Publications by authors named "Amber Prakash"

: We evaluated knowledge, attitudes, and practices (KAP) related to influenza and influenza vaccination among pregnant women in three selected countries.: During 2017, pregnant women seeking antenatal care at hospitals at participating sites were enrolled. We described characteristics and responses to KAP questions.

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Background: The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends case definitions for influenza surveillance that are also used in public health research, although their performance has not been assessed in many risk groups, including pregnant women in whom influenza may manifest differently. We evaluated the performance of symptom-based definitions to detect influenza in a cohort of pregnant women in India, Peru, and Thailand.

Methods: In 2017 and 2018, we contacted 11 277 pregnant women twice weekly during the influenza season to identify illnesses with new or worsened cough, runny nose, sore throat, difficulty breathing, or myalgia and collected data on other symptoms and nasal swabs for influenza real-time reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (rRT-PCR) testing.

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Background: Influenza vaccination during pregnancy prevents influenza among women and their infants but remains underused among pregnant women. We aimed to quantify the risk of antenatal influenza and examine its association with perinatal outcomes.

Methods: We did a prospective cohort study in pregnant women in India, Peru, and Thailand.

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Article Synopsis
  • In low-resource settings, it’s hard to reliably determine a newborn's gestational age, increasing the risk for preterm babies, so a new assessment method was developed.
  • The study aimed to evaluate how accurately a pictorial Simplified Gestational Age Score app could identify prematurity in newborns, beyond just using birthweight.
  • Results showed strong agreement between assessors and identified an optimal score cut-off of 13 for predicting preterm births, achieving 90% specificity but variable sensitivity of 40-50%, with predictive accuracy between 74%-79%.
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Introduction: India has a higher number of deaths due to acute lower respiratory infections (ALRIs) in children <5 years than any other country. The underlying cause of half of ALRI deaths is household air pollution from burning of solid fuels, according to the World Health Organization. If there is a direct association between duration of exposure and increased ALRI risk, a potential strategy might be to limit the child's exposure to burning solid fuel.

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Background: The Helping Babies Breathe (HBB) educational program focuses on training of first-level birth attendants in neonatal resuscitation skills for the first minute of life (The Golden Minute). Pre-post studies of HBB implementation in sub-Saharan Africa and Asia have shown reductions in facility-based very early neonatal mortality and stillbirth rates. However, the Global Network pre-post HBB Implementation Study (GN-HBB-IS) found no difference in day 7 perinatal mortality rates (PMR-D7) among births to women participating in the Global Network's Maternal and Newborn Health Registry.

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Objective: Our objective was to describe trends in caesarean section (CS) rates, characteristics of women delivering by CS, reasons for CS and impact of CS on perinatal mortality, in a rural Indian population.

Design: Secondary data analysis using a prospective population-based registry.

Setting: Four districts in Eastern Maharashtra, India, 2010 to 2013.

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Background: Although rates of preterm birth continue to increase globally, identification of preterm from low birth weight infants remains a challenge. The burden of low birth weight vs preterm is greatest in resource-limited settings, where gestational age (GA) prior to delivery is frequently not known because ultrasound in early pregnancy is not available and estimates of the date of the mother's last menstrual period (LMP) may not be reliable. An alternative option is to assess GA at birth to optimize referral and care of preterm newborns.

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Background: The World Health Organization identifies pregnant women as at high-risk for severe influenza, but influenza vaccines are underutilized among pregnant women. Data on influenza burden during pregnancy are largely limited to high-income countries and data on the impact of influenza on birth and perinatal outcomes are scarce.

Methods/design: This prospective, longitudinal cohort study of pregnant women in middle-income countries is designed to address three primary objectives: 1) to evaluate the effect of laboratory-confirmed influenza during pregnancy on pregnancy and perinatal outcomes; 2) to estimate the incidences of all-cause acute respiratory illness and laboratory-confirmed influenza during pregnancy; and 3) to examine the clinical spectrum of illness associated with influenza viruses.

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Objectives: To study the trend in the prevalence of anaemia and low BMI among pregnant women from Eastern Maharashtra and evaluate if low BMI and anaemia affect pregnancy outcomes.

Design: Prospective observational cohort study.

Setting: Catchment areas of 20 rural primary health centres in four eastern districts of Maharashtra State, India.

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Background: Presently, preterm birth is globally the leading cause of neonatal mortality. Prompt community based identification of women at high risk for preterm births (HRPB) can either help to avert preterm births or avail effective interventions to reduce neonatal mortality due to preterm births. We evaluated the performance of a package to train community workers to detect the presence of signs or symptoms of HRPB.

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Background: In 2008, the Indian government introduced financial assistance to encourage health facility deliveries. Facility births have increased, but maternal and neonatal morbidity and mortality have not decreased raising questions about the quality of care provided in facilities and access to a quality referral system. We evaluated the potential role of inter-institutional transfers of women admitted for labor and delivery on adverse maternal and neonatal outcomes in an ongoing prospective, population-based Maternal and Newborn Health Registry in Central India.

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Background: Possible serious bacterial infection (PBSI) is a major cause of neonatal mortality worldwide. We studied risk factors for PSBI in a large rural population in central India where facility deliveries have increased as a result of a government financial assistance program.

Methods: We studied 37,379 pregnant women and their singleton live born infants with birth weight ≥ 1.

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