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The article focuses on the Indo-United Kingdom (UK) collaboration in mental health, highlighting the growth of the initiative from a pilot involving 2 National Health Service (NHS) organizations to over 20 organizations across England and Wales. Topics include developing a long-term sustainable partnership; recent advances in clinical research in India and the UK; and strengths and challenges of the UK-India partnership in mental health.

Respected Chief Guest, guests from overseas, esteemed colleagues, dear students, and friends, I am deeply honoured to address you at this prestigious gathering at the Indian Association of Paediatric Surgeons (IAPS) Conference. I take this opportunity to remind all members that our responsibility extends far beyond our operating theatres. The Incidence of congenital anomalies in India is still 18.2/1000 live births with a high mortality of about 6.78/1000 live births, with a vast majority of these children with congenital anomalies being born into poor families, resulting in a large proportion of children being left untreated or incompletely treated. To address these problems, the IAPS makes the following suggestions: (1) Urgent instructions from the government to insurance providers to launch affordable and easily accessible insurance policies that address the needs of newborns, infants, and children. (2) To ensure the appointment of at least one pediatric surgeon for every pediatric intensive care unit/neonatal intensive care unit being set up in district hospitals. (3) To make pediatric surgery an essential subject in the undergraduate curriculum at MBBS level and ensure that medical colleges and district hospitals have at least one full time pediatric surgeon on their faculty. (4) To ensure that newborns and children (up to the age of 18 years) have access to a pediatric surgeon or specialist who is well trained in surgery on children, much like medical problems in this age group are treated by pediatricians, surgical problems should be entrusted to pediatric surgeons. Someday, a pediatric surgeon for every child's operation may become a reality. Hope that day is not too far away. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Psoriasis is a common, chronic, immune-mediated, multisystem, inflammatory disorder. It affects all age groups, including infancy. In one-third of the cases, the onset of the disease is in the first and second decades of life. Childhood psoriasis significantly affects the quality of life of the child as well as that of the entire family. Pediatric psoriasis has distinct clinical presentations and evolves with time. Like in adults, chronic plaque psoriasis has been found to be the most common type of childhood psoriasis. Psoriatic plaques in children are less pruritic, smaller and thinner with less prominent scaling. In pigmented skin, the erythema is less prominent and plaques appear violaceous or hyperpigmented. Pediatric psoriasis can be associated with arthritis, metabolic syndrome, depression and anxiety. Hence all children should be screened routinely for associated comorbidities. Management of pediatric psoriasis is challenging owing to the limitation of approved therapies. 'Proactive therapy' is a recent approach in childhood-onset psoriasis that would help to prevent the severity of flare-ups, thus improving the quality of life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Linear IgA disease is a subepidermal autoimmune blistering disorder with linear IgA deposit along the basement membrane zone. Clinically it presents as tense blister surrounding erythematous plaques, the so-called 'crown of jewels'1 appearance. Many authors believe that linear IgA disease and bullous pemphigoid are two ends of same clinical spectrum.1 Mixed immunobullous disorder was the name given to IgA, IgG, C3 positivity. However, a linear pattern of IgA deposit in the basement membrane zone on direct immunoflorescence is the gold standard for diagnosis. The first line treatment consists of corticosteroid and dapsone. We report a unique case of 4-year-old Indian boy, having second degree consanguinous parents, who presented to our outpatient dermatology department with multiple moderately pruritic erythematous plaque and tense blisters over the previous 10-12 days. Most of the blisters appeared with the classical 'string of pearls' appearance over the perioral region, gluteal region, inner side of the thigh, palms, soles, penis, feet, hands and hard palate (Fig 1). The blister was ruptured by the boy himself during itching. It was his first episode. No family history of similar disease or drug history was present and the boy was vaccinated up to date according to the national immunisation schedule of India. A skin biopsy with 4 mm punch had been done and simultaneously he was started on 15 mg prednisolone (weight 11 kg) and 25 mg dapsone after doing G6PD report. His routine blood test showed eosinophillia and lymphocytosis. Other blood reports were within normal limits. HPE reports showed subepidermal bullaand many micro-abscesses in the dermal papillae containing neutrophils and eosinophils. DIF showed linear deposition of both IgG and IgA with IgG predominance and no C3 deposition. We diagnosed linear IgA dermatoses based upon its clinical features and HPE features despite IgG predominance. The patient responded drastically to dapsone and prednisolone. Within 11 days of starting medications the existing lesions healed with hypopigmentation and no new blisters appeared. Linear IgA disease or chronic bullous disorder is a rare bullous disorder of childhood characterised by linear IgA deposition at dermoepidermal junction. The major target antigen is the ectodomain of BP180. It has bifocal age predilection: in children it occurs between 6 months and 10 years and in adult after 60 years. Diagnosis is mainly based on HPE and immunological reports. We report this case for its uniqueness and to emphasise the fact that although the condition is termed linear IgA dermatoses it can present with IgG predominance; the disease course and response to treatment are the same as in IgA predominance, as shown here and as previously shown by Powell et al. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Detailed Assessment of Speed of Handwriting Test (DASH) is a standardised test which can be administered individually or in groups. It is comprised of 5 tasks that assist to analyse different aspects of the skill of handwriting speed. Handwriting is a complex skill which is important for a child's competency at school. In past few studies, students have scored more than its normative sample because of cross-cultural differences and other factors. Hence, this study was done with the purpose to get a preliminary data on performance of typically developing Indian children on DASH. Objective: To assess performance of typically developing Indian children aged 9-16 years on 5 tasks of DASH: copy best, alphabet writing, copy fast, graphic speed and free writing. To compare performance of typically developing Indian children with the original normative sample of DASH. To explore gender differences in typically developing Indian children on performance of DASH. Study Design: Observational study Methods: Approval of the Institutional Ethics Committee has taken before starting this study. Typically developing Indian children aged between 9-16 years are included in this study after taking their parent's consent. It is one time evaluation done either individually or in groups and the scores are recorded. Statistical Analysis will be done to compare their performance with the original normative sample and across gender. Results: There is difference between performances of typically developing Indian children from original normative data and also gender differences exist, because of different cultural and educational environment. Conclusion: DASH is an easily administered test to identify handwriting impairments, but a large normative data is required for its applicability in Indian population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]