Spectrum of imported infectious diseases among children and adolescents returning from the tropics and subtropics.

Background: About 50 million people travel each year from industrialized countries to destinations in the tropics and subtropics. Among them, there are more than 2 million minors traveling. Although their number is increasing constantly, data on health risks during travel are limited.

Thirteen years HIV-1 sentinel surveillance and indicators for behavioural change suggest impact of programme activities in south-west Tanzania.

Objective: To describe the evolution of the HIV-1 epidemic among women attending antenatal clinics in four different geographic areas within two rural regions with differing intervention intensity in south-west Tanzania.

Design And Methods: Age-specific trends in HIV-1 seroprevalence among antenatal clinic attendees in four distinct geographic areas of Mbeya region between 1988 and 2000 and in one area of Rukwa region between 1991 and 1999 were analysed and compared. In Mbeya region a comprehensive AIDS control programme has been implemented since 1988.

Serological investigation of the prevalence of anti-dengue IgM and IgG antibodies in Attapeu Province, South Laos.

The prevalence of dengue antibodies was determined in the Attapeu region of South Laos with 225 blood samples collected from mostly febrile patients during the rainy season August - October 2001. An IgM capture ELISA was positive for one (0.4%) sample, while 177 (79%) samples were positive in an indirect IgG ELISA.

Prophylaxis failure due to probable mefloquine resistant P falciparum from Tanzania.

Failures of mefloquine prophylaxis in travellers returning from Africa have been reported repeatedly. Non-compliance to chemoprophylaxis is considered to be a major factor for failure. Only few reports on mefloquine prophylaxis failure in sub-Saharan Africa were able to report blood levels of the drug that were sufficient for prophylactic effectiveness.

Correlation of in vivo-resistance to chloroquine and allelic polymorphisms in Plasmodium falciparum isolates from Uganda.

The efficacy of chloroquine in the treatment of uncomplicated falciparum malaria in Africa is heavily compromised by high levels of drug resistance. The occurrence of active site mutations in the Plasmodium falciparum multi drug resistance-gene 1 (pfmdr1) has been associated with development of resistance to chloroquine. This study investigates the occurrence of several mutations at codons 86, 1042 and 1246 of the pfmdr1-gene in infected blood samples taken from Ugandan children before treatment with chloroquine and their relationship to clinical and parasitological resistance.