EVALUATION OF NEUROLOGICAL MANIFESTATIONS IN HUMAN IMMUNODEFICIENCY VIRUS-AIDS PATIENTS ADMITTED TO SOUTH INDIAN TERTIARY CARE HOSPITAL – A CROSS-SECTIONAL STUDY

Objective: The objective of the study was to describe, evaluate, and analyze neurological manifestation in human immunodeficiency virus HIV positive patients admitted to a tertiary care center. Methods: The study was a prospective cross-sectional study, in which 103 HIV patients were analyzed. All patients were interviewed face to face and evaluated by the investigator with particular reference to neurological manifestations. They were classified into various stages of HIV using the World Health Organization staging system. Results: The mean age in males was 37 (standard deviation [SD] 8.0) years and in females 35 (SD 7.0) years. A greater proportion of females were diagnosed in the asymptomatic state during screening, either during pregnancy or when the spouse was found to be positive. Headache was the most common neurologic symptom and fundus abnormalities were the most common neurological sign documented in patients. The mean CD4 counts in males are 156.5/mm3 and in females are 229.57/mm3 whereas the mean absolute leukocyte count in males is 1088.30/mm3 and in females is 1473.52/mm3. The CD4 counts showed a better correlation with the occurrence of neurological manifestations than absolute leukocyte count. Conclusion: Headache was a significant predictor of the occurrence of neurological complications (p=0.01). CD4 counts were significantly lower in patients with neurological complications and most of the neurological manifestations; on the contrary, all the opportunistic infections were documented in patients with CD4 counts below 200/mm3. Neurological complications did not show any correlation with the patient being on anti-retroviral therapy

Pregabalin

No abstract available

Evaluation of Project Mesha

Project Mesha is being implemented by the Aga Khan Foundation (AKF) in four blocks of Muzaffarpur district, Bihar . The project promotes better management practices to goat-rearers with the intention “to transform and improve the quality of life of landless and marginal farming households in Bihar, India”. It is achieving this by introducing a cadre - Pashu Sakhis, women livestock health workers. The program is providing training and field-based handholding support to pashu sakhis, to contribute in the productivity of small ruminants i.e. goats, income enhancement of the goat rearer household, women empowerment, and other related outcomes. JEEViKA rolled out an intervention based on a similar design in 15 districts of Bihar. The evaluation is led by Population Council, India and aims to contribute to evidence around the association of pashu sakhis in goat rearing programs in order to increase household income, improve goat health and management and empower women

Community Animal Health Worker (CAHW) based interventions with small ruminants to improve animal health and women’s income and empowerment in South Asia: A systematic review

This systematic review is planned to fully understand the interventions employing Community Animal Health Workers (CAHW) and other similar interventions in South Asia, and the impact generated by these interventions in terms of animal health, women’s (Pashu Sakhi and goat rearers) income and empowerment

Microbial production of multienzyme preparation from mosambi peel using Trichoderma asperellum

Abstract Fruit and vegetable whole sale markets produces huge quantities of wastes in the forms of discarded fruits and vegetables or their parts, creating unhygienic conditions around the area and resulting into environmental pollution. Many enzymes have good applicability in food industries mainly in the production of clarified fruit juices. However, cost of production of such food enzymes are generally high due to costly raw materials. Utilization of fruit and vegetable wastes as carbon sources for enzyme production through microbial intervention has already been reported by various workers. The present study reports the feasibility of using mosambi (Citrus limetta) peel as substrate for multienzyme preparation including pectinase, cellulase and amylase, using a potential fungal isolate.Conditions viz. temperature, pH, incubation time and nutrient addition were optimized for enzymes production from fresh mosambi peel as substrate using Trichoderma asperellum NG-125 (accession number-MW287256). Maximum activities (U ml-1min-1) of pectinase (595.7±2.47), cellulase (497.3±2.06) and amylase (440.9±1.44) were observed at pH 5.5, incubation temperature of 30°C after 10 days of fermentation. Macro-nutrients addition @ 0.1% ammonium sulphate, 0.01% potassium-di-hydrogen-ortho-phosphate enhanced the production of enzymes. The purified pectinase, cellulase and amylase by SDS-PAGE revealed three bands to molecular mass of 43, 66 and 33kDa, respectively.Out of four natural fibre matrices (bagasse, rice husk, paddy straw and wheat straw) tested for immobilization, maximum enzyme activity retention percent was observed on bagasse matrix (pectinase-56.35%, cellulase-77.68% and amylase-59.54%). Enzymatic juice clarification yield obtained with test enzyme was 75.8% which was as comparable to 80.5% of commercial enzyme.</jats:p

Evaluation of Project Mesha

Project Mesha is being implemented by the Aga Khan Foundation (AKF) in four blocks of Muzaffarpur district, Bihar . The project promotes better management practices to goat-rearers with the intention “to transform and improve the quality of life of landless and marginal farming households in Bihar, India”. It is achieving this by introducing a cadre - Pashu Sakhis, women livestock health workers. The program is providing training and field-based handholding support to pashu sakhis, to contribute in the productivity of small ruminants i.e. goats, income enhancement of the goat rearer household, women empowerment, and other related outcomes. JEEViKA rolled out an intervention based on a similar design in 15 districts of Bihar. The evaluation is led by Population Council, India and aims to contribute to evidence around the association of pashu sakhis in goat rearing programs in order to increase household income, improve goat health and management and empower women