Global cost of child survival: estimates from country-level validation.

Objective: To cross-validate the global cost of scaling up child survival interventions to achieve the fourth Millennium Development Goal (MDG4) as estimated by the World Health Organization (WHO) in 2007 by using the latest country-provided data and new assumptions.

Methods: After the main cost categories for each country were identified, validation questionnaires were sent to 32 countries with high child mortality. Publicly available estimates for disease incidence, intervention coverage, prices and resources for individual-level and programme-level activities were validated against local data.

Characterization of virus infected cell cultures by pyrolysis/direct chemical ionization mass spectrometry.

The supernatants of Vero cell cultures after infection with a herpes simplex virus or a poliomyelitis virus as well as a blank were analysed by pyrolysis/direct chemical ionization mass spectrometry (Py/DCI MS). Informative pyrogrammes were obtained and used for characterization of viral proteins by applying pattern recognition methods. Differentiation of viral proteins was evaluated by analysing 'blind' samples.

Immunofluorescence detection of herpes simplex virus type 1 antigen in cerebrospinal fluid cells of experimentally infected mice.

Experimentally infected mice were used to assess the value of immunofluorescence (IF) procedures in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) cells in comparison with routine viral culture of CSF for diagnosis of herpes simplex type-1 (HSV-1) encephalitis. Virus specific antigen was detected by immunofluorescence in the majority of CSF cells in 75% of infected animals. In contrast, only 20% of infected mice had positive viral cultures, which sometimes took as long as a week to show a cytopathological effect (CPE).

Hamster model for herpes simplex virus infection of the central nervous system.

Adult Syrian hamsters were inoculated with a mouse brain passage of herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1) along an intradermal and an oral route after local scarification. For both routes, clinical symptoms of central nervous system (CNS) involvement were seen in the period between five and 12 days post infection. Compared with the route via the buccal mucosa, CNS involvement by intradermal infection is easier to establish.

Preventive and curative effects of acyclovir on central nervous system infections in hamsters inoculated with herpes simplex virus.

Hamsters are very susceptible to infections with herpes simplex virus. Inoculation of the skin of the lower back region leads to an ascending involvement of the central nervous system with fatal outcome. This model was used for testing the activity of antiviral substances in herpes infections of the nervous system.