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Dental health care workers as well as patients need to be protected from cross contamination during routine dental procedures by means of infection control measures. As dental students are at an increased risk of exposure to microorganisms it is important to assess the knowledge and awareness of personal protective measures and reinforce the practices of various personal protective measures among them. The objective of the study was to determine the level of knowledge, awareness, and compliance of undergraduate dental students towards personal protective equipment/measures, undergoing the clinical phase of training in South India's dental colleges.A cross-sectional study was conducted to obtain information regarding knowledge, awareness, and compliance with personal protective equipment's and measures. The sample (n = 210) consisted of undergraduate dental students (3rd, 4th and 5th year) of various colleges of South India. The data was collected after validation of the survey and analysed using One-way ANOVA followed by post hoc Tukey test. Knowledge about personal protective equipment and measures was significantly higher among the 5th year (p=0.003) dental undergraduate students compared to the 3rd year students. Awareness about post exposure prophylaxis was higher among the 5th (p<0.001) and 4th (p<0.001) year students compared to the 3rd year students. Compliance of personal protective equipment and measures was higher among the 5th year students ; however, willingness to treat HIV infected patients was higher among 3rd (p<0.001)and 4th year students (p<0.001) then 5th year students. The 5th year undergraduate dental students demonstrated good adherence to personal protective equipment and measures compared to the 3rd and 4th year students ; however the 5th year students were less willing to treat HIV infected patients. New protocols to be framed to tackle novel infections and with adequate training of the same to incorporated to the dental undergraduate students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A hybrid allele between the carboxyl ester lipase gene (CEL) and its pseudogene, CELP (called CEL-HYB), generated by nonallelic homologous recombination between CEL intron 10 and CELP intron 10', was found to increase susceptibility to chronic pancreatitis in a case-control study of patients of European ancestry. We attempted to replicate this finding in 3 independent cohorts from China, Japan, and India, but failed to detect the CEL-HYB allele in any of these populations. The CEL-HYB allele might therefore be an ethnic-specific risk factor for chronic pancreatitis. An alternative hybrid allele (CEL-HYB2) was identified in all 3 Asian populations (1.7% combined carrier frequency), but was not associated with chronic pancreatitis., (Copyright © 2016 AGA Institute. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)