Aligarh, a densely populated town of Uttar Pradesh, is the hub of a variety of industries and is feared to be home to children at risk of lead exposure. Hence, this study was planned to determine the socio-demographic and clinical correlates of elevated blood lead levels in children of Aligarh.

Original Source

There is a perception that despite considerable economic growth, India has not made commensurate progress in addressing anthropometric (weight-for-age, height-for-age and weight-for-height or body mass index-for-age) undernutrition. The current national prevalence of undernutrition in children below five years is still high; 39% are stunted, 29% are underweight and 15% are wasted. However, this common belief appears somewhat flawed; there has been substantial improvement in stunting and underweight over the years.

Children in Delhi have a far lower lung capacity and lung growth rate than kids of the same age in the US, according to this study by the department of pulmonary medicine at the Vallabhbhai Patel Chest Institute.

The World Health Organization declared India – among other 10 countries in South East Region – as ‘polio-free’ in 2014. Since then, the Government of India (GoI) has scaled up its initiatives against polio endgame which targets virus eradication and sequential withdrawal of type 2 virus from oral polio vaccine (OPV). However, prior to choosing the switch from trivalent OPV (t-OPV) to bivalent OPV (b-OPV), it was suggested to include inactivated poliovirus vaccine (IPV) in the national immunization schedule to protect vaccine naïve population against type 2 poliovirus.

Pioneering research has been conducted in India during the past five decades, comprehensively covering epidemiology of poliovirus infection and of polio, efficacy and effectiveness of oral and inactivated polio vaccines (OPV, IPV) as well as pathogenesis of wild and vaccine polioviruses. It was estimated, based on epidemiology data, that India had a very heavy burden of polio, with average 500-1000 cases per day. Prevention was an urgent need, but OPV showed unacceptably low vaccine efficacy (VE) for poliovirus types 1 and 3.

Shaping up the post-2015 development agenda is of crucial importance in the development process around the Globe as 2015 was the last year of milllionium development goals. It is the right time to asses our own progress vis-a-vis the Millennium Development Goals and these Guidelines are an attempt in that regard.

Original Source

The objective of the study was to extend a nation-wide rotavirus surveillance network in India, and to generate geographically representative data on rotaviral disease burden and prevalent strains.

Original Source

The eleven member states of World Health Organization South-East Asia Region committed to eliminate measles by 2020. In phased manner, Government of India is working on this goal, and has introduced two-dose strategy for measles vaccine in the routine immunization. Molecular epidemiology of measles in India has been considerably growing that would be useful for understanding the circulation of wild type measles in pre- and post-elimination period. However, importations of cases from other countries may be likely.

The objective of the study was to determine the prevalence of overweight and obesity among children and adolescents in Chennai, India, using national and international age- and sex- specific body mass index (BMI) cut-off points.

Original Source

We studied the co morbidities in hospitalized children with severe acute malnourishment 104 severe acute malnourished children were included, of which 54% had diarrhea, and 27.8% had acute respiratory tract
infections. Tuberculosis was diagnosed in 22% of cases (60.8% cases in children 6-12 mo. Old). Malaria and Measles were diagnosed in 3.8% each, and HIV infection was seen in 2.88% cases. Signs of vitamin