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The purpose of this paper is twofold: first, to examine the effect of interventional measures on admitted children and, second, to estimate the level of utilization of nutrition rehabilitation centres (NRCs) through bed occupancy rate in India.

A cross-sectional study involving review of records of malnourished children admitted during 1st January to 31st December 2014 in four districts of Northern Karnataka, India. The data were collected during January 2015.

A statistically significant difference was obtained between the weight of children at admission and discharge (p < 0.001). The average weight gain during the stay at the centres was 6.1 ± 7.1 g/kg/day. The proportion of severely malnourished children decreased from 56 per cent at admission to 32 per cent at discharge. The children who stayed for a stipulated period of 14 days were fully recovered and discharged from the centre compared to those stayed for lesser period. Poor follow-up visits of discharged children are observed, and the average bed occupancy rate was only 40 per cent.

This study showed that, the NRCs were effective in improving the condition of admitted children, but the utilization of these NRCs was sub-optimal in Karnataka. This study pointed to a number of operational issues that need to be addressed if these NRCs are being used effectively.

Enormous amount of biomedical wastes (BMW) produced everyday across the world. Management of BMW depends on adherence to protocol. BMW management at generation point, definitely, depends upon the awareness, attitudes and practises of health-care staff, the purpose of this study will assess the awareness, attitude and practise regarding different aspects of BMW.

An observational with appropriate checklists, and a cross-sectional study, involving questionnaires, was conducted during 7-24 January 2016. The existing system of BMW management, funds, resources, etc., knowledge, attitude and practises about BMW were assessed amongst 273 health-care workers in selected public health-care institutes of Karnataka.

Of 273 study participants, majority (54%) of them have not received any training pertaining to BMW. The results showed a poor level of knowledge and awareness of BMW management amongst health-care personnel. Merely, 43% of the participants correctly knew the categorization of BMW and its disposal in proper colour-coded bins/bags. Awareness is very poor amongst the lower age group, male participants, lab-technicians/pharmacists and supporting staff. Doctors were good at theoretical knowledge such as rules, legislation and public-health importance of BMW management than the practical aspects such as categorization and colour-coding. Further, the attitude of health-care staff is favourable about BMW. Immunization for hepatitis-B was very poor amongst waste handlers (43%).

As the awareness and practise regarding BMW management were poor across different health-care staff there is a need to conduct periodic training and regular monitoring with special focus on the proper use of personal protective equipment. Further, precautionary immunization should be provided, especially waste handlers and sanitary workers.