Effects of iron supplements and iron-containing micronutrient powders on the gut microbiome in Bangladeshi infants: a randomized controlled trial.

Anemia is highly prevalent globally, especially in young children in low-income countries, where it often overlaps with a high burden of diarrheal disease. Distribution of iron interventions (as supplements or iron-containing multiple micronutrient powders, MNPs) is a key anemia reduction strategy. Small studies in Africa indicate iron may reprofile the gut microbiome towards pathogenic species.

Pharmacokinetic-Pharmacodynamic Determinants of Clinical Outcomes for Rifampin-Resistant Tuberculosis: A Multisite Prospective Cohort Study.

Background: Rifampin-resistant and/or multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (RR/MDR-TB) treatment requires multiple drugs, and outcomes remain suboptimal. Some drugs are associated with improved outcome. It is unknown whether particular pharmacokinetic-pharmacodynamic relationships predict outcome.

Characteristics that modify the effect of small-quantity lipid-based nutrient supplementation on child anemia and micronutrient status: an individual participant data meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials.

Background: Small-quantity lipid-based nutrient supplements (SQ-LNSs) have been shown to reduce the prevalence of child anemia and iron deficiency, but effects on other micronutrients are less well known. Identifying subgroups who benefit most from SQ-LNSs could support improved program design.

Objectives: We aimed to identify study-level and individual-level modifiers of the effect of SQ-LNSs on child hemoglobin (Hb), anemia, and inflammation-adjusted micronutrient status outcomes.

Success Factors for Community Health Workers in Implementing an Integrated Group-Based Child Development Intervention in Rural Bangladesh.

Community Health Workers (CHWs) can effectively implement maternal and child health interventions, but there is paucity of evidence on how to integrate child stimulation into these interventions, and their delivery at scale. In rural Bangladesh, CHWs implemented an intervention integrating psychosocial stimulation, nutrition, maternal mental health, water, sanitation, hygiene (WASH) and lead exposure prevention. In each of 16 intervention villages, one CHW worked with 20 households.

Whole-Genome Analysis of Clinical Vibrio cholerae O1 in Kolkata, India, and Dhaka, Bangladesh, Reveals Two Lineages of Circulating Strains, Indicating Variation in Genomic Attributes.

serogroup O1 is responsible for epidemic and pandemic cholera and remains a global public health threat. This organism has been well established as a resident flora of the aquatic environment that alters its phenotypic and genotypic attributes for better adaptation to the environment. To reveal the diversity of clinical isolates of O1 in the Bay of Bengal, we performed whole-genome sequencing of isolates from Kolkata, India, and Dhaka, Bangladesh, collected between 2009 and 2016.

Piloting a Shared Source Water Treatment Intervention among Elementary Schools in Bangladesh.

Hundreds of thousands of children continue to die each year from diarrhea. We piloted a low-cost liquid chlorine point-of-use (POU) water treatment among elementary school children in Bangladesh. We began the 1-month intervention in four schools (two urban and two rural) by introducing POU drinking water hardware and behavior change communication.

Emerging Hand Foot Mouth Disease in Bangladeshi Children- First Report of Rapid Appraisal on Pocket Outbreak: Clinico-epidemiological Perspective Implicating Public Health Emergency.

Hand, foot and mouth disease (HFMD) is a common contagious disease among children under 5 years, particularly in the Asia-Pacific-region. We report a localized outbreak of childhood HFMD for the first time from Bangladesh, diagnosed only based on clinical features due to lack in laboratory-diagnostic facilities. Following the World Health Organization's case-definition, we conducted a rapid-appraisal of HFMD among all of the 143 children attending Pabna Medical College and General Hospital with fever, mouth ulcers and extremity rash.

Role of antigen specific T and B cells in systemic and mucosal immune responses in ETEC and Shigella infections, and their potential to serve as correlates of protection in vaccine development.

The generation of robust systemic and mucosal antibody and cell-mediated immune (CMI) responses that are protective, long-lasting, and can quickly be recalled upon subsequent re-exposure to the cognate antigen is the key to the development of effective vaccine candidates. These responses, whether they represent mechanistic or non-mechanistic immunological correlates of protection, usually entail the activation of T cell memory and effector subsets (T-CMI) and induction of long-lasting memory B cells. However, for ETEC and Shigella, the precise role of these key immune cells in primary and secondary (anamnestic) immune responses remains ill-defined.

Population-based Incidence of Childhood Pneumonia Associated With Viral Infections in Bangladesh.

Background: The contribution of respiratory viruses to childhood pneumonia in tropical low- and middle-income countries is poorly understood. We used population-based respiratory illness surveillance in children 5 years of age or younger in Dhaka, Bangladesh, to characterize these illnesses.

Methods: We conducted weekly home visits to children who were referred to clinic for fever or respiratory symptoms.

Prevalence and Association of and Diarrheagenic in Stored Foods for Young Children and Flies Caught in the Same Households in Rural Bangladesh.

Consumption of contaminated stored food can cause childhood diarrhea. Flies carry enteropathogens, although their contribution to food contamination remains unclear. We investigated the role of flies in contaminating stored food by collecting food and flies from the same households in rural Bangladesh.

"Those who care much, understand much." Maternal perceptions of children's appetite: Perspectives from urban and rural caregivers of diverse parenting experience in Bangladesh.

Appetite in children is an important determinant of nutritional intake and growth. The information used by caregivers to understand children's appetite can help inform infant and young child feeding promotion and appetite assessment. We conducted a qualitative study to (a) explore maternal perceptions and responses to children's appetite and (b) to identify how these factors differ by type of caregiver, level of maternal experience, and urban versus rural context.

Behavioral antecedents for handwashing in a low-income urban setting in Bangladesh: an exploratory study.

Background: Health programs commonly promote handwashing by drawing attention to potential fecal contamination in the environment. The underlying assumption is that the thought of fecal contamination will result in disgust, and motivate people to wash their hands with soap. However, this has not proven sufficient to achieve high rates of handwashing with soap at key times.

Toward a Scalable and Sustainable Intervention for Complementary Food Safety.

Background: Contaminated complementary foods are associated with diarrhea and malnutrition among children aged 6 to 24 months. However, existing complementary food safety intervention models are likely not scalable and sustainable.

Objective: To understand current behaviors, motivations for these behaviors, and the potential barriers to behavior change and to identify one or two simple actions that can address one or few food contamination pathways and have potential to be sustainably delivered to a larger population.

Increased Morbidity and Mortality in Domestic Animals Eating Dropped and Bitten Fruit in Bangladeshi Villages: Implications for Zoonotic Disease Transmission.

We used data on feeding practices and domestic animal health gathered from 207 Bangladeshi villages to identify any association between grazing dropped fruit found on the ground or owners directly feeding bat- or bird-bitten fruit and animal health. We compared mortality and morbidity in domestic animals using a mixed effects model controlling for village clustering, herd size, and proxy measures of household wealth. Thirty percent of household heads reported that their animals grazed on dropped fruit and 20% reported that they actively fed bitten fruit to their domestic herds.

Differences in field effectiveness and adoption between a novel automated chlorination system and household manual chlorination of drinking water in Dhaka, Bangladesh: a randomized controlled trial.

The number of people served by networked systems that supply intermittent and contaminated drinking water is increasing. In these settings, centralized water treatment is ineffective, while household-level water treatment technologies have not been brought to scale. This study compares a novel low-cost technology designed to passively (automatically) dispense chlorine at shared handpumps with a household-level intervention providing water disinfection tablets (Aquatab), safe water storage containers, and behavior promotion.

Isolation of Salmonella Virchow from a fruit bat (Pteropus giganteus).

Detection of zoonotic pathogens carried by bats is important both for understanding disease ecology and for developing preventive measures. Pteropus fruit bats have been identified as potential carriers of Salmonella enterica serotype Typhi. A cross-sectional study was conducted to determine the prevalence of Salmonella Typhi and other Salmonella serotypes in Pteropus giganteus fruit bats in Bangladesh.

Animal husbandry practices in rural Bangladesh: potential risk factors for antimicrobial drug resistance and emerging diseases.

Antimicrobial drug administration to household livestock may put humans and animals at risk for acquisition of antimicrobial drug-resistant pathogens. To describe animal husbandry practices, including animal healthcare-seeking and antimicrobial drug use in rural Bangladesh, we conducted semi-structured in-depth interviews with key informants, including female household members (n = 79), village doctors (n = 10), and pharmaceutical representatives, veterinarians, and government officials (n = 27), and performed observations at animal health clinics (n = 3). Prevalent animal husbandry practices that may put persons at risk for acquisition of pathogens included shared housing and water for animals and humans, antimicrobial drug use for humans and animals, and crowding.

Seasonal concentrations and determinants of indoor particulate matter in a low-income community in Dhaka, Bangladesh.

Indoor exposure to particulate matter (PM) increases the risk of acute lower respiratory tract infections, which are the leading cause of death in young children in Bangladesh. Few studies, however, have measured children's exposures to indoor PM over time. The World Health Organization recommends that daily indoor concentrations of PM less than 2.

Hepatitis B infection in Bangladeshi mothers and infants.

In order to estimate the relative importance of perinatal transmission of hepatitis B in rural Bangladesh a cross-sectional study was carried out. Paired-serum samples of infants aged 2-8 months old, a group of new born, and their mothers were tested for hepatitis B markers using a commercial ELISA test kit. In total, 107 (32.

Comparison of the modified relative dose response (MRDR) and the relative dose response (RDR) in the assessment of vitamin A status in malnourished children.

The modified-relative-dose-response (MRDR) test and the relative-dose-response (RDR) test were compared in 49 mildly to moderately malnourished Bangladeshi children. The MRDR test had a significantly lower sensitivity, detecting only 71% of children with very low serum retinol (< or = 0.35 mumol/L) and 33% of children with low serum retinol (0.