Protocol for a cluster randomised placebo-controlled trial of adjunctive ivermectin mass drug administration for malaria control on the Bijagós Archipelago of Guinea-Bissau: the MATAMAL trial.

Introduction: As malaria declines, innovative tools are required to further reduce transmission and achieve elimination. Mass drug administration (MDA) of artemisinin-based combination therapy (ACT) is capable of reducing malaria transmission where coverage of control interventions is already high, though the impact is short-lived. Combining ACT with ivermectin, an oral endectocide shown to reduce vector survival, may increase its impact, while also treating ivermectin-sensitive co-endemic diseases and minimising the potential impact of ACT resistance in this context.

Effect of 50,000 IU vitamin A given with BCG vaccine on mortality in infants in Guinea-Bissau: randomised placebo controlled trial.

Objective: To investigate the effect of high dose vitamin A supplementation given with BCG vaccine at birth in an African setting with high infant mortality.

Design: Randomised placebo controlled trial. Setting Bandim Health Project's demographic surveillance system in Guinea-Bissau, covering approximately 90,000 inhabitants.

Acute lower respiratory tract infections and respiratory syncytial virus in infants in Guinea-Bissau: a beneficial effect of BCG vaccination for girls community based case-control study.

Among measles unvaccinated infants in Guinea-Bissau, we tested whether case infants with acute lower respiratory tract infection (ALRI), especially ALRI caused by respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), were more likely to be Bacille Calmette Guerin (BCG)-unvaccinated and to have no scar after BCG vaccination than were control infants without symptoms of ALRI. Three hundred and eighty-six case infants with ALRI were identified at a paediatric clinic (N=84), a health centre (N=82), and in a community morbidity surveillance system (N=220). Control infants were matched on sex, age, and district and were also measles unvaccinated.

Mothers may transmit RSV infection more easily or severely to sons than daughters: community study from Guinea-Bissau.

Opposite gender transmission may increase the severity of certain infections. If infections transmitted from mother to son were more severe than from mother to daughter this might explain severe diseases among boys, particularly in small families with few individuals contributing to transmission. Among children from Guinea-Bissau, we tested whether mothers with recent respiratory syncytial virus exposure (positive IgM and IgA antibody responses) were more likely to have male than female children with respiratory syncytial virus antigen positive acute lower respiratory tract infection.