The effect of childhood stunting and wasting on adolescent cardiovascular diseases risk and educational achievement in rural Uganda: a retrospective cohort study.

: Little is known about the long-term effects of early childhood undernutrition on adolescent cardiovascular disease risk and educational performance in low-income countries. We examined this in a rural Ugandan population. : To investigate if stunting or wasting among children aged 2-5 years is associated with cardiovascular disease risk or educational achievement during adolescence.

Feasibility of using smartphones by village health workers for pregnancy registration and effectiveness of mobile phone text messages on reduction of homebirths in rural Uganda.

Introduction: Homebirths are common in low and middle income countries and are associated with poor child survival. We assessed the feasibility of using smartphones by village health workers for pregnancy registration and the effectiveness of health text messages (SMS) sent to pregnant women through village health workers in reducing homebirths in rural Uganda.

Methods: A non-randomised intervention study was undertaken in 26 villages.

Introduction of standard measles vaccination in an urban African community in 1979 and overall child survival: a reanalysis of data from a cohort study.

Objective: To examine the effect of the first introduction of measles vaccine (MV) in Guinea-Bissau in 1979.

Setting: Urban community study of the anthropometric status of all children under 6 years of age.

Participants: The study cohort included 1451 children in December 1978; 82% took part in the anthropometric survey.

Adverse pregnancy outcomes in rural Uganda (1996-2013): trends and associated factors from serial cross sectional surveys.

Objective: Community based evidence on pregnancy outcomes in rural Africa is lacking yet it is needed to guide maternal and child health interventions. We estimated and compared adverse pregnancy outcomes and associated factors in rural south-western Uganda using two survey methods.

Methods: Within a general population cohort, between 1996 and 2013, women aged 15-49 years were interviewed on their pregnancy outcome in the past 12 months (method 1).

The impact of maternal factors on mortality rates among children under the age of five years in a rural Ugandan population between 2002 and 2012.

Aim: Accurately estimating child mortality in rural communities in Africa with poor vital registration is a challenge. We aimed to estimate mortality rates and risk factors for children under five years old in rural Uganda.

Methods: Age-specific mortality rates were estimated using the synthetic cohort life-table technique for 10 118 children under the age of five years, between 2002 and 2012.

Impaired neutralizing activity by transplacental measles antibodies in infants born to HIV-1-infected mothers.

Aim: Growing numbers of newborns are saved from HIV infection through increased access to mother-to-child transmission prevention programmes. The maternally derived humoral immunity of these children might be impaired, both in terms of quantity and in terms of quality, with consequences for the timing of immunization against measles.

Methods: A cell-ELISA technique compared the neutralizing activity on Edmonston strain measles virus of sera from 1- to 4-month-old infants.

Policy measures and the survival of foster infants in Stockholm 1878-1925.

Background: At the end of the 19th century, infant mortality was high in urban and rural areas in Sweden. In Stockholm, the mortality rate was particularly high among foster children. This study addresses the importance for health of targeted public policies and their local implementation in the reduction of excess mortality among foster children in Stockholm at the turn of the 19th century.

Increase of circulating CD8+CD57+ lymphocytes after measles infection but not after measles vaccination.

Natural measles virus infection is recognised to induce immunosuppression, contributing to an increased susceptibility to other infections. A cell population that could be involved in this process is the CD8CD57 double-positive lymphocyte subset (CD8+CD57+), known to be significantly expanded in some viral infections, e.g.

Equitable child health interventions: the impact of improved water and sanitation on inequalities in child mortality in Stockholm, 1878 to 1925.

Today, many of the 10 million childhood deaths each year are caused by diseases of poverty--diarrhea and pneumonia, for example, which were previously major causes of childhood death in many European countries. Specific analyses of the historical decline of child mortality may shed light on the potential equity impact of interventions to reduce child mortality. In our study of the impact of improved water and sanitation in Stockholm from 1878 to 1925, we examined the decline in overall and diarrhea mortality among children, both in general and by socioeconomic group.

Child mortality in Stockholm during 1885-1910: the impact of household size and number of children in the family on the risk of death from measles.

Previous studies have associated overcrowding at the household level with increased mortality, especially from airborne diseases. This association may be confounded by associations with adverse socioeconomic conditions or low age at infection. This study investigated the effect of crowding on the risk of measles death.

Use of a historical register in social epidemiology: child mortality in Stockholm at the turn of the 19th century.

This study describes the age- and cause-specific levels and social determinants of high child mortality in Stockholm around the turn of the century. The study is based on computerized individual level sociodemographic information and the death certificates of children aged 0-15 years residing in Maria parish in Stockholm during the years 1885, 1891 and 1910 (n = 36,718) from a historical register (the Roteman archives). The usefulness of such data for further studies in social epidemiology is discussed.

Sub-clinical cerebral oedema does not occur regularly during treatment for diabetic ketoacidosis.

Fulminant cerebral oedema is an uncommon, fatal complication of diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA) in children. This study aimed to find out whether the sub-clinical compression of the brain ventricles found by an earlier study, is a general phenomenon during intravenous treatment for DKA. Four boys and four girls were examined.

Selective compartmentalization of gammadelta-T lymphocytes in human breastmilk.

In human breastmilk, T lymphocytes with gammadelta-receptor (TCR) are more frequent than those with alphabeta-TCR, in comparison with peripheral blood. Differential representation has also been demonstrated for subpopulations of gammadelta-T cells. Reactivity was visualized with three monoclonal antibodies against Vdelta1, Vdelta2 and Vgamma2 on T cells from the breastmilk and peripheral blood of 12 women who had recently given birth.

Does age at the start of breast feeding influence infantile diarrhoea morbidity? A case-control study in periurban Guinea-Bissau.

Colostrum protects the newborn from intestinal infection by its content of secretory immunoglobulin A and other immediately acting factors. It may also induce maturation of the child's gastrointestinal immune defences, thus contributing to the protection against diarrhoeal disease later in infancy. To test this hypothesis, a case-control study on breast feeding and diarrhoea was carried out in a periurban community in Guinea-Bissau.

Immunosuppression after measles vaccination.

The influence of conventional live attenuated measles vaccine on cellular immune responsiveness was investigated in Sweden and Guinea-Bissau. Sixteen children in a residential area in Bissau and 16 living in southern Stockholm were examined before and 8-10 days after vaccination. Lymphoproliferation was measured to concanavalin A (con-A), PPD and tetanus toxoid (TT) using a whole-blood 3H-thymidine incorporation assay.

Age at breast feeding start and postneonatal growth and survival.

Colostrum has important anti-infective properties. It may also somehow promote the development of the child's immunological system. Discarding colostrum, as practised in some cultures, could thus have adverse health consequences beyond the neonatal period.

Determinants of delayed initiation of breastfeeding: a community and hospital study from Guinea-Bissau.

A prospective study on the timing of breastfeeding start in Bissau was undertaken in a periurban community (n = 734), and at the Central Hospital (n = 414). Only single, full-term, healthy children born by the vaginal route were included, the purpose being to characterize mothers who delay breastfeeding start for reasons not related to disease. Multivariate failure-time analysis (Cox' regression) was used to relate the child's age at breastfeeding start to a set of independent variables.

Association between immune recognition of the malaria vaccine candidate antigen Pf155/RESA and resistance to clinical disease: a prospective study in a malaria-endemic region of west Africa.

We have measured cellular and humoral immune responses to short synthetic peptides representing epitopes of the malaria vaccine candidate antigen Pf155/RESA in a longitudinal, prospective study of clinical immunity to Plasmodium falciparum malaria in a cohort of 354 Gambian children aged 3-8 years. A significant association was observed between presence of antibodies to the 3' repeat region peptide (EENV)6 and resistance to clinical malaria. The prevalence of protective antipeptide antibodies varied significantly between different ethnic groups, suggesting that immune recognition of some Pf155/RESA epitopes may be genetically regulated.

A study on malaria infection during the acute stage of measles infection.

The recognized high mortality from measles in Africa is considered to be partly due to the flare-up of concomitant malaria infection. In 1987 there was a measles epidemic in the Rufiji Delta, Tanzania, in spite of recent vaccination campaigns. A comparative study was therefore conducted on the densities of malaria parasites in children during the acute stage of measles (67 consecutive cases, aged 5 months-19 years).

Whole-blood microassay for immunodetection of antigen specific cell mediated immunity using bromodeoxyuridine incorporation.

The study evaluates a novel version of the bromodeoxyuridine (BrdU) incorporation assay for in vitro proliferative responses, which works with finger-prick blood specimens. It was developed primarily for field-work involving children in Africa and elsewhere. Heparinized blood specimens from healthy volunteers were diluted 1:15 and cultured with purified protein derivative, tetanus toxoid, concanavalin A or medium alone for four-seven days and pulsed during the last 24 hours with bromodeoxyuridine.

Phenotypic characterization of mononuclear white cells using finger-prick blood and light microscopy.

A technique for the enumeration of T cell subsets in capillary blood for use in the field is described. Mononuclear white cells were separated from 0.4 ml capillary blood, kept covered by culture medium on a Multitest slide, and incubated with monoclonal antibodies to the CD2, CD4, CD8, and interleukin-2 receptor antigens.

Rotavirus serology and breast-feeding in young children in rural Guinea-Bissau.

One hundred and forty-four children aged 9-20 months living in 14 villages in a rural area of Guinea-Bissau were examined for circulating rotavirus antibodies twice in a 15-month period. An immunofluorescence technique was used. About 3/4 of the children seroconverted, independent of age on entering the study.

Follow-up of the antibody response to measles vaccine in a rural area of Guinea-Bissau.

One hundred and fourty-four children who either were already immune or had been successfully immunized against measles were reexamined after 16 months. All still had circulating Elisa antibodies at a clearly detectable level. Titres were higher in the group of children stated to have had measles prior to the immunization.

Anthropometry and subsequent mortality in groups of children aged 6-59 months in Guinea-Bissau.

To assess the importance of nutritional status for subsequent survival, 2228 children aged 6-59 mo were followed for 8-12 mo in four different areas of Guinea-Bissau. The overall death rate was 0.62/100 child-months of follow-up (126 deaths) and 0.