Background: Alopecia areata is a disease, in which patients’ loss hairs as random patches due to autoimmune complications. Tofacitinib acts as an inhibiter in the Janus kinase signal transducer and activator of transcription pathway and is an effective drug approved for the of rheumatoid arthritis treatment. Limited evidence is available on the role of tofacitinib in treatment of alopecia areata. Aim and Objective: The present study aims to evaluate the efficacy of tofacitinib in treatment of alopecia areata patients visiting the tertiary care center of North India. Materials and Methods: Total 17 patients with alopecia areata were recruited in this study and prescribed with the tofacitinib 5 mg twice daily for 6 months. Severity of alopecia tool (SALT) was used to analyze the severity of hair loss. The SALT score measures the total percent of hair loss in all area of scalp. A higher SALT score indicates higher hair loss. Results: The mean age of the patients was 27.88 ± 16.30 years with male-to-female sex ratio of 2.4:1. The mean duration of disease was 32.29 ± 22.14 months. There was a significant decrease in the SALT score (P = 0.0001) following the 6 months tofacitinib treatment. Conclusion: Tofacitinib was found to be effective in the treatment of alopecia areata. Further multicentric studies with ample sample size are required to establish tofacitinib as a standard treatment for the alopecia areata.

Background: Leprosy is a communicable illness that is notorious for causing gradual and lifelong physical impairment. It affects peripheral nerves, the epidermis, and the mucosa of the upper respiratory tracts. The prevalence rate and yearly new case detection ratio in Haryana State are 0.23 and 1.57, respectively. Since, medical students are the future doctors of the society, it is vital that undergraduate medical students to be well rehearsed in the signs and symptoms and management of leprosy and National program for leprosy running in India. Therefore, survey is being conducted to study knowledge and attitude of undergraduate medical students toward leprosy and leprosy affected patients and compare knowledge and attitude among the recently admitted students and the outgoing students. Aims and Objectives: Evaluation of knowledge and attitude of undergraduate medical students toward leprosy. Materials and Methods: Cross-sectional study was conducted at medical college in Himachal Pradesh between July and December with total of 600 UG medical students selected randomly for the study. Data were gathered using a self-administered, pre-designed, and pre-tested questionnaire. Results: Out of the total 600 participants of the study, 329 (54.8%) were male students and 271 (45.2%) were female students. Maximum male students were in 3rd professional part II (58.7%). Students of 2nd prof., 3rd prof part I and 3rd Prof part II gave more correct answers to the questions assessing the knowledge about leprosy as compared to the 1st prof students. A significant difference was found between the knowledge, awareness, and attitude of recently admitted and outgoing undergraduate students. Conclusion: In the present study, majority of the participants, that is, around 54.8% were males and rest were females. In comparison to 1st-year students, students in the second and third Prof gave more accurate responses to questions concerning leprosy, including those testing knowledge of the disease’s common name, its cause, its mode of transmission, its kinds, its treatments, and its deformities. Most students across all professions gave negative answers when asked about their attitude, demonstrating their favorable feelings about leprosy sufferers.

It is now evident that COVID-19 not only affects respiratory system but is a multisystemic disease including skin where lesions have a wide spectrum of presentation. Even though the focus of attention has now changed to vaccines for achieving herd immunity to COVID-19, the detrimental effects of these vaccines must be highlighted because they have a bearing on their widespread acceptance. Moreover, the approved vaccines have not been studied thoroughly, thereby leaving lacunae in its literature. Immunomodulation brought on by the vaccine, particularly T-cell dysregulation that allowed the varicella-zoster virus to escape from the dorsal root ganglia, is likely to cause Herpes-Zoster infection in Covishield-vaccinated immunocompetent people. This study demonstrates such kind of an immunomodulation in two young immunocompetent individuals, which is a rare entity.