Publications by authors named "Broadhead R"

With growing awareness that what we put in and on our bodies affects our health and wellbeing, little is still known about the impact of textiles on the human skin. Athletic wear often uses silver threading to improve hygiene, but little is known about its effect on the body's largest organ. In this study, we investigated the impact of such clothing on the skin's chemistry and microbiome.

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The coronavirus disease of 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic launched an unprecedented global effort to rapidly develop vaccines to stem the spread of the novel severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2). Messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA) vaccines were developed quickly by companies that were actively developing mRNA therapeutics and vaccines for other indications, leading to two mRNA vaccines being not only the first SARS-CoV-2 vaccines to be approved for emergency use but also the first mRNA drugs to gain emergency use authorization and to eventually gain full approval. This was possible partly because mRNA sequences can be altered to encode nearly any protein without significantly altering its chemical properties, allowing the drug substance to be a modular component of the drug product.

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The skin microbiome has become a hot field of research in the last few years. The emergence of next-generation sequencing has given unprecedented insights into the impact and involvement of microbiota in skin conditions. More and more cosmetics contain probiotics or bacteria as an active ingredient, with or without scientific data.

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Background: The long-term antibody response to measles vaccine (MV) administered at age 6 months with or without subsequent doses is not well documented.

Methods: Measles serum antibody responses were evaluated after a supplemental dose of measles vaccine (sMV) administered at a median age of 20 months among Malawian children who had previously received 2 doses of measles vaccine (MV) at ages 6 and 9 months (HIV-infected and random sample of HIV-uninfected) or 1 dose at age 9 months (random sample of HIV-uninfected). We compared measles antibody seropositivity between groups by enzyme linked immunoassay and seroprotection by plaque reduction neutralization geometric mean concentrations.

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Background: A peer-driven intervention (PDI) for injecting drug users (IDUs) was implemented in five Ukrainian city-sites to test-pilot its effectiveness in rejuvenating harm reduction (HR) projects that had become moribund. A PDI relies on drug users in a unique way to educate their peers in the community and recruit them for HIV prevention services. The goal of the PDI was to recruit in six month 500 IDUs who had never been respondents before to each of the five HR projects, especially stimulant- and women-injectors, and IDUs<25 years of age.

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Background: Previously, we demonstrated that measles antibody prevalence was lower at age 12 months among children infected with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) than uninfected children following measles vaccination (MV) at ages 6 and 9 months. Among HIV-uninfected children, measles antibody prevalence was lower among 1- than 2-dose MV recipients. Here, we report results through age 24 months.

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Acute gastroenteritis caused by rotavirus infection is an important cause of morbidity and mortality among infants and young children in Africa. From 1997 through 2007, we enrolled 3740 children <5 years of age with acute gastroenteritis who received hospital care at the Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital in Blantyre, Malawi. Group A rotavirus was detected in fecal specimens by enzyme immunoassay.

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Background: The risk of HIV-1 infection is high among breast-fed children in sub-Saharan Africa. Monitoring the nutritional status can provide useful information to determine the effect of HIV infection and breast-feeding on child growth and development. We longitudinally assessed the nutritional status and determined its association with HIV infection and breast-feeding among Malawian children.

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A good scientist develops within a context. There is the context of the chosen discipline itself. This encompasses the uncertainties and challenges of unresolved questions in that discipline, which may inspire and stimulate the scientist to search and research again.

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Background: Endemic Burkitt lymphoma (eBL) is the most common childhood cancer in equatorial Africa and there is a need for affordable, effective treatment.

Aim: To record the morbidity of treatment and event-free survival after 1 year using relatively high doses of cyclophosphamide at short intervals combined with intrathecal methotrexate.

Methods: Forty consecutive patients with a mean age of 6.

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Background: Perinatal HIV transmission could occur via microtransfused maternal blood during delivery. If so, detecting maternal cells in umbilical cord blood should correlate with infection risk.

Objective: To develop sensitive assays for maternal DNA in infant's blood stored as dried blood spots (DBS) and examine the correlation between microtransfusion and perinatal HIV infection risk.

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The use of electron-transfer dissociation as an alternative peptide ion activation method for generation of protein sequence information is examined here in comparison with the conventional method of choice, collisionally activated dissociation, using a linear ion trapping instrument. Direct comparability between collisionally and electron-transfer-activated product ion data were ensured by employing an activation-switching method during acquisition, sequentially activating precisely the same precursor ion species with each fragmentation method in turn. Sequest (Thermo Fisher Scientific, San Jose, CA) searching of product ion data generated an overlapping yet distinct pool of polypeptide identifications from the products of collisional and electron-transfer-mediated activation products.

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Background: The World Health Organization recommends that infants at high risk for developing measles before 9 months of age, including human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-infected infants, receive measles vaccination (MV) at 6 and 9 months of age.

Methods: Children born to HIV-infected mothers received MV at 6 and 9 months, and children of HIV-uninfected mothers were randomized to receive MV at 6 and 9 months, MV at 9 months, or routine MV without follow-up. Blood samples were obtained before and 3 months after each MV.

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Serious methodological and ethical flaws are detailed in an ethnographic study of a respondent-driven sampling (RDS) project for drug users in Chicago. The study is also disconnected from the larger social context within which the project operated, and from the existing literature on human-subject problems the author claims he "discovered" about RDS - problems common to traditional outreach projects that researchers have known about and managed successfully for years. Due to an admitted bias in the author's sampling, and an eagerness to accept respondents' claims uncritically, the author's results are not generalizeable to RDS projects operating in other cities, in Chicago itself, or even to the specific project studied.

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Patients with endemic Burkitt's lymphoma who failed primary treatment with the Malawi 2002 or 2003 Burkitt's lymphoma treatment protocols, consisting of high frequency cyclophosphamide 40 mg/kg and intrathecal methotrexate, were offered rescue chemotherapy. Twenty-eight patients (14 boys and 14 girls; age range 3-13 years) with resistant disease (n=8) or relapse (n=20) presented to the Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital, Blantyre, Malawi. Treatment consisted of cyclophosphamide 60 mg/kg and vincristine 1.

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Background: The present study was undertaken to determine the risk and timing of late postnatal transmission (LPT) of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1).

Methods: Breast-fed infants previously enrolled in 2 trials of antiretroviral prophylaxis were monitored in Malawi. Kaplan-Meier and proportional hazard models assessed cumulative incidence and association of factors with LPT.

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Background: Malawi has a critical human resources problem particularly in the health sector. There is a severe shortage of doctors; there are only few medical specialists. The College of Medicine (COM) is the only medical school and was founded in 1991.

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Objective: We assessed the impact of breastfeeding by women infected with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-1 on their morbidity and risk of mortality and on the mortality of their children.

Methods: We analysed longitudinal data from two previous randomized clinical trials of mother-to-child transmission of HIV conducted between April 2000 and March 2003 in the Republic of Malawi, Africa. Mothers infected with HIV, and their newborns, were enrolled at the time of their child's birth; they then returned for follow-up visits when the child was aged 1 week, 6-8 weeks and then 3, 6, 9, 15, 18, 21 and 24 months.

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Background: Data on childhood cancers in Africa are sparse, particularly since the spread of HIV. We aimed to document the frequency of pediatric cancers presenting to a large central hospital in Malawi, detailing the presenting features, initial investigations, and HIV status of these children.

Procedure: A retrospective audit of the spectrum and clinical presentation of cancers among children (<16 years) seen at Queen Elizabeth's Central Hospital (QECH), between 1998 and 2003.

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Objective: This study analyzed mother-to-child HIV transmission rates by sex and exposure time for babies born to HIV-infected, untreated African women.

Methods: Data were analyzed from 2 independent studies done in Malawi during the 1990s. Infections were established by polymerase chain reaction on blood samples.

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This prospective study was carried out during February 2000-April 2003 to characterize the relationship between the status of carotenoids, vitamin E, and retinol and anthropometric status in apparently healthy infants and their mothers in Blantyre, Malawi. Anthropometric status of infants and concentrations of carotenoids (alpha-carotene, beta-carotene, beta-cryptoxanthin, lutein, zeaxanthin, and lycopene), retinol, and alpha-tocopherol in plasma were measured in 173 infants at 12 months of age, and concentrations of carotenoids, retinol, and a-tocopherol in plasma were measured in their mothers two weeks postpartum. In multivariate analyses, concentrations of retinol, total carotenoids, non-provitamin A carotenoids, and alpha-tocopherol in infants were associated with under-weight (p = 0.

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