Peer review for social accountability of health sciences education: a model from South Africa.

Background: The Collaboration for Health Equity in Education and Research (CHEER) is unique in the composition of its members who represent all the Faculties of Health Sciences in South Africa. Over the past 10 years, CHEER has conducted 18 peer reviews involving all the institutions. In August 2012, CHEER embarked on its pilot peer review on Social Accountability in Health Sciences in South Africa.

WITHDRAWN: Conjugate vaccines for preventing Haemophilus influenzae type B infections.

Background: Haemophilus influenzae (H. influenzae) is an important cause of meningitis and pneumonia in children. Vaccine cost is a significant barrier to use in low income countries.

Evolution of epidemiologic methods and concepts in selected textbooks of the 20th century.

Textbooks are an expression of the state of development of a discipline at a given moment in time. By reviewing eight epidemiology textbooks published over the course of a century, we have attempted to trace the evolution of five epidemiologic concepts and methods: study design (cohort studies and case-control studies), confounding, bias, interaction and causal inference. Overall, these eight textbooks can be grouped into three generations.