Background: Tobacco use is so addictive among youth and is one of the global epidemics which require constant monitoring and timely appropriate action to prevent usage. School personnel play one of the main roles in taking appropriate action. Aim: To assess knowledge and attitude of tobacco use pattern among school personnel in Bangalore city. Material and Methods: A cross sectional study was carried out for a period of six months from May to October 2017. Stratified cluster sampling was done to include the government and English medium schools in Bangalore south. All the school personnel in the selected schools were eligible to participate. The data collection tool was GSPS questionnaire (WHO FCTC Tobacco Control). Chi-square test and Fisher’s Exact Test was used to demonstrate cross tabulation with confidence intervals. Significance level of 0.05 was considered for statistical analyses Results : Majority of both Kannada and English medium school personnel did not use any forms of tobacco. Both the English and Kannada medium school personnel were aware of the addictive effect of tobacco, but majority of the Kannada medium personnel said second hand smoke is not harmful as compared to their counterparts. Conclusion: Tobacco use among school personnel was low. Most of the school personnel were informed about the addictive nature of tobacco.

Introduction: India is leading in the burden of Tuberculosis (TB) according to the new report of the World Health Organisation (WHO) on the disease. Multi-Drug Resistant TB (MDR-TB) cases have been increasing in India. About half of the world’s MDR-TB cases are present in India. Aim: To assess the incidence of drug resistant TB in Prakasam district, Andhra Pradesh, India, in the second quarter of the year 2019 and to determine the risk factors that are responsible to develop drug resistance to anti-tubercular drugs in the study population. Materials and Methods: A Community based cross-sectional study was conducted from April 1st to June 30th in Prakasam district, Andhra Pradesh. All the registered drug resistant TB cases in Prakasam district who gave consent during the study period were taken as sample. The diagnosed drug resistant TB patients were interviewed and proportions of different variables were calculated and chi-square test was used to test significance of results. Results: Out of 209 TB patients, 88 patients were having drug resistant TB in Prakasam district. Prevalence of Drug resistant TB in Prakasam district was calculated as 5.64 per one lac population. In the second quarter of the year 2019-2020, i.e., from April 1st to June 30th, 88 new cases were identified. Incidence of Drug resistant TB in Prakasam district was calculated as 2.38 per one lac population. Male persons (76%), having the age 20-40 years (42%), 40-60 (38.7%) belonging to middle class (45.5%) and migrating for work (85%) are at more risk of developing drug resistant TB. Most of the patients are developing drug resistant TB directly (70.5%) which is an alarming signal. The rifampicin resistant patients were also developing psychological complications (22). Drug toxicity was observed in 55% of the cases. Conclusion: Incidence of drug resistant TB was more in male persons, above 20 years of age, belonging to middle class socio-economic status and migrating for work. Most of the patients developed drug resistant TB directly without previous history of TB. Drug toxicity was observed in half of the cases. Psychological complications were observed in rifampicin resistant patients. Surveillance activity should be addressed properly to combat the risk factors.

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