group, employment status and CD4 count (p<0.05).

Ba sil and its variou s species are known to ha ve an effect on common cold and possess immunomodulatory properties. This paper describes a clinical trial of a herbal formulation, Panchtulasi drops in acute common cold; the formulation consists of essential oils of five species of ocimum, namely; Ocimum sanctum Linn., Ocimum basilicum Linn., Ocimum gratissimum Linn., Ocimum citriodorum Linn. and Ocimum canum Linn.This was an open label, three arm Phase II study to determine the safety and effica cy of Panchatulasi drops in patients with acute common cold. The primary endpoint was reduction in symptoms of cold and number of days of illness. This was assessed using SF-8 and WURSS21 questionnaires. The secondary endpoint was changes in serum interleukin-8 and neutrophil count. The study duration was 8 days with telephonic follow-up on 10 th day. A total of 60 patients were randomized to treatment, placebo and a control (standard medication) in a radio of 2:1:1.The symptom severity, quality of life and number of days of illness measured by questionnaire was significantly reduced in the treatment arm between baseline and day 4 (p<0.05). The physical component score and overall health score of the SF-8 questionnaire also improved considerably in the treatment arm compared to placebo and control arms between baseline and day 4. However, mental component score did not improve significantly until day 6. Concentration of IL-8 did not show any statistically significant change in any of the study arms due to high variability. Neutrophil count, on the other hand, decreased in the treatment arm (p=0.0153) compared to placebo and control arms where it increased. Panchatulasi drops is an effective herbal remedy for common cold and can be used as an alternative to current treatments. There was a significant reduction in days of illness, severity of symptoms, and improvement in quality of life compared to placebo and control groups.