Bacterial shedding and serologic responses following an outbreak of Salmonella Typhi in an endemic cohort.

Background: Salmonella enterica serovar Typhi (Salmonella Typhi) is the cause of typhoid fever. Salmonella Typhi may be transmitted through shedding in the stool, which can continue after recovery from acute illness. Shedding is detected by culturing stool, which is challenging to co-ordinate at scale.

Implication of asymptomatic and clinical Plasmodium falciparum infections on biomarkers of iron status among school-aged children in Malawi.

Background: Iron status is considered as a continuum from an iron deficiency with anaemia, without anaemia, varying amounts of stored iron to iron overload. The burden of Plasmodium falciparum infections is typically high among school-aged children (SAC). Nonetheless, SAC are often less likely to be covered by malaria interventions, making them a group with an untreated reservoir of parasite transmission.

Determinants of pentavalent and measles vaccination dropouts among children aged 12-23 months in The Gambia.

Background: Every year, vaccination averts about 3 million deaths from vaccine-preventable diseases (VPDs). However, despite that immunization coverage is increasing globally, many children in developing countries are still dropping out of vaccination. Thus, the present study aimed to identify determinants of vaccination dropouts among children aged 12-23 months in The Gambia.

Performance of molecular methods for the detection of in human stool specimens.

The relationship between asymptomatic exposure within the gastrointestinal tract and bacteraemia is poorly understood, in part due to the low sensitivity of stool culture and the lack of validated molecular diagnostic tests for the detection of in the stool. The study aimed to determine a reliable molecular diagnostic test for in stool specimens. We optimised an in-house monoplex real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) for the detection of and genes in stool by including a selenite broth pre-culture step for before DNA extraction and validated their specificity against other local common pathogens.