The COVID-19 Pandemic: Effects on Civil Registration of Births and Deaths and on Availability and Utility of Vital Events Data.

The complex and evolving picture of COVID-19-related mortality highlights the need for data to guide the response. Yet many countries are struggling to maintain their data systems, including the civil registration system, which is the foundation for detailed and continuously available mortality statistics. We conducted a search of country and development agency Web sites and partner and media reports describing disruptions to the civil registration of births and deaths associated with COVID-19 related restrictions.

Household-level risk factors for secondary influenza-like illness in a rural area of Bangladesh.

Objective: To describe household-level risk factors for secondary influenza-like illness (ILI), an important public health concern in the low-income population of Bangladesh.

Methods: Secondary analysis of control participants in a randomised controlled trial evaluating the effect of handwashing to prevent household ILI transmission. We recruited index-case patients with ILI - fever (<5 years); fever, cough or sore throat (≥5 years) - from health facilities, collected information on household factors and conducted syndromic surveillance among household contacts for 10 days after resolution of index-case patients' symptoms.

Impact of Intensive Handwashing Promotion on Secondary Household Influenza-Like Illness in Rural Bangladesh: Findings from a Randomized Controlled Trial.

Rationale: There is little evidence for the efficacy of handwashing for prevention of influenza transmission in resource-poor settings. We tested the impact of intensive handwashing promotion on household transmission of influenza-like illness and influenza in rural Bangladesh.

Methods: In 2009-10, we identified index case-patients with influenza-like illness (fever with cough or sore throat) who were the only symptomatic person in their household.

Identifying priorities for emergency intervention from child wasting and mortality estimates in vulnerable areas of the Horn of Africa.

Background: The relation between anthropometric measures and mortality risk in different populations can provide a basis for deciding how malnutrition prevalences should be interpreted.

Objective: To assess criteria for deciding on needs for emergency interventions in the Horn of Africa based on associations between child wasting and mortality from 2000 to 2005.

Methods: Data were analyzed on child global acute malnutrition (GAM) prevalences and mortality estimates from about 900 area-level nutrition surveys from Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, Sudan, and Uganda; data on drought, floods, and food insecurity were added for Kenya (Rift Valley) and Ethiopia, from Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) reports at the time.