Background: Maintenance of drinking-water quality is a pillar of primary prevention and continues to be the foundation for the prevention and control of waterborne diseases. Improved water supply and sanitation, and better management of water resources, can boost countries’ economic growth and can contribute greatly to poverty reduction. The objective of the study was to assess household water treatment and safe storage (HWTS) practice.Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted for a period of 2 months. Total of 250 household were surveyed under the UHTC. Data was collected using WHO toolkit for monitoring and evaluating household water treatment and safe storage programme. Descriptive analysis was done.Results: Majority had piped connection (32%) followed by public standpipe (31.2%), hand pump (27.6%) as source of water. 60% had knowledge about boiling followed by chlorination 27%, membrane filters 22.4%. Majority i.e. 63% of the participants had thought boiling as the best method for disinfection of drinking water.Conclusions: Majority had piped connection, Maximum kept water container clean and covered. Only one fourth of the total household surveyed suffered from diarrhea in last 6 months.

BACKGROUND Maternal near miss is higher in developing countries and causes are similar to those of maternal mortality namely haemorrhage, hypertensive disorders and sepsis. Objectives-1. To estimate the burden of maternal near miss in O and G Dept. of VIMSAR, Burla in terms of proportion and near miss indicators. 2. To assess the foetal outcome of patients with maternal near miss. MATERIALS AND METHODS It was a record-based cross-sectional study conducted in the Department of O and G, VIMSAR, Burla from July 2017-Dec 2017. Cases were defined based on WHO criteria. Relevant data was collected from case records of maternal near miss patients. RESULTS Out of 1406 deliveries, near miss cases were 89. Total live births during the study period were 1349 and there were 8 maternal deaths. Maternal mortality ratio was 593/ 100,000 live births. Maternal near miss incidence ratio was 65.95 and Mortality index was 8.2. Preeclampsia was the leading cause (40.4%) of morbidity of near miss cases followed by severe anaemia (29.2%) and eclampsia (19.1%). CONCLUSION Near miss approach helps to evaluate and improve the quality of care provided by health system by identifying the pattern of severe maternal morbidity and mortality, strengths and weaknesses in the referral system and the way in which improvement can be made.

Background: Injuries are an increasingly recognized global, preventable public health problem and are an important cause of mortality and morbidity in adult population. The major causes of injury related deaths may be intentional and unintentional. The major unintentional or “accidental” causes are road traffic accidents (RTAs), falls and drowning whereas the leading intentional causes are suicide and homicide. A robust Surveillance System for Injury Mortality is almost non-existent in our country due to which the data for the same is not available and haphazard. Keeping these factors in mind, the following study was under taken to identify the various epidemiological factors related to fatal injury cases.Methods: A record based retrospective study was conducted in the Department of Community Medicine, VSSIMAR, Burla, Odisha. The data were collected from the autopsy reports preserved at the Dept of FM & T, VSSIMSAR. Variables like age, sex, number of injury cause of death, place of death etc. were collected. Data were entered in Microsoft Excel and analysed using proportions and percentages.Results: The age group 25-44 years recorded the maximum number of deaths (37.49%). Males suffered the highest casualty accounting for 61.85% of deaths. Unintentional fatal injuries constituted 63.58% of deaths. The most number of fatal injuries resulting in deaths were RTAs (36.41%).Conclusions: The age group 25-44 years recorded maximum deaths. Males were the major death victims. RTAs constituted maximum of deaths among unintentional fatal injuries. Homicidal injuries constituted maximum of deaths due to intentional fatal injuries.

Background: “Malaria and malnutrition are closely related in the months of hunger gap when malnutrition is at its peak often coincides with rainy season when the number of malaria cases shoot up. The disease combines in a vicious circle. Children sick with malaria are more likely to become dangerously malnourished”. Severely malnourished children with malaria infection may have no fever, or be hypothermic. Proactive screening for malaria in severely malnourished children is needed even if the child has no symptoms of malaria. The objectives of the study were to estimate prevalence of “malaria and malnutrition” co-existence in under 5 children of tribal dense regions and to determine if any significant difference between this co-existent condition against the disease alone.Methods: Eight villages were selected based on their inaccessibility and demography spread across Bamnipal and Sukinda region. Malaria testing using antigen based RDK and nutritional assessment using MUAC tapes were conducted in of 6 months to <5 yrs children.Results: A total of 224 children of under 5 yrs age group were screened. 50.4% of them were suffering from malaria, 38% of the children were at risk or suffering from severe acute malnutrition. Of the 113 children with malaria, 45% were having malnutrition. Out of 86 malnourished children 59% were diagnosed with malaria. 22.7% of children were found to have malaria and malnutrition together.Conclusions: Malaria and Malnutrition are co-existent and synergistic to each other.