BackgroundThe World Health Organization estimates that seeking prompt and appropriate care could reduce child deaths due to acute respiratory infections by 20%. The purpose of our study was to assess care seeking behaviour of the mothers during childhood illness and to determine the predictors of mother's care seeking behaviour.MethodsA cross-sectional survey was conducted in the immunization clinics of Pokhara city, Kaski district, western Nepal. A trained health worker interviewed the mothers of children suffering from illness during the preceding 15 days.ResultsA total of 292 mothers were interviewed. Pharmacies (46.2%) were the most common facilities where care was sought followed by allopathic medical practitioners (26.4%). No care was sought for 8 (2.7%) children and 26 (8.9%) children received traditional/home remedies. 'Appropriate', 'prompt' and 'appropriate and prompt' care was sought by 77 (26.4%), 166 (56.8%) and 33 (11.3%) mothers respectively. The mothers were aware of fever (51%), child becoming sicker (45.2%) and drinking poorly (42.5%) as the danger signs of childhood illness. By multiple logistic regression analysis total family income, number of symptoms, mothers' education and perceived severity of illness were the predictors of care seeking behaviour.ConclusionThe results of the present study show that the mothers were more likely to seek care when they perceived the illness as 'serious'. Poor maternal knowledge of danger signs of childhood illness warrants the need for a complementary introduction of community-based Integrated Management of Childhood Illness programmes to improve family's care seeking behaviour and their ability to recognize danger signs of childhood illness. Socioeconomic development of the urban poor may overcome their financial constraints to seek 'appropriate' and 'prompt' care during the childhood illness.

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Aims: Technologies like mobile phones may not always work positively but they may have unforeseen adverse effects. This study was conducted to find the proportion of students who experienced ringxiety (phantom ringing) and other perceived effects, as well as the pattern of the mobile phone usage among college students. Method:A cross-sectional study was carried out at Kasturba Medical College, Mangalore, south India, among 336 medical students by using a pre-tested, semi-structured questionnaire.Results: Among the total number of students, 335 students possessed mobile phones. Mostly, the persons whom they talked to on their phones were parents for 220 (51%) of the students. 48% (150) talked for less than half hour in a day and 41% (137) were high volume message users. "Ringxiety" was experienced by 34.5% (116) of the students and they were more likely to use their phones at restricted places like classrooms (99%) and libraries (60.3%). A significantly larger proportion of ringxiety sufferers also complained of hampered studies. Conclusion:The pattern of mobile phone use among the medical students appeared to be problematic, as a fairly large proportion suffered from ringxiety, they reported getting very upset and they used their phones at restricted times and places. This problem needs to be recognized, all stakeholders must be made aware of the symptoms and measures must be taken to reduce it.

Background: Long COVID or long-term complication after COVID-19 has the ability to affect health and quality of life. Knowledge about the burden and predictors could aid in their prevention and management. Most of the studies are from high-income countries and focus on severe cases. We did this study to estimate the prevalence and identify the characteristics and predictors of Long COVID among our patients. Methodology: We recruited adult (≥18 years) patients who were diagnosed as Reverse Transcription Polymerase Chain Reaction (RTPCR) confirmed SARS-COV-2 infection and were either hospitalized or tested on outpatient basis. Eligible participants were followed up telephonically after four weeks of diagnosis of SARS-COV-2 infection to collect data on sociodemographic, clinical history, vaccination history, Cycle threshold (Ct) values during diagnosis and other variables. Characteristic of Long COVID were elicited, and multivariable logistic regression was done to find the predictors of Long COVID. Results: We have analyzed 487 individual data with a median follow-up of 44 days (Inter quartile range (IQR): 39,47). Overall, Long COVID was reported by 29.2% (95% Confidence interval (CI): 25.3%,33.4%) participants. Prevalence of Long COVID among patients with mild/moderate disease (n = 415) was 23.4% (95% CI: 19.5%,27.7%) as compared to 62.5% (95% CI: 50.7%,73%) in severe/critical cases(n=72). The most common Long COVID symptom was fatigue (64.8%) followed by cough (32.4%). Statistically significant predictors of Long COVID were - Pre-existing medical conditions (Adjusted Odds ratio (aOR)=2.00, 95% CI: 1.16,3.44), having a more significant number of symptoms during acute phase of COVID-19 disease (aOR=11.24, 95% CI: 4.00,31.51), two doses of COVID-19 vaccination (aOR=2.32, 95% CI: 1.17,4.58), the severity of illness (aOR=5.71, 95% CI: 3.00,10.89) and being admitted to hospital (Odds ratio (OR)=3.89, 95% CI: 2.49,6.08). Conclusion: A considerable proportion of COVID-19 cases reported Long COVID symptoms. More research is needed in Long COVID to objectively assess the symptoms and find the biological and radiological markers.

The study aimed to assess the adverse events following COVID-19 vaccine (Covaxin) immunization at a tertiary care institution and also assess the predictors of the adverse events following immunization (AEFI). The prospective observational study was conducted in a tertiary care institute among the Covaxin beneficiaries between June 28 and September 6, 2021. A total of 1826 participants were assessed for any local or systemic adverse events after seven days of vaccination. A telephonic interview was conducted, and the beneficiaries were assessed according to the adverse event grading. A total of 1826 participants were assessed for AEFI, and 544 (29.8%) reported at least one of the AEFI. No severe adverse events were reported, and about 1.6% had moderate AEFI. Pain at the injection site (14.6%), fever (9.7%), and myalgia (5.9%) were the common adverse events reported by the participants. AEFI incidence was higher in the first dose (38.1%) when compared to the second dose (26.4%), and this finding was significant with a p < 0.001. The major factors associated with AEFI were female sex, history of an allergic reaction, presence of comorbidities, acute infection in the past 3 months, and intake of chronic medications. Precaution needs to be taken while vaccinating individuals having allergies, comorbidities, acute infection in the last 3 months, and individuals on chronic medication.