Background: Safai karmchari plays an important role in maintaining the health and hygiene in the cities. This job exposes safai karmchari to a variety of risk factors such as dust, volatile organic matter and mechanical stress, which makes them susceptible to certain occupational diseases. The aim of this study was to find out the awareness about occupational health hazard and safety measures practiced by safai karmchari. Materials and Methods: This descriptive study had been carried out during the month of December 2017 to mid of February 2018 in the New Delhi Municipal Council area. Primary data was collected through structured observation checklist and interview with 164 safai karmchari. The data was analyzed using Microsoft excel 2007. Results: Results shows majority of respondent had knowledge about probability of skin allergy/injury/infection while collecting garbage by hand. Most of them had knowledge about probability of traffic accident while working on street. Most of respondents had knowledge about probability of fall while sweeping slippery surface and probability of respiratory problems/eye allergy, also probability of musculoskeletal problems due to their work. Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) apron with reflector, shoes, cap, mask were used by most of the safai karmchari, but few of them uses gloves while working. Conclusion: It was concluded that the knowledge about occupational hazards as well as its preventive measures was more among trained safai karmchari than in untrained safai karmchari. However, a smaller number of respondents was using PPE while working. There is a need to develop SOP for different activities and preventive measure for safai karmchari. A training program should be introduced.

Introduction: The danger of using biological warfare for mass destruction is a serious threat to this country. Thus, it is necessary that our health care services are prepared to efficiently manage any such unfortunate events that we may have to face in future. Physicians in the public and private sector of health services are the first point of contact between public and health services. Thus, the present study examines the awareness of medical physicians in Goa about biological terrorism to evaluate the need for further education in this field. Methods: The present cross-sectional study was conducted among the medical physicians in Goa using purposive sampling method. The self-administered questionnaire collected information regarding the qualification, work setting of the study participants and knowledge regarding biological terrorism. Data was entered and analysed using SPSS version 22. Descriptive statistics was utilized to study frequencies and proportion of various study variables. Results: Of the 200 study participants, 128 (64%) were Specialist doctors, 65 (32.5%) were General physicians, while 7 (3.5%) were Super-specialist doctors. Of the 200 study participants, 174 (87%) reported that they were aware of the use of biological agent for mass destruction of human lives. As much as 34 (17%) study participants could not list any agent of bioterrorism. Conclusion: The knowledge of medical physician in Goa regarding bioterrorism is low, which is a matter of concern as these medical professionals are the first point of contact for the patients affected by an attack of bioterrorism.

Background: Mental health problems have increased considerably among adolescents in the past 20-30 years. According to the present estimates by World Health Organization, mental illnesses are the leading causes of disability adjusted life years globally. Objectives: To find out prevalence of psychiatric disorders among school going adolescents and to find its association with socio demographic variables. Methods and Materials: It is a school based, rural community setting with cross-sectional design. Study was conducted in 600 students (300 males and 300 females) studying in class 8th to 12th. A pre-designed, pre-tested tool Symptom Checklist 90 Revised containing 90 items was used to screen these students. The global severity index (GSI) was used to measure the extent or depth of individual`s psychiatric disturbances. Descriptive statistics and chi square test were used for statistical analysis. Results: Prevalence of psychiatric morbidity was found to be 35%. It increased statistical significantly with age. Females had more problems as compared to males. Maximum number of students with psychiatric morbidity were from class 12 (43%) and class 10 (37%) and from upper middle class (34.5%) followed by middle class (35.3%). Conclusion: It is concluded that more than one-third (35%) of adolescents who were apparently healthy suffered from unnoticed mental health problems

Introduction: Piggybacking approach has been extensively used in almost every known field from physical to virtual. In our day today life, we see it use in social networking sites such as Facebook, yahoo mail where multiple applications are carried over/piggybacked on the existing basic connecting platform. In India, this strategy is commonly used in Malaria control programme by distribution of Insecticide Treated Bed Nets (ITNs) through antenatal care or during immunization campaigns for measles and polio. The advantage of piggy backing approach is multi-faceted in terms of resources, time and effort. Materials and Methods: We utilised this opportunity, to piggyback anti-tobacco campaign using health education approaches on concurrent Randomized Controlled Trial (RCT) for assessing the effectiveness of food safety training interventions among street food vendors. Data entry and analysis was done using SPSS version 22.0 and descriptive statistics was used to define the numerical data. Results: So far data of 40 street food vendors (intervention arm=20 and control arm=20) has been analysed. In the intervention arm 11 (n=20) street food vendors were using tobacco in any form compared to 13 (n=20) in the control group at baseline. None of vendors in both the arm had any knowledge regarding FSSAI Act and COTPA at the baseline. 45% (n=9) in the intervention arm were washing hand after consuming any of the tobacco products at first follow up compared to 10% (n=2) at baseline. Conclusion: Piggybacking strategy can be used in public health programmes to augment one intervention over another to achieve favourable public health outcome.