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Biomedical subjects

J Muliyil

Publications and source records attributed to J Muliyil.

6 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1992

The teaching of behavioural sciences.

Medical science over the last few decades has undergone vast changes. Technologically it has advanced at a rapid pace. There has been a realization as well that the behaviour of individuals and communities also influences the occurrence of disease. Medical schools around the globe have realized the need for incorporating behavioural sciences as an integral part of the basic sciences taught to medical students. This paper presents the experience of Christian Medical College, Vellore in teaching behavioural sciences. Students are taught sociology, psychology and medical anthropology through a community-based, problem-oriented teaching programme. The students have first-hand experience of living in a community and learn by observation and interaction. Pre- and post-assessment has shown a significant improvement of their knowledge and attitude. Feedback from students also indicates that they find this programme relevant and interesting.

Behavioral Sciences↗
PubMed1991

Risk of relapse among non-lepromatous patients released from treatment after dapsone monotherapy.

Information on 14,625 non-lepromatous patients released from treatment after dapsone monotherapy and followed up to a maximum of 15 years at the ILEP project. Dharmapuri, India, was analysed to study the pattern of relapses. The overall relapse rate was 5/1000 person years. Males had a higher relapse rate than females. The risk of relapse increased with age, number of lesions and duration of treatment. The risk for relapse remained constant over several years after release from treatment. Even though the absolute risk for relapse after MDT may be different, the pattern of relapses and the factors affecting it may be similar to what has been shown in this study.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1991

Effect of BCG on the risk of leprosy in an endemic area: a case control study.

The effect of BCG on the risk of leprosy was measured using a case-control design in an area endemic for the disease. In this study, 397 newly diagnosed cases and 669 controls matched for age, sex and locality were selected from a defined population. Information on exposure to BCG, contact with another case of leprosy, and relevant socioeconomic variables were obtained from the subjects. Having infectious (multibacillary) and noninfectious (paucibacillary) contacts in the household increased the risk of disease 11.7 times (p less than 0.001) and 2.7 times (p less than 0.001), respectively. Overall, the protection offered by BCG was not significant (odds ratio = 0.8; p = 0.17). However, BCG appeared to increase the risk for indeterminate leprosy (adjusted odds ratio = 2.7; p = 0.09) while protecting against borderline disease (adjusted odds ratio = 0.39; p = 0.03). It is possible that BCG causes a shift in the overall cell-mediated immune response, thus increasing the risk for milder and transient forms of leprosy while protecting against more serious forms. These findings may have important implications for the design and interpretation of vaccine trials. Namely, trials should be designed to measure the protective efficacy of vaccines against the more serious forms of leprosy, which have the greatest public health significance.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1990

Teaching nutrition to medical students: a community-based problem-solving approach.

This paper presents a community-based problem-solving educational programme which aims at teaching medical and other health science students the importance of nutrition and its application. Through community surveys students assess the nutritional status of children under five using different anthropometric methods. They understand the cultural beliefs and customs related to food fads and the reasons for them. They also acquire the skill to educate the community using the information gathered. They use epidemiological methods such as case control study to find associations between malnutrition and other causative factors. Feedback from students has been positive and evaluation of students' knowledge before and after the programme has shown significant improvement.

Community Medicine↗
PubMed1989

Status of multi bacillary patients "lost to follow up".

Completeness of coverage with MDT is essential if one were to hope for a reduction in the incidence of leprosy in an endemic area. Patients who are lost to follow up are generally declared as "Permanently left" (PL) and deleted from the known case register. A special effort was made to study the true status of multibacillary patients who had been declared "PL" in the leprosy control programme area of the Christian Medical College, Vellore. 38% of the 40 patients followed up were found to be still residing in the same area. 40% of them were BI Positive. The reasons for these erroneous deletions varied. The study shows that declaration of "PL" need to be verified carefully. Further, it was found that the present system of reporting may exaggerate the actual number of patients who have been lost to follow up.

Drug Therapy, Combination↗