Introduction: Cholera, though a preventable and treatable disease, is still regarded as an important public health problem in developing countries including India. Migration, unhygienic living conditions, overcrowding, open field defecation, and ignorance about the spread of disease are the major reasons for the occurrence of cholera in the slum areas. Cholera was detected in the stool sample of a 3-year-old child from a slum area of urban Wardha, which demanded an urgent outbreak investigation to be carried out before it progressed into an epidemic. Materials and Methods: This was a cross-sectional epidemiological study, where we have used pretested, predesigned epidemiological case sheets obtained from IDSP. A case definition was proposed before beginning the investigation. Linelisting, collection of stool and water samples, immediate referral, and treatment of the patients suffering from loose stool and/or vomiting were performed. A detailed epidemiological report was made with recommendations and plan of action that was forwarded to the district health system. Results: In all, 28 suspected cases of cholera were line listed. Among the affected population, more than half of the suspected cases were from the age group of 0–10 years of age. Males were more affected when compared with females. The overall attack rate was 27% and case fatality rate was 0%. There was positive history of travel in the index case. Two of the water samples were found to be unsatisfactory for drinking. Conclusion: The investigation report was soon developed and shared with the district health authorities, and recommendations were given to prevent such outbreaks in future.

Background:A family caregiver is the one who provides care to their near and dear one who is suffering from some debilitating disease like oral cancer. Apart from providing physical care, they also provide emotional and financial support to their close relatives. They can be the patient's spouse, children, and siblings. This study was, hence, designed to understand the psychosocial impact of caregivers of oral cancer patients.Methodology:This was a qualitative study using in-depth interviews of 24 purposively chosen family caregivers irrespective of age, sex, and relationship with patients, who provided deep insight into the psychosocial impact of the disease on themselves during caregiving of their loved ones and how they coped with it. Interviews were taken in Hindi, in the houses of caregivers. Care was taken to maintain utmost privacy while taking the interviews, which were either audio recorded or noted down. Informed written consent was obtained from participants before the start of the study. Themes were evolved from the interviews and content analysis was performed using ATLAS.ti.Results:Six themes emerged after data analysis. Those were the impact on physical health and lifestyle, emotional impact, impact on family and social relationship, impact on financial and work status, improvement of hospital services, spiritual concern, and acceptance of the disease. A concept map was made to provide a vivid explanation of how oral cancer caused these impacts on caregivers and their interrelationship.Conclusion:Caregiving is not an easy job. This study recommends extra care to be taken in preparing them for caregiving to the oral cancer patients with adequate knowledge of the disease process and its consequences along with counseling facilities in the hospital to address the different psychosocial needs of the patients.

Background:Depression is the most common psychiatric disorder among elderly population in India, yet, it is commonly misdiagnosed and undertreated. The exact burden of depression among the elderly population in rural India was not known.Objectives:To study the magnitude of depression among the elderly masses in rural Maharashtra and to find its correlates.Material and Methods:This is a cross sectional study, carried out among the elderly (≥60 years) population of both sexes residing in the field practice area of the department of community medicine. Geriatric depression scale was used for screening depression among the study population. Data collection was completed within 2 months using convenience sampling. Ethical approval was taken before beginning the study. Magnitude was expressed in percentage along with its 95% confidence interval (CI). Univariate and multivariate logistic regression was carried out to study associated correlates. Odds ratio and 95% CI was used to express association.Results:The magnitude of depression among the elderly population was found to be 41.7% (95% CI 36.1–47.4). We got the significant positive association of female sex, living without spouse, lacking in decision making capability, a victim of abuse or neglect, or suffering from chronic illnesses with depression among elderly population in univariate analysis that did not hold good in the multivariate logistic regression. Our study showed the prevalence of mild depression among elderly to be 26.72% and that of severe depression to be 15.17%.Conclusion:To deal with this huge social problem of depression among the elderly population, more enthusiastic steps should be undertaken.

Background: Oxidative stress occurs as a result of the disturbance in the balance between the production of reactive oxygen species (free radicals) and antioxidant defenses. This is regarded as a possible etilogical factor in production of breast carcinoma, which is the most cmmon cancer among the females both globally as well as in India. Oxidative stress also plays an important role in progression of cancer breast. This study was conducted to compare the levels of superoxide dismutase (SOD) and malondialdehyde (MDA) in breast cancer patients and normal age matched female participants.Methods: This study was conducted in AVBR Hospital, Sawangi (Meghe) among 30 female breast cancer patients admitted in the surgery ward for treatment after being diagnosed with the disease, who attended the hospital from July 2016 to June 2017. Breast cancer patients of stage I and II were included in the study. Patients suffering from any other diseases apart from breast cancer like diabetes, hypertension, thyroid illnesses and other sort of cancers are excluded from the study. For each of the study participant, age and sex matched controls were selected who were mostly the relatives of patients attending the hospital and were devoid of any illnesses. Venous blood sample was collected from all the patients as well as the controls that were used for determination of the levels of SOD (superoxide dismutase) and MDA (malondialdehyde). Written informed consent was taken from all the study participants before drawing the blood samples.Results: Authors have measured the markers of oxidative stress in breast cancer patients after diagnosis of breast cancer and compared theses blood levels with those of the controls. The mean MDA (nmol/ml) levels for the breast cancer patients and the controls were 26.14 and 15.83 respectively, while the SOD (U/gm Hb) levels were 0.12 and 0.16 respectively and the difference of the mean were statistically significant (p value <0.01).Conclusions: There is presence of increased oxidative stress in breast cancer patients as compared to the healthy controls.

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