Knowledge, attitude, and practice towards coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) among medical students: A cross-sectional study

Objective:To assess knowledge,attitude,and practice of medical students towards coronavirus disease 2019(COVID-19).Methods:A self-designed questionnaire was developed and given to the students of a government medical college in Uttarakhand.The demographics,mean knowledge,attitude,and practice of the participants were investigated,and the scores were calculated.t-test and ANOVA were used for statistical analysis.Results:Out of the total participants(n=354),50.3%were male and 54.5%were 21-23 years.Almost all the participants(96.6%)increase the frequency of washing hands under the influence of COVID-19.Although no significant relationship was found between different religions,age-categories in terms of knowledge,the participants who were aged 21-23 years had higher knowledge.In addition,gender had a significant impact on practice scores(P<0.05)while no demographic variable was found to have a significant relation with attitude score(P>0.05).Conclusions:The majority of the participants had good knowledge,positive attitude,and sufficient practice.Females and males have significantly different practices.Although the results are very positive,it is suggested that people should continue to strengthen knowledge,attitude,and practice towards COVID-19,so that India can win the battle against the disease.

Comparison of Sensitivity and Specificity of ZN and Fluorescent Stain Microscopy with Culture as Gold Standard

Introduction: Reports indicate that fluorescent staining of smears increases sensitivity of direct microscopy;so ZN staining is being replaced with fluorescent microscopy in RNTCP in India. Chemical processing and sputum concentration may also improve sensitivity of microscopy. Objective: To compare the sensitivity and specificity of microscopy for AFB using ZN and fluorescent stains in direct and concentrated specimen with culture as gold standard. Methods: Morning sputum specimen of patients, suspected of having pulmonary tuberculosis, over a period of 6 months was subjected to direct microscopy using fluorescent stain;the same slide was over-stained with ZN stain. Same sputum sample was concentrated by Petroff’s method and subjected to fluorescent microscopy followed by ZN microscopy and finally to culture for AFB. Results: Sensitivity of fluorescent stained concentrated sputum samples was maximum and of ZN stained unprocessed sputum samples was minimum. Specificity of three of the methods was equal at 0.96 but of ZN stained concentrated sputum smears was 0.97. Sensitivity of total fluorescent stains was 0.85 (Specificity 0.96) and sensitivity of total ZN stained smears was 0.80 (Specificity 0.96). Discussion: We used same smear for fluorescent and ZN stains, so smear related variability is decreased. Blinding for microscopy was practically complete. Conclusion: The sensitivity of sputum microscopy for AFB can be increased by concentrating the sputum and using fluorescent microscopy. The specificity remains high in all the methods.