Objectives: COVID-19 ‘Corona Virus Disease-2019’ was declared Public Health Emergency. The objective was to assess knowledge of novel coronavirus (COVID-19) among health care workers. Study Design: Cross Sectional Observational study. Setting: Naz Memorial Hospital. Period: 13th to 21st March 2020. Material & Methods: This study using consecutive sampling technique was done among health care workers including doctors and other health care workers (HCW). After ethical approval from the IRB, data collection was done. Questionnaire was made for assessing knowledge. For data entering, SPSS version 23.0 was used. The responses were reported and expressed as frequency and percentages. Results: 60 doctors, 90 nurses and other health care workers, all doctors and 87 % HCW regarded COVID-19 as problem for all communities. 90 % doctors, 80 % HCW felt work performance being affected. All study participants agreed COVID-19 affected their social and psychological life. 30 % doctors and 80 % HCW regarded all coronavirus patients experience fever, dry cough, tiredness and difficulty in breathing. Almost all participants regarded coronavirus could spread from human-to-human contact; mortality related to co-morbid and age extremes. No participant knew how to handle COVID-19 patient due to unavailability of guidelines. Conclusion: Most doctors were aware of the knowledge regarding novel COVID-19, however some health care workers were not fully aware of consequences and effects of coronavirus. Being the first in line of duty to manage COVID-19 patients it is vital to provide guideline in addition to safety measures for ensuring proper treatment and limit spread of disease.

Objectives:Osteoarthritis (OA) is leadingcauseof decline in physical activity. The study objectiveswere to evaluate hematological and anthropometric features in knee OA. Methodology: This case control study from March 2019 to August 2019 on patients attending general outpatient department ofNaz MemorialHospital Karachi. Patients above 18 years of either gender, diagnosed as either knee OA on X-ray knee were included. Patients with positive family history,heavy lifting workers, and women on hormonal replacement therapy were excluded. SPSS version 23.0 was used for data analysis. Chi-square test was applied OA and control group keeping p-value of <0.05 as significant. Results:From 100 OA patients, 22 were below 50 years, 37 between 51-60, 31 patients between 61-70 and 10 patients above 71. Mean age of patients was 56.77 ± 11.26 years. Mean BMI of OA and control group was 30.24 ± 8.98 kg/m2 and 26.64 ± 6.24 kg/m2 (p-0.04). Mean hemoglobin of OA and control group were 11.20 ± 1.24 gm/ dl and13.3 ± 2.24 gm/dl (p-0.04). Mean total cholesterol of OA and control group was 158.34 ± 47.83 mg/dl and 137.25 ±51.22 mg/dl (p-0.05). Mean low density lipoprotein of OA and control group was 123.78 ± 27.29 mg/dl and 111.31 ± 24.39 mg/dl (p-0.05). Conclusion: Age, obesity, hemoglobin, total cholesterol, low density lipoprotein and blood glucose was found to be substantially higher among OA patients when compared with that of controls. Females and older aged patients with bilateral joint involvement were reportedly more frequently with OA. Bangladesh Journal of Medical Science Vol. 21 No. 03 July’22 Page: 682-687

Objective: To assess the knowledge, attitude & practices of breast self-examination among women residing in the district 'Central' of Karachi and to determine the knowledge, attitude and practices of breast self-examination among high risk Ca breast women residing in the district central of Karachi. Methods: This descriptive, cross-sectional, questionnaire-based, study was carried out among women attending a charitable hospital in Karachi, in 2018. The data was collected through a convenience sampling technique, and was analyzed by using SPSS version 24.0. Descriptive statistics of socio-demographic variables were presented as mean ± SD for continuous variables and frequency or percentages for categorical variables. The Chi-square test was used to test the association between knowledge, attitude and practice regarding Ca breast and breast self-examination, p-value <0.05 consider significant, Results: The mean age of the 172 participants was 30.73±6.84 years, 34.9% were educated with primary education, and 41.9% had 5-7 family members. 90.1% participants were married and 92.4% were housewives. All were Muslims. 65.7% females had heard of BSE and source of information was their family members. However, 50.6 % were practicing BSE, while 24.1% execute it monthly, 75.9% preferred to examine their breasts with fingers of the opposite hand, 77.3% of females agreed BSE was important for breast health. There was an association between age and practices of BSE and was 63.3% highest among participants aged 31-40 years and was lowest 42.7% among those between 20-30 years of age (p=0.041). About 75% of the females who were graduated, performed BSE as compared to only 40% uneducated females (p=0.270) Conclusion: The practices of breast self-examination were low and there is dire need of implementation of health education programme on BSE for early detection of Ca breast. The practice of breast self-examination is low and required implementation of health education programme on BSE for early detection of Ca beast.

Objective: The objective of this study was to compare the effectiveness of health education as an intervention to promote BSE among intervention and non-intervention group presenting in a low resource setting at North Karachi Methodology: This Quasi-experimental study was conducted from January-August 2018 in a charitable hospital in Karachi after taking ethical approval by the Institutional Review Board of Jinnah Sindh Medical University and relevant approvals from the hospital authorities. This study recruited 172 eligible women by dividing them into intervention (n=86) and control (n=86) groups from a low resource setting in Karachi. Demographic variables were collected through pretested questionnaire by interview. Intervention group then received health education regarding carcinoma of breast, importance of BSE and monthly motivation to perform BSE through cell phone. The questionnaire was again filled after 6 months of intervention. Control group was also given health education sessions upon completion of study. Results: Results revealed that both groups were similar initially. After 6 months females in intervention group showed significant (p=<0.001) improvement in knowledge and performance of BSE from 44.2% to 88.4% but there was no change in control group. Being in intervention group (RR=2.714, 95% CI= 1.760 - 4.186, p=0.001) and education (RR=0.573, 95% CI= 0.361 - 0.910, p=0.018) showed positive association with BSE performance. Upon adjusting with age, marital status, family history and education, intervention group (RR=2.570, 95% CI= 1.654 - 3.992, p= 0.001) remained significant while education (RR=1.466, 95% CI =0.910 - 2.363, p=0.116) became insignificant. Continuous...