T follicular helper cells and antibody response to Hepatitis B virus vaccine in HIV-1 infected children receiving ART.

HBV vaccine has 95% efficacy in children to prevent HBV infection and related cancer. We conducted a prospective study in HIV-1 infected children receiving ART (n = 49) and controls (n = 63) to assess humoral and cellular responses to HBV vaccine provided with three doses under an accelerated schedule of 4 weeks apart. At 1 month post-vaccination all children, except 4 HIV-1 infected, displayed protective antibody (ab) titers to HBV vaccine; ab titers were lower in infected children (P < 0.

Assessment of antibacterial drug exposure patterns of patient encounters seen by different categories of prescribers at health institutions in Bahir Dar, Ethiopia.

Background: Understanding of existing antibacterial drug prescribing patterns is a pre-requisite for further investigation of potential determinants of irrational prescribing, if any, thereby looking for solutions would be easier.

Objective: This study was conducted to assess antibacterial prescription patterns of different health professionals working at general outpatient clinics of different health institutions.

Methods: In this cross-sectional study, a total of 1558 prescriptions of patient encounters, were collected from four clusters of prescribers randomly selected from 11 public and 15 private health institutions in Bahir Dar town and its environs, North West Ethiopia.

Delayed clearance of Plasmodium falciparum in patients with human immunodeficiency virus co-infection treated with artemisinin.

We investigated the effect of artemisinin on the rate of clearance of Plasmodium falciparum in patients with or without human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) co-infection. Initial mean (+/- SEM) parasite density was not different between HIV-infected and HIV-uninfected groups (27,486 +/- 2,643 versus 32,892 +/- 6,583, respectively; P = 0.55).