Sputum monitoring during tuberculosis treatment for predicting outcome: systematic review and meta-analysis.

WHO has previously recommended sputum-smear examination at the end of the second month of treatment in patients with recently diagnosed pulmonary tuberculosis, and, if positive, extension of the intensive therapy phase. We did a systematic review and meta-analysis to assess the accuracy of a positive sputum smear or culture during treatment for predicting failure or relapse in pulmonary tuberculosis. We searched PubMed, Embase, and the Cochrane Library for studies published in English through December, 2009.

Association between renal disease and outcomes among HIV-infected women receiving or not receiving antiretroviral therapy.

Background: The associations of proteinuria and an elevated creatinine level with progression to acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) and death in the era of highly antiretroviral therapy (HAART) have not been fully described.

Methods: This analysis includes 2038 human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-infected women from the Women's Interagency HIV Study. Time to the development of a new AIDS-defining illness (ADI) and death was modeled using proportional hazards regression before the widespread availability of HAART and after initiation of HAART.

Smallpox.

Until the 1970s, smallpox was feared worldwide for the significant morbidity and mortality it caused. Although naturally occurring disease has been eliminated, the virus itself has not been destroyed, and it is assumed that some of the variola stored in the former Soviet Union has been removed. The majority of the world's population is susceptible to smallpox because vaccination ended in 1972 in the United States and in the rest of the world in 1982.