Standby emergency treatment of malaria in travelers: experience to date and new developments.

The concept of 'standby emergency treatment' (SBET) describes the strategy where travelers carry an emergency malaria treatment for self-administration when no medical attention is available or for use under medical supervision after a confirmed malaria diagnosis, and raises many issues for discussion. International guidelines vary on the topic, and there is controversy regarding the appropriate niche for this imperfect strategy. There are situations when SBET can supplement chemoprophylaxis with mosquito bite prevention and for some travelers, particularly those visiting minimal malaria risk areas, carriage of SBET and concomitant anti-mosquito bite measures can constitute the main antimalaria strategy.

A randomised, single-blind, dose-range study to assess the immunogenicity and safety of a cell-culture-derived A/H1N1 influenza vaccine in adult and elderly populations.

Background: Modern cell-culture production techniques and the use of adjuvants helps to ensure that the global demand for pandemic influenza vaccine can be met. This study aimed to assess the immunogenicty and safety profiles of various cell-culture-derived A/H1N1 pandemic vaccine formulations in healthy adult and elderly subjects.

Methods: Adult (18-60 years) subjects (n=544) received vaccine either containing 3.

Pregnancy and fetal outcomes after exposure to mefloquine in the pre- and periconception period and during pregnancy.

Background: Pregnant women who travel to malarious areas and their clinicians need data on the safety of malaria chemoprophylaxis.

Methods: The effect of exposure to mefloquine on pregnancy and offspring outcomes was evaluated using the F. Hoffmann-La Roche global drug safety database for the time frame 31 January 1986 through 26 October 2010.

A randomized clinical trial to identify the optimal antigen and MF59(®) adjuvant dose of a monovalent A/H1N1 pandemic influenza vaccine in healthy adult and elderly subjects.

Background: Vaccines against pandemic A/H1N1 influenza are required to protect the entire population. This dose range study aimed to identify priming antigen and adjuvant doses resulting in optimal levels of antibody-mediated protection after primary and one-year booster immunizations.

Methods: This randomised trial enrolled 410 healthy adult (18-60 years) and 251 healthy elderly (>60 years) participants.

The Swiss Health Literacy Survey: development and psychometric properties of a multidimensional instrument to assess competencies for health.

Background: Growing recognition of the role of citizens and patients in health and health care has placed a spotlight on health literacy and patient education.

Objective: To identify specific competencies for health in definitions of health literacy and patient-centred concepts and empirically test their dimensionality in the general population.

Methods: A thorough review of the literature on health literacy, self-management, patient empowerment, patient education and shared decision making revealed considerable conceptual overlap as competencies for health and identified a corpus of 30 generic competencies for health.

The relation of body mass index and abdominal adiposity with dyslipidemia in 27 general populations of the WHO MONICA Project.

Background And Aims: The association between adiposity measures and dyslipidemia has seldom been assessed in a multipopulational setting.

Methods And Results: 27 populations from Europe, Australia, New Zealand and Canada (WHO MONICA project) using health surveys conducted between 1990 and 1997 in adults aged 35-64 years (n = 40,480). Dyslipidemia was defined as the total/HDL cholesterol ratio >6 (men) and >5 (women).

Assessing the impact of a movement network on the spatiotemporal spread of infectious diseases.

Linking information on a movement network with space-time data on disease incidence is one of the key challenges in infectious disease epidemiology. In this article, we propose and compare two statistical frameworks for this purpose, namely, parameter-driven (PD) and observation-driven (OD) models. Bayesian inference in PD models is done using integrated nested Laplace approximations, while OD models can be easily fitted with existing software using maximum likelihood.

Antiestrogen therapy for breast cancer modifies the risk of subsequent cutaneous melanoma.

Increased risk of secondary melanoma after breast cancer has been reported. Several lines of evidence suggest that elevated estrogen levels may be implicated in melanoma etiology. Accordingly, use of antiestrogens should be associated with decreased risk of melanoma.

Psychological distress in fibromyalgia patients: a role for catechol-O-methyl-transferase Val158met polymorphism.

Objective: Fibromyalgia (FM) has been related to biochemical alterations, central pain sensitization and psychological distress. Among genetic and environmental hypotheses, a role was suggested for catechol-O-methyl-transferase (COMT), a modulator in the metabolism of monoaminergic neurotransmitters.

Method: This study compared the COMT Val158Met enzyme polymorphism (rs4680) of 198 FM patients to 99 pain-free controls.

Differentiation of focal liver lesions: usefulness of parametric imaging with contrast-enhanced US.

Purpose: To evaluate whether parametric imaging with contrast material-enhanced ultrasonography (US) is superior to visual assessment for the differential diagnosis of focal liver lesions (FLLs).

Materials And Methods: This study had institutional review board approval, and verbal patient informed consent was obtained. Between August 2005 and October 2008, 146 FLLs in 145 patients (63 women, 82 men; mean age, 62.

Predictive cross-validation for the choice of linear mixed-effects models with application to data from the Swiss HIV Cohort Study.

Model choice in linear mixed-effects models for longitudinal data is a challenging task. Apart from the selection of covariates, also the choice of the random effects and the residual correlation structure should be possible. Application of classical model choice criteria such as Akaike information criterion (AIC) or Bayesian information criterion is not obvious, and many versions do exist.

Omission of excisional therapy is associated with an increased risk of invasive cervical cancer after cervical intraepithelial neoplasia III.

Background: Using data from the population-based Geneva Cancer Registry we evaluated the risk of invasive cervical cancer following carcinoma in situ (CIS) or cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN) III according to type of treatment.

Methods: Included in the study were all women diagnosed with CIS/CIN III in Geneva (Switzerland) between 1970 to 2002 (n=2658) and followed for invasive cervical cancer occurrence until 31st December 2008. We calculated age and period standardised incidence ratios (SIR) and multiadjusted hazard ratios (HR) of invasive cervical cancer by treatment groups.

Selection models with monotone weight functions in meta analysis.

Publication bias, the fact that studies identified for inclusion in a meta analysis do not represent all studies on the topic of interest, is commonly recognized as a threat to the validity of a meta analysis. One way to explicitly model publication bias is via weighted probability distributions. We adopt the non-parametric approach initially introduced by Dear and Begg (1992) but impose that the weight function w is monotonely non-increasing as a function of the p-value.

Persistent work-life conflict and health satisfaction - a representative longitudinal study in Switzerland.

Background: The objectives of the present study were (1) to track work-life conflict in Switzerland during the years 2002 to 2008 and (2) to analyse the relationship between work-life conflict and health satisfaction, examining whether long-term work-life conflict leads to poor health satisfaction.

Methods: The study is based on a representative longitudinal database (Swiss Household Panel), covering a six-year period containing seven waves of data collection. The sample includes 1261 persons, with 636 men and 625 women.

Adding tobacco to cannabis--its frequency and likely implications.

Introduction: Young cannabis users are at increased risk of later cigarette initiation and progression to nicotine addiction. The present study addresses the frequency at which mulling (adding tobacco to cannabis smoked as joints) is performed and in which way this practice varies according to cigarette smoking status.

Methods: Data were issued from the Swiss 2007 European School Survey Project on Alcohol and other Drugs (ESPAD).

Assessing inter-rater reliability when the raters are fixed: Two concepts and two estimates.

Intraclass correlation (ICC) is an established tool to assess inter-rater reliability. In a seminal paper published in 1979, Shrout and Fleiss considered three statistical models for inter-rater reliability data with a balanced design. In their first two models, an infinite population of raters was considered, whereas in their third model, the raters in the sample were considered to be the whole population of raters.

Lung cancer mortality risk among breast cancer patients treated with anti-estrogens.

Background: The Women's Health Initiative randomized clinical trial reported that menopausal hormone therapy increases lung cancer mortality risk. If this is true, use of anti-estrogens should be associated with decreased lung cancer mortality risk. The authors compared lung cancer incidence and mortality among breast cancer patients with and without anti-estrogen therapy.

Primary cutaneous lymphoma: two-decade comparison in a population of 263 cases from a Swiss tertiary referral centre.

Background: Epidemiological data on primary cutaneous lymphomas (PCLs) are rare and have not previously been investigated in Switzerland.

Objective: To analyse variations in demographics, the pattern of subtypes and staging during the two 10-year intervals, 1990-1999 and 2000-2009.

Methods: This was a descriptive study of 263 patients with PCL based on a retrospective review and reassessment according to the World Health Organization/European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer classification.

Knowledge, attitudes, and practices of business travelers regarding influenza and the use of antiviral medication.

Background: This study aimed to determine the knowledge, attitudes, and practices of Swiss business travelers with regard to influenza and the use of antiviral medication.

Methods: Questionnaires, available in three languages, were distributed manually and online through companies, organizations, and travel medicine specialists in Switzerland to business travelers who were traveling during the period January 2005 to April 2009.

Result: In total, 661 questionnaires were fully completed and evaluated.

Risk of second breast cancer according to estrogen receptor status and family history.

A recent study reported an increased risk of contralateral estrogen-negative breast cancer after a first primary estrogen-negative breast cancer. Our study aims to confirm this result and to evaluate how the risk of second breast cancer occurrence is affected by family history of breast cancer and anti-estrogen treatment. We included all 4,152 women diagnosed with breast cancer between 1995 and 2007, using data from the population-based Geneva Cancer Registry.

Diarrhoea in a large prospective cohort of European travellers to resource-limited destinations.

Background: Incidence rates of travellers' diarrhoea (TD) need to be updated and risk factors are insufficiently known.

Methods: Between July 2006 and January 2008 adult customers of our Centre for Travel Health travelling to a resource-limited country for the duration of 1 to 8 weeks were invited to participate in a prospective cohort study. They received one questionnaire pre-travel and a second one immediately post-travel.

Work-life conflicts and health among Swiss physicians--in comparison with other university graduates and with the general Swiss working population.

Question Under Study: The present study aimed to compare the prevalence of work-life conflicts and the health status of physicians, with a representative sample of university graduates as well as with a representative sample of the general Swiss working population. Furthermore, it aimed to analyse whether work-life conflicts correlate with the health of physicians, as it does in the general working population.

Methods: The present cross-sectional study analysed data from 2007 originating from the SwissMedCareer Study (a prospective cohort study of physicians who graduated in 2001; n = 543) and the Swiss Household Panel (a representative Swiss survey on living and working conditions; university graduates of the same age range: n = 172, general working population of the same age range: n = 670).

A set of indicators for decomposing the secular increase of life expectancy.

Background: The ongoing increase in life expectancy in developed countries is associated with changes in the shape of the survival curve. These changes can be characterized by two main, distinct components: (i) the decline in premature mortality, i.e.

Formation of pseudoaneurysm after aortic valve replacement without previous endocarditis: a case-control study.

Background: The aim of this study was to identify the predisposing factors for pseudoaneurysm formation after aortic valve replacement without previous endocarditis.

Methods: Echocardiography was used to identify patients. Parameters with influence on the occurrence of pseudoaneurysms were analyzed, and the odds ratio for the influence of the type of valve was estimated.