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Authors are the souls of any journal, and deserve much respect. To publish a journal manuscripts are needed from authors. Authors have a great responsibility for producing facts of their work in terms of number and results truthfully and an individual honesty is expected from authors in this regards. Both ways its true "No authors-No manuscripts-No journals" and "No journals–No manuscripts–No authors". Reviewing a manuscript is also a very responsible and important task of any peer-reviewed journal and to be taken seriously. It needs knowledge on the subject, sincerity, honesty and determination. Although the process of reviewing a manuscript is a time consuming task butit is expected to give one's best remarks within the time frame of the journal.
Salient features of the JCDR: It is a biomedical, multidisciplinary (including all medical and dental specialities), e-journal, with wide scope and extensive author support. At the same time, a free text of manuscript is available in HTML and PDF format. There is fast growing authorship and readership with JCDR as this can be judged by the number of articles published in it i e; in Feb 2007 of its first issue, it contained 5 articles only, and now in its recent volume published in April 2011, it contained 67 manuscripts. This e-journal is fulfilling the commitments and objectives sincerely, (as stated by Editor-in-chief in his preface to first edition) i e; to encourage physicians through the internet, especially from the developing countries who witness a spectrum of disease and acquire a wealth of knowledge to publish their experiences to benefit the medical community in patients care. I also feel that many of us have work of substance, newer ideas, adequate clinical materials but poor in medical writing and hesitation to submit the work and need help. JCDR provides authors help in this regards.
Timely publication of journal: Publication of manuscripts and bringing out the issue in time is one of the positive aspects of JCDR and is possible with strong support team in terms of peer reviewers, proof reading, language check, computer operators, etc. This is one of the great reasons for authors to submit their work with JCDR. Another best part of JCDR is "Online first Publications" facilities available for the authors. This facility not only provides the prompt publications of the manuscripts but at the same time also early availability of the manuscripts for the readers.
Indexation and online availability: Indexation transforms the journal in some sense from its local ownership to the worldwide professional community and to the public.JCDR is indexed with Embase & EMbiology, Google Scholar, Index Copernicus, Chemical Abstracts Service, Journal seek Database, Indian Science Abstracts, to name few of them. Manuscriptspublished in JCDR are available on major search engines ie; google, yahoo, msn.
In the era of fast growing newer technologies, and in computer and internet friendly environment the manuscripts preparation, submission, review, revision, etc and all can be done and checked with a click from all corer of the world, at any time. Of course there is always a scope for improvement in every field and none is perfect. To progress, one needs to identify the areas of one's weakness and to strengthen them.
It is well said that "happy beginning is half done" and it fits perfectly with JCDR. It has grown considerably and I feel it has already grown up from its infancy to adolescence, achieving the status of standard online e-journal form Indian continent since its inception in Feb 2007. This had been made possible due to the efforts and the hard work put in it. The way the JCDR is improving with every new volume, with good quality original manuscripts, makes it a quality journal for readers. I must thank and congratulate Dr Hemant Jain, Editor-in-Chief JCDR and his team for their sincere efforts, dedication, and determination for making JCDR a fast growing journal.
Every one of us: authors, reviewers, editors, and publisher are responsible for enhancing the stature of the journal. I wish for a great success for JCDR."
Thanking you
With sincere regards
Dr. Rajendra Kumar Ghritlaharey, M.S., M. Ch., FAIS
Associate Professor,
Department of Paediatric Surgery, Gandhi Medical College & Associated
Kamla Nehru & Hamidia Hospitals Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh 462 001 (India)
E-mail: drrajendrak1@rediffmail.com
On May 11,2011
Dr. Shankar P.R.
"On looking back through my Gmail archives after being requested by the journal to write a short editorial about my experiences of publishing with the Journal of Clinical and Diagnostic Research (JCDR), I came across an e-mail from Dr. Hemant Jain, Editor, in March 2007, which introduced the new electronic journal. The main features of the journal which were outlined in the e-mail were extensive author support, cash rewards, the peer review process, and other salient features of the journal.
Over a span of over four years, we (I and my colleagues) have published around 25 articles in the journal. In this editorial, I plan to briefly discuss my experiences of publishing with JCDR and the strengths of the journal and to finally address the areas for improvement.
My experiences of publishing with JCDR: Overall, my experiences of publishing withJCDR have been positive. The best point about the journal is that it responds to queries from the author. This may seem to be simple and not too much to ask for, but unfortunately, many journals in the subcontinent and from many developing countries do not respond or they respond with a long delay to the queries from the authors 1. The reasons could be many, including lack of optimal secretarial and other support. Another problem with many journals is the slowness of the review process. Editorial processing and peer review can take anywhere between a year to two years with some journals. Also, some journals do not keep the contributors informed about the progress of the review process. Due to the long review process, the articles can lose their relevance and topicality. A major benefit with JCDR is the timeliness and promptness of its response. In Dr Jain's e-mail which was sent to me in 2007, before the introduction of the Pre-publishing system, he had stated that he had received my submission and that he would get back to me within seven days and he did!
Most of the manuscripts are published within 3 to 4 months of their submission if they are found to be suitable after the review process. JCDR is published bimonthly and the accepted articles were usually published in the next issue. Recently, due to the increased volume of the submissions, the review process has become slower and it ?? Section can take from 4 to 6 months for the articles to be reviewed. The journal has an extensive author support system and it has recently introduced a paid expedited review process. The journal also mentions the average time for processing the manuscript under different submission systems - regular submission and expedited review.
Strengths of the journal: The journal has an online first facility in which the accepted manuscripts may be published on the website before being included in a regular issue of the journal. This cuts down the time between their acceptance and the publication. The journal is indexed in many databases, though not in PubMed. The editorial board should now take steps to index the journal in PubMed. The journal has a system of notifying readers through e-mail when a new issue is released. Also, the articles are available in both the HTML and the PDF formats. I especially like the new and colorful page format of the journal. Also, the access statistics of the articles are available. The prepublication and the manuscript tracking system are also helpful for the authors.
Areas for improvement: In certain cases, I felt that the peer review process of the manuscripts was not up to international standards and that it should be strengthened. Also, the number of manuscripts in an issue is high and it may be difficult for readers to go through all of them. The journal can consider tightening of the peer review process and increasing the quality standards for the acceptance of the manuscripts. I faced occasional problems with the online manuscript submission (Pre-publishing) system, which have to be addressed.
Overall, the publishing process with JCDR has been smooth, quick and relatively hassle free and I can recommend other authors to consider the journal as an outlet for their work."
Dr. P. Ravi Shankar
KIST Medical College, P.O. Box 14142, Kathmandu, Nepal.
E-mail: ravi.dr.shankar@gmail.com
On April 2011 Anuradha
Dear team JCDR, I would like to thank you for the very professional and polite service provided by everyone at JCDR. While i have been in the field of writing and editing for sometime, this has been my first attempt in publishing a scientific paper.Thank you for hand-holding me through the process.
Dr. Anuradha
E-mail: anuradha2nittur@gmail.com
On Jan 2020
Original article / research
Full Version
Prevalence of HIV Infection among Pregnant Women attending Antenatal Clinics at a Tertiary Care Hospital in Hardoi, Uttar Pradesh: A Retrospective Observational Study
Correspondence Address :
Dr. Saurabh Shukla,
Associate Professor, Department of Community Medicine, IIMS&R, Lucknow-226026, Uttar Pradesh, India.
E-mail: sshukladoc@gmail.com
Introduction: Determining the seroprevalence of Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) in pregnant women offers essential data for monitoring the trend of HIV and assists in prevention from mother-to-child transmission.
Aim: To determine the prevalence of HIV infection among pregnant women.
Materials and Methods: A retrospective observational study was conducted at Autonomous State Medical College, Hardoi, Uttar Pradesh, India from July 2016 to June 2019. A total of 6,974 pregnant females were referred to the antenatal clinic during the study period, and all were included in this study. HIV antibodies were tested using the three ELISA/Rapid/Supplemental tests protocol. A woman was identified as HIV infected if tested positive on more than two HIV ELISA tests. The data were entered into MS Excel and analysed using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) version 22.0. A Chi-square test was employed to assess the association between the variables.
Results: Out of 6,974 females, a total of 32 (0.46%) pregnant females were found to be seropositive (13 patients from July 2016 to June 2017, 10 patients from July 2017 to June 2018, and 9 patients from July 2018 to June 2019). Among the 32 HIV-positive pregnant women, 2 (6.3%) were aged <20 years, 19 (59.4%) were aged 21-30 years, 9 (28.1%) were aged 31-40 years, and 2 (6.2%) were aged over 40 years. Illiteracy was associated with seropositivity, as 53.1% of seropositive patients were illiterate.
Conclusion: Seroprevalence has been decreasing in recent years, indicating that we are on the right track. However, efforts should be made to provide universal access to antenatal care and services for prevention parent-to-child transmission of HIV/AIDS.
Antenatal care, Human immunodeficiency viruses, Pregnancy
A large population in India consists of HIV-infected individuals, with high prevalence in states such as Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, and Karnataka, and low to mid prevalence in other states (1). According to the National AIDS Control Organisation, the national adult HIV prevalence is estimated to be 0.21% in 2021, with a prevalence of 0.22% among males and 0.19% among females (2). The prevalence of HIV in Uttar Pradesh is 0.10% (0.08-0.14). However, the prevalence of HIV among pregnant women in India is of great concern, especially for preventing HIV in children. Mother-to-child transmission of HIV is the most common cause of HIV transmission in children.
Screening in antenatal women is important because HIV can be transmitted from an infected mother to her child during pregnancy, labour, delivery, and through breastfeeding. Reported transmission rates ranged from 13-32% in industrialised countries and 25-48% in developing countries (3). In breastfeeding infants, upto 20% may acquire HIV through breastfeeding, depending on the duration of breastfeeding and other risk factors such as the presence of mastitis, breast abscess, and other local factors. In children under 15 years old, mother-to-child transmission is by far the most significant route of HIV infection transmission (3). The drift of new or incident infections, especially in young people who have recently become sexually active, is the most delicate indicator to track the course of the HIV epidemic (4). Unfortunately, measuring incidence directly is challenging, but prevalence in young women is an indirect but useful method (4),(5),(6).
Hence, this study was planned with the aim of determining the prevalence of HIV seroprevalence among pregnant women attending antenatal clinics at Autonomous State Medical College, Hardoi, Uttar Pradesh, India.
A retrospective observational study was conducted at Autonomous State Medical College, Hardoi, Uttar Pradesh, India, from July 2016 to June 2019. The data collected was from the official record of the District Hospital, which was attached to the Medical College. The analysis of the data was done from July 2021 to September 2021.
Inclusion criteria: All pregnant females registered at the ANC Clinic of the District Hospital, which was attached to the Autonomous State Medical College, Hardoi, were included in the study.
Exclusion criteria: Those who were already HIV-infected (previously detected) were excluded from the study.
Data were collected and analysed from a total of 6,974 pregnant women who were tested during the three-year period from July 2016 to June 2019. HIV antibodies were tested using the three ELISA/Rapid/Supplemental tests protocol, as per the guidelines laid down by the World Health Organisation (WHO Testing strategy III). Positive test results were disclosed only after post-test counseling of the patients. Antibodies to HIV (1 and 2) were initially tested using an ELISA kit (Adaltis™, Italy), and repeatedly reactive samples were tested by a rapid test (Tri-dot, J Mitra & Co, India). The reactive sera were further confirmed by Western Blot (BioRad, USA). A woman was identified as HIV-infected if she tested positive on more than two HIV ELISA tests.
Data on socio-demographic and maternal-associated clinical data, as well as the laboratory test result records, were recorded on a predefined checklist.
Statistical Analysis
The data were entered into MS Excel and analysed using SPSS version 22.0. A Chi-square test was employed to assess the association between variables.
A total of 32 (0.46%) pregnant females were found to be seropositive out of 6,974 females.
(Table/Fig 1) depicts the year-wise prevalence of HIV among pregnant females, where the prevalence decreased from 0.56 in 2016 to 0.37 in 2019.
The mean age of study participants was 25±3.7 years. Illiteracy was associated with seropositivity, as 53.1% of seropositive patients were illiterate (Table/Fig 2).
In present study, the seroprevalence of HIV among pregnant women was 0.46%, which was higher than the national average (7). Various studies, such as those conducted by Nayak AK et al., Mandel S et al., Giri PA et al., Devi R and Shyamala R, and Patil VM et al., reported prevalence rates of HIV to be 0.5%, 0.56%, 0.41%, 0.45%, and 0.44%, respectively (8),(9),(10),(11),(12). Contrary to present study results, even higher prevalence rates were found in the studies of Ashatagi GS et al., at KEM Hospital Belgaum (0.7%), Parmeshwari S et al., conducted at Government Hospital, Namakkal district (0.77%) and Gupta S et al., conducted in North India (0.88%) (13),(14),(15). The difference may be due to the fact that North India and Uttar Pradesh are considered low-prevalence regions for HIV.
In the present study, out of 32 HIV-positive pregnant women, 2 (6.3%) were aged <20 years, 19 (59.4%) were aged 21-30 years, 9 (28.1%) were aged 31-40 years, and 2 (6.2%) were aged over 40 years. Similarly, a study by Ashatagi GS et al., revealed that out of 716 pregnant women who availed of Prevention of Parent to Child Transmission of HIV/AIDS services, 360 (50.28%) were in the age group of 21-25 years, 209 (29.19%) were in the age group of 15-20 years, 133 (18.58%) were in the age group of 26-30 years, and 14 (1.95%) were in the age group of 31-35 years (13). The present study showed that low literacy was associated with a higher seropositivity among pregnant women. This was similar to a study by Nayak AK et al., who found that all their seropositive patients had below secondary level education or were illiterate (8). In the current study, the gestational age at delivery was preterm (<37 weeks) among 31.3% of women. This result was similar to a study by Desai RS et al., who noted an incidence of preterm delivery of around 34.5% among HIV-positive women (16). Temmerman M et al., reported that prematurity was observed in 21.1% of neonates born to HIV-positive women compared to 9.4% of those born to HIV-negative women (17).
In the current study, 53.1% of women were primigravida, and 46.9% were multigravida. Contrary to present study, Nayak AK et al., reported that the majority (62.5%) were second gravida (8). A study by Patil VM et al., showed that the majority (53.83%) were primigravida and 46.2% were multigravida (12). Prevalence rates of HIV seropositivity in pregnant women in different published studies are tabulated in (Table/Fig 3) (8),(9),(11),(12),(13),(14),(15),(18),(19),(20).
Present study also demonstrates a decline in HIV infection among pregnant women, which shows increased awareness about the disease and methods of prevention in the general population in recent years. Thus, it is necessary to constantly monitor the trend of HIV prevalence in pregnant women so that appropriate action can be taken as and when required. With effective counseling, education, and awareness about HIV, the prevalence of HIV infection among pregnant women can be controlled, and with Prevention of Parent to Child Transmission (PPTCT), mother-to-child transmission of HIV can be further decreased. Therefore, policies to raise awareness among couples about HIV would help in reducing HIV seroprevalence in pregnant women.
Limitation(s)
The present study was a hospital-based study conducted over a period of three years; therefore, the findings cannot be generalised to the entire population. The retrospective nature of the study itself is a limitation.
Seroprevalence has been found to be decreasing in recent years. Therefore, universal access to antenatal care and PPTCT services should be provided. The utilisation of PPTCT services can be improved by creating awareness among pregnant women about the need for and benefits of getting tested.
DOI: 10.7860/JCDR/2023/64655.18601
Date of Submission: Apr 11, 2023
Date of Peer Review: Jun 07, 2023
Date of Acceptance: Aug 14, 2023
Date of Publishing: Oct 01, 2023
AUTHOR DECLARATION:
• Financial or Other Competing Interests: None
• Was Ethics Committee Approval obtained for this study? No
• Was informed consent obtained from the subjects involved in the study? No
• For any images presented appropriate consent has been obtained from the subjects. NA
PLAGIARISM CHECKING METHODS:
• Plagiarism X-checker: Apr 13, 2023
• Manual Googling: Jun 17, 2023
• iThenticate Software: Aug 12, 2023 (24%)
ETYMOLOGY: Author Origin
EMENDATIONS: 6
- Emerging Sources Citation Index (Web of Science, thomsonreuters)
- Index Copernicus ICV 2017: 134.54
- Academic Search Complete Database
- Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ)
- Embase
- EBSCOhost
- Google Scholar
- HINARI Access to Research in Health Programme
- Indian Science Abstracts (ISA)
- Journal seek Database
- Popline (reproductive health literature)
- www.omnimedicalsearch.com