Utility of syndromic approach in management of sexually transmitted infections:public health perspective

Sexually transmitted infections(STIs)are infections that are mainly transmitted from person-to-person through sexual contact.Untreated or inadequately treated STIs can have significant impact on the maternal and newborn health.An extensive search of all materials related to the topic was made using library sources including PubMed,Medline and World Health Organization website for a period of one month.Relevant documents,technical publication series,systematic reviews,research articles focusing on the practice of syndromic management in treatment of STIs published in the period 1995-2013 were included in the review.The identified articles were then re-grouped into different sections for better understanding.Keywords used in the search include syndromic management,sexually transmitted infections,women,reproductive age-group and pregnancy.There is an immense need for implementation of prevention and control of STIs because of the associated morbidity/mortality,association with HIV and adverse outcomes of pregnancy and burdening of the health system.Multiple socio-demographic determinants have been identified,which usually precipitates STIs.In addition,some of the barriers have been recognized which is hampering with the expected utilization of the health care services.To counter the high prevalence of reproductive tract infection/STI,especially in countries with limited resources,syndromic diagnostic approach has been adopted by countries for the standardized management of sexually transmitted disease cases.The aim of syndromic management is to identify a syndrome and treat it accordingly with combination therapy which will cover the main pathogens that cause it.Strategies have been suggested to overcome the limitations of the syndromic approach and bring the problem under control.To conclude,syndromic management is a rapid and cost-effective approach in reducing the transmission of STIs.

Evaluation of the status of the pre-hospital trauma care in road traffic accidents in Kancheepuram district of Tamil Nadu

Objective:To evaluate the status of the pre-hospital trauma care in a road traffic accidents in a rural area of Kancheepuram district.Methods:A cross-sectional study of two months duration(June and July 2014)was conducted in the tertiary care hospital of a medical college,and its affiliated urban/rural health centers.Universal sampling was used and all road accident victims were enrolled as study participants.The required information was obtained with the help of a semi-structured questionnaire.Ethical clearance was obtained before the start of the study.SPSS version 18 was used for data entry and statistical analysis.Descriptive statistics were calculated for all the variables.Results:A total of 80(77.7%)study subjects were from the productive age group(15-45 years).Most of the accidents were reported at night time[43(41.7%)],on weekends[59(56.5%)],and involved two-wheelers[81(78.6%)].In addition,69 cases(67%)of the victims were not aware of the existence of emergency ambulance services,while only 6(5.8%)of the victims were brought to the hospital in an emergency ambulance.Conclusions:The study findings clearly suggest that the quality of the pre-hospital trauma care for road traffic accident victims in a rural area of Kancheepuram district lacks on multiple dimensions and there is an immense need to improve and strengthen the range of services to save the lives of the victims.