Diabetes is a major health problem globally and is one of the top five leading causes of death in most developed countries. Substantial evidence suggests that it could reach epidemic proportions particularly in developing and newly industrialized countries. According to estimations, the global burden of type 2 diabetes mellitus for 2010 would be 285 million people which are projected to increase to 438 million in 2030. For India the increase is estimated to be 58%, from 51 million people in 2010 to 87 million in 2030. By the year 2025, 2/3 rd of the world's adults with diabetes will be in developing countries and almost a third in India and China alone. 2 The prevalence ABSTRACT Background: Greek Physician Aretaeus (30-90CE) observed a disease with symptoms such as constant thirst (polydipsia), excessive urination (polyuria) and loss of weight. Based on these findings, he named the condition 'diabetes', meaning 'a flowing through. Diabetes mellitus is a serious public health concern, not just because of its high prevalence or the chronicity, but more importantly because of its life-threatening micro vascular and macro vascular complications which are often silent and undetected until the advanced and irreversible stage has developed, and they may even appear years before the diagnosis of diabetes. Methods: A cross-sectional study was carried out on elderly (60 years and above). This study was intended to measure prevalence of diabetes mellitus and associated risk factors. Results: In present study, the prevalence of diabetes was found to be higher among female participants at 41.98% compared to males at 25.90%. Prevalence of diabetes was highest in the age group of 60-70 years. Mean BMI (28.05) of female participants was higher compared to the BMI of the male participants which was 25.52. It was observed that the prevalence of diabetes increases with increase in BMI. Conclusions: Early detection and treatment of these chronic morbidities should be done with regular health checkups and screening of these diseases before they can cause permanent damage to health of individual or death. People should also be educated and counselled about monitoring their health parameters to ensure early detection and treatment.

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Background: Timely transfusion of blood saves millions of lives, but unsafe transfusion practices puts millions of people at risk of transfusion transmissible infections (TTIs). Blood transfusion carries the risk of transfusion-transmissible infections including human immunodeficiency virus (HIVI&II), hepatitis B virus (HBV), hepatitis C virus (HCV), malaria and syphilis. With every unit of blood there are 1% chances of transfusion associated diseases.Methods: This study was conducted over a period of 3 years (1stJanuary 2015-31st December 2017) at hospital blood bank of Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru Government Medical College, Chamba (H.P). The study was conducted on both voluntary and replacement blood donors who came to our blood bank and voluntary blood donation camps in and around Chamba. Statistical analysis used. Collected data was analyzed using appropriate statistical softwares such as EPI-INFO and MS-Excel.Results: In our study, we observed a total of 2616 donors over a period of 3 years. In the present study, 847 (32.37%) were voluntary donors and 1769 (67.62%) were replacement donors. Out of 2616 blood samples, 8 were HBsAg positive, 1 HCV positive.Conclusions: Our study shows that the number of blood donors is increasing every year. In our study, the seroprevalence of HBsAg was 0.3% and Hep C was 0.03% in total blood donors. The knowledge of current infectious disease pattern and trends in donor population can help in planning of future blood transfusion related health challenges.

Background: Blood and its components are very important for human life as there is no substitute for human blood. No major surgical procedure can be performed without the use of blood in any hospital or clinic. Ideally in a good set up, wastage of blood and blood products should never occur. The aim of this study was to assess the burden of blood wastage in our blood bank, reasons for the wastage, and to cut down blood wastage to a minimal amount by adopting new methods and techniques.Methods: A retrospective study was carried out in Department of Blood Bank of Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru Govt. Medical College, Chamba (H.P) over a time period of one year from 1st January 2017 to 31st December 2017.Results: In our study period, there were 35 discarded blood units due to various reasons forming 3.52% of total discard. Majority of units were discarded due to expiry (51.4%).Conclusions: Our study found expiry/outdated units to be most common reason for discard (51.4%). This kind of wastage may be reduced by better management of blood bag collection, storage and utilization. TTI was another significant reason for blood discard in our blood bank (14.28%). We can bring down the number of discard units by proper training and educating our blood bank staff. Strict adherence to donor selection criteria and proper past medical history should be obtained from blood donors.

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