Background: Adolescents are vulnerable populations and due to lack of health information on injec... more Background: Adolescents are vulnerable populations and due to lack of health information on injecting drugs and viral hepatitis, it is likely that they could engage into unsafe injection and sexual practices that could be risky for their health. Aim: The present paper is an attempt to explore the risky patterns that make adolescents vulnerable to Hepatitis B Virus (HBV) and Hepatitis C Virus (HCV). The adolescents were part of the intervention, “Prevention and Early Management of Hepatitis B and C among high risk group in Amritsar and Imphal, India”, that was conducted from October 2014 till January 2018 Material and methods: In this intervention, 29 [out of 1700 People Who Inject Drugs (PWID] were adolescents. Risk assessment tool was used to monitor their health condition and adherence to harm reduction practices. Since the number was small, simple frequency distribution (number and per cent) was used to analyse the data and numbers are used to elucidate the overall results. Resul...
Introduction: More than 300 million people have been vaccinated against Covid-19 in the United St... more Introduction: More than 300 million people have been vaccinated against Covid-19 in the United States. It is well known that breakthrough infections are common in vaccinated individuals. Depending upon patient age, immunity, comorbidities, drugs, and history of Covid-19, these infections could be mild or severe and, in some cases, may require hospitalization. Objectives: To study the rate of Covid-19 breakthrough infections and associated illness in individuals after receiving mRNA vaccine. Methods: De-identified administrative claims data between December 2020 to March 2021 were used to identify vaccinated individuals (≥18 years). The study considered vaccines that were available in the US at the time of study duration. The first vaccination date was defined as index. Members were followed for two months post index to identify Covid-19 breakthrough infections (as defined by CDC) occurring ≥14 days post index. Patients with continuous enrollment for 90 days post-index were included. Evidence of vaccination was identified using pharmacy claims, while medical claims were used to identify a breakthrough and associated acute respiratory illnesses. Descriptive analysis was conducted to identify patient demographics, geographic location and age and sex wise distribution. Results: A total of 772,222 members had at least one claim for Covid-19 vaccination. Of these, 4631 (males: 1795 and females: 2836) had breakthrough infections with 384 patients reporting associated acute respiratory illness (pneumonia: 213;Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome: 18;Acute Bronchitis: 10;Upper and Lower Respiratory Tract Infections: 128 and 16, respectively). Conclusions: Unarguably, mass vaccination has helped in reducing the burden of Covid-19 infection. However, viral vaccines are known to provide limited protection and some people may still get infected. Further research is needed to understand nature of emergency visits and conditions that call for ICU or non-ICU hospitalizations
Biomedicine approaches infertility as a disease that can be cured with the application of Assiste... more Biomedicine approaches infertility as a disease that can be cured with the application of Assisted Reproductive Technologies (ART). This study aims to explore some of the ethical issues that surround the use of these technologies in India. The study was carried out in two well-known private health care settings in Pune, Maharashtra. One of the private hospitals was selected on the basis of familiarity with the doctor; the other on the basis of popularity among patients. Qualitative in-depth interviews were conducted to collect information from a sample of 25 women between December 2007 and April 2008. The study reveals that all the women interviewed found ART treatment to be painful and—at the time of interview—had not achieved a full-term pregnancy. The study also found that there was no uniform protocol specifying the sequenced application of intrauterine insemination (IUI)followed by the enrolment of the woman in in vitro fertilization (IVF) or intracytoplasmic sperm injection (I...
Los adolescentes son una poblacion vulnerable .Debido a la falta de informacion medica sobre inye... more Los adolescentes son una poblacion vulnerable .Debido a la falta de informacion medica sobre inyectarse drogas y hepatitis viral, es probable que muchos adolescentes se involucren en inyecciones no seguras y en practicas sexuales que podrian ser riesgosas para su salud. Objetivo: el presente articulo explora los perfiles de riesgo que hacen que los adolescentes sean vulnerables al virus de la hepatitis B (VHB) y al de la hepatitis C (VHC) .Se informa sobre los resultados de un estudio titulado " Prevencion y manejo temprano de la hepatitis B y C en grupos de alto riesgo en Amritsar e Imphal, India ", que se realizo entre octubre de 2014 y enero de 2018 .Mas informacion sobre estos dos estados se puede encontrar en la b seccion de antecedentes. Materiales y metodos : en esta intervencion, se inscribieron 1700 usuarios de drogas inyectables (UDI); 24 de la muestra total fueron adolescentes.Utilizamos una herramienta de evaluacion de riesgos para controlar por estado de salud...
Background: Hepatitis C (HCV) is emerging as a major public health problem and its co-infection w... more Background: Hepatitis C (HCV) is emerging as a major public health problem and its co-infection with HIV is on the rise especially in People With Injecting Drugs (PWID). Barriers for delay in accessing services for HCV care may lead to disease progression and impact the society in the form of loss of productive workforce. Aim: This qualitative research was undertaken to explore the barriers for delay in testing for HCV amongst PWIDs. Methods and Material: The study was conducted in two districts of India i.e. Imphal (Manipur state) and Amritsar (Punjab state). A total of 32 PWIDs participated through In-Depth Interviews (IDI) and Focus Group Discussions (FGD). Results: Mostly, the barriers reported for delay in HCV testing were related to socio economic context in which the PWIDs live; inhibitions to get tested due to fear of a positive result, unavailability of HCV services particularly in rural and remote areas, financial costs and long waiting period. Drug use amongst females inf...
This qualitative study discusses issues related to assisted reproductive technologies (ART) treat... more This qualitative study discusses issues related to assisted reproductive technologies (ART) treatment, the everyday experiences of and the reasons why women approach infertility clinics. I have attempted to show that ART imposes a double burden on women, namely, the burden of a social system that restricts women’s role to child bearing and the burden of what might be described as the medicalisation of their problems. There is an obvious gap between the ‘created’ desire for a biological child and the inability to produce one. Though the sample size is small and the results cannot be generalised, the study does point to certain trends.
This qualitative study discusses issues related to assisted reproductive technologies (ART) treat... more This qualitative study discusses issues related to assisted reproductive technologies (ART) treatment, the everyday experiences of and the reasons why women approach infertility clinics. I have attempted to show that ART imposes a double burden on women, namely, the burden of a social system that restricts women’s role to child bearing and the burden of what might be described as the medicalisation of their problems. There is an obvious gap between the ‘created’ desire for a biological child and the inability to produce one. Though the sample size is small and the results cannot be generalised, the study does point to certain trends.
Background: Adolescents are vulnerable populations and due to lack of health information on injec... more Background: Adolescents are vulnerable populations and due to lack of health information on injecting drugs and viral hepatitis, it is likely that they could engage into unsafe injection and sexual practices that could be risky for their health. Aim: The present paper is an attempt to explore the risky patterns that make adolescents vulnerable to Hepatitis B Virus (HBV) and Hepatitis C Virus (HCV). The adolescents were part of the intervention, “Prevention and Early Management of Hepatitis B and C among high risk group in Amritsar and Imphal, India”, that was conducted from October 2014 till January 2018 Material and methods: In this intervention, 29 [out of 1700 People Who Inject Drugs (PWID] were adolescents. Risk assessment tool was used to monitor their health condition and adherence to harm reduction practices. Since the number was small, simple frequency distribution (number and per cent) was used to analyse the data and numbers are used to elucidate the overall results. Resul...
Introduction: More than 300 million people have been vaccinated against Covid-19 in the United St... more Introduction: More than 300 million people have been vaccinated against Covid-19 in the United States. It is well known that breakthrough infections are common in vaccinated individuals. Depending upon patient age, immunity, comorbidities, drugs, and history of Covid-19, these infections could be mild or severe and, in some cases, may require hospitalization. Objectives: To study the rate of Covid-19 breakthrough infections and associated illness in individuals after receiving mRNA vaccine. Methods: De-identified administrative claims data between December 2020 to March 2021 were used to identify vaccinated individuals (≥18 years). The study considered vaccines that were available in the US at the time of study duration. The first vaccination date was defined as index. Members were followed for two months post index to identify Covid-19 breakthrough infections (as defined by CDC) occurring ≥14 days post index. Patients with continuous enrollment for 90 days post-index were included. Evidence of vaccination was identified using pharmacy claims, while medical claims were used to identify a breakthrough and associated acute respiratory illnesses. Descriptive analysis was conducted to identify patient demographics, geographic location and age and sex wise distribution. Results: A total of 772,222 members had at least one claim for Covid-19 vaccination. Of these, 4631 (males: 1795 and females: 2836) had breakthrough infections with 384 patients reporting associated acute respiratory illness (pneumonia: 213;Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome: 18;Acute Bronchitis: 10;Upper and Lower Respiratory Tract Infections: 128 and 16, respectively). Conclusions: Unarguably, mass vaccination has helped in reducing the burden of Covid-19 infection. However, viral vaccines are known to provide limited protection and some people may still get infected. Further research is needed to understand nature of emergency visits and conditions that call for ICU or non-ICU hospitalizations
Biomedicine approaches infertility as a disease that can be cured with the application of Assiste... more Biomedicine approaches infertility as a disease that can be cured with the application of Assisted Reproductive Technologies (ART). This study aims to explore some of the ethical issues that surround the use of these technologies in India. The study was carried out in two well-known private health care settings in Pune, Maharashtra. One of the private hospitals was selected on the basis of familiarity with the doctor; the other on the basis of popularity among patients. Qualitative in-depth interviews were conducted to collect information from a sample of 25 women between December 2007 and April 2008. The study reveals that all the women interviewed found ART treatment to be painful and—at the time of interview—had not achieved a full-term pregnancy. The study also found that there was no uniform protocol specifying the sequenced application of intrauterine insemination (IUI)followed by the enrolment of the woman in in vitro fertilization (IVF) or intracytoplasmic sperm injection (I...
Los adolescentes son una poblacion vulnerable .Debido a la falta de informacion medica sobre inye... more Los adolescentes son una poblacion vulnerable .Debido a la falta de informacion medica sobre inyectarse drogas y hepatitis viral, es probable que muchos adolescentes se involucren en inyecciones no seguras y en practicas sexuales que podrian ser riesgosas para su salud. Objetivo: el presente articulo explora los perfiles de riesgo que hacen que los adolescentes sean vulnerables al virus de la hepatitis B (VHB) y al de la hepatitis C (VHC) .Se informa sobre los resultados de un estudio titulado " Prevencion y manejo temprano de la hepatitis B y C en grupos de alto riesgo en Amritsar e Imphal, India ", que se realizo entre octubre de 2014 y enero de 2018 .Mas informacion sobre estos dos estados se puede encontrar en la b seccion de antecedentes. Materiales y metodos : en esta intervencion, se inscribieron 1700 usuarios de drogas inyectables (UDI); 24 de la muestra total fueron adolescentes.Utilizamos una herramienta de evaluacion de riesgos para controlar por estado de salud...
Background: Hepatitis C (HCV) is emerging as a major public health problem and its co-infection w... more Background: Hepatitis C (HCV) is emerging as a major public health problem and its co-infection with HIV is on the rise especially in People With Injecting Drugs (PWID). Barriers for delay in accessing services for HCV care may lead to disease progression and impact the society in the form of loss of productive workforce. Aim: This qualitative research was undertaken to explore the barriers for delay in testing for HCV amongst PWIDs. Methods and Material: The study was conducted in two districts of India i.e. Imphal (Manipur state) and Amritsar (Punjab state). A total of 32 PWIDs participated through In-Depth Interviews (IDI) and Focus Group Discussions (FGD). Results: Mostly, the barriers reported for delay in HCV testing were related to socio economic context in which the PWIDs live; inhibitions to get tested due to fear of a positive result, unavailability of HCV services particularly in rural and remote areas, financial costs and long waiting period. Drug use amongst females inf...
This qualitative study discusses issues related to assisted reproductive technologies (ART) treat... more This qualitative study discusses issues related to assisted reproductive technologies (ART) treatment, the everyday experiences of and the reasons why women approach infertility clinics. I have attempted to show that ART imposes a double burden on women, namely, the burden of a social system that restricts women’s role to child bearing and the burden of what might be described as the medicalisation of their problems. There is an obvious gap between the ‘created’ desire for a biological child and the inability to produce one. Though the sample size is small and the results cannot be generalised, the study does point to certain trends.
This qualitative study discusses issues related to assisted reproductive technologies (ART) treat... more This qualitative study discusses issues related to assisted reproductive technologies (ART) treatment, the everyday experiences of and the reasons why women approach infertility clinics. I have attempted to show that ART imposes a double burden on women, namely, the burden of a social system that restricts women’s role to child bearing and the burden of what might be described as the medicalisation of their problems. There is an obvious gap between the ‘created’ desire for a biological child and the inability to produce one. Though the sample size is small and the results cannot be generalised, the study does point to certain trends.
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