Burden of Antimicrobial Resistance Among Women with Post-Partum Infections in Low-Middle Income Countries: A Systematic Review.

Background: Due to the rising incidence of multidrug-resistant (MDR) pathogens, especially in Low-Middle-Income Countries (LMIC), post-partum infections represent a significant treatment challenge.

Methods: We performed a systematic review of the literature from January 2005 to February 2023 to quantify the frequency of maternal post-partum infections due to MDR pathogens in LMICs, focusing on methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and/or extended-spectrum beta-lactamase (ESBL)-producing Enterobacterales.

Secondary Objectives: description of antimicrobials' prescriptions.

Synergism of red blood cells and tranexamic acid in the inhibition of fibrinolysis.

Background: Postpartum hemorrhage (PPH) is the leading cause of maternal death worldwide. The World Maternal Antifibrinolytic trial showed that antifibrinolytic tranexamic acid (TXA) reduces PPH deaths. Maternal anemia increases the risk of PPH.

Cost and quality of operational larviciding using drones and smartphone technology.

Background: Larval Source Management (LSM) is an important tool for malaria vector control and is recommended by WHO as a supplementary vector control measure. LSM has contributed in many successful attempts to eliminate the disease across the Globe. However, this approach is typically labour-intensive, largely due to the difficulties in locating and mapping potential malarial mosquito breeding sites.

Emerging public health challenges during the COVID-19 pandemic in Malawi: A review.

The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has posed new and has aggravated already existing public health challenges in Malawi and worldwide. Having a better understanding of these challenges can help facilitate the identification of solutions and designing further public health interventions and policies for effective management of the COVID-19 pandemic. This article presents an overview of the situation of COVID-19 in Malawi and identifies emerging public health challenges that the country is facing amidst this pandemic.

Hand Hygiene Social Norms Among Healthcare Workers During Early COVID-19: Results of a Global Survey.

Poor hand hygiene among healthcare workers is an important driver of infectious disease transmission. Although social norms are considered a key determinant of hand hygiene behaviour, little is known about them among healthcare workers. This study describes hand hygiene social norms among health workers, assesses their predictors, and tests if social expectations increased during the early stages of COVID-19.

Variants associated with Bedaquiline (BDQ) resistance identified in Rv0678 and efflux pump genes in Mycobacterium tuberculosis isolates from BDQ naïve TB patients in Pakistan.

Background: Mutations in the Rv0678, pepQ and atpE genes of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB) have been reported to be associated with reduced antimycobacterial susceptibility to bedaquiline (BDQ). Resistance conferring mutations in treatment naïve MTB strains is likely to have implications for BDQ based new drug regimen that aim to shorten treatment duration. We therefore investigated the genetic basis of resistance to BDQ in MTB clinical isolates from BDQ naïve TB patients from Pakistan.

Pediatric Critical Care in Resource Limited Settings-Lessening the Gap Through Ongoing Collaboration, Advancement in Research and Technological Innovations.

Pediatric critical care has continued to advance since our last article, " was written just 3 years ago. In that article, we reviewed the history, current state, and gaps in level of care between low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) and high-income countries (HICs). In this article, we have highlighted recent advancements in pediatric critical care in LMICs in the areas of research, training and education, and technology.

Adverse fetal and neonatal outcomes in pregnancies with confirmed Zika Virus infection in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil: A cohort study.

Objective: To analyze adverse fetal and neonatal outcomes of Zika virus infection by the timing of infection during pregnancy. Method: Cohort study of 190 pregnancies with 193 offspring with a positive RT-PCR test for Zika virus (March/2016 to April/2017).

Results: Death or defects related to congenital Zika virus infection were identified in 37.

Breast cancer in Thailand: policy and health system challenges to universal healthcare.

Thailand has successfully implemented Universal Health Coverage (UHC) and embedded the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development into its Thailand 4.0 policy. Breast cancer is a growing challenge in Thailand, as it is globally.

Persistent and Emerging Pneumococcal Carriage Serotypes in a Rural Gambian Community After 10 Years of Pneumococcal Conjugate Vaccine Pressure.

Background: The continuing impact of pneumococcal conjugate vaccines (PCVs) in regions with high pneumococcal transmission is threatened by the persistence of vaccine serotypes (VTs) and the emergence of nonvaccine serotypes (NVTs).

Methods: In 2016, we conducted a cross-sectional carriage survey (CSS5) in a community where PCV7 was first introduced in 2006 during a cluster-randomized trial conducted before nationwide introduction of PCV7 (2009) and PCV13 (2011). We estimated prevalence of PCV13 VT and NVT by age and compared these with earlier surveys before (CSS0), during (CSS1-3), and after the trial but before PCV13 (CSS4).

How antibiotics are used in pig farming: a mixed-methods study of pig farmers, feed mills and veterinarians in Thailand.

Background: Rising global concern about antimicrobial resistance has drawn attention to the use of antibiotics in livestock. Understanding the current usage of antibiotics in these animals is essential for effective interventions on the optimisation of antibiotic use. However, to date few studies have been conducted in low- and middle-income countries.

Measuring management practices in India's district public health bureaucracy.

Weak management is widely recognised as a key impediment to scaling-up coverage of health interventions and ensuring health systems are responsive to population needs. Yet there is scant evidence linking management practices in the public administration to effective health service delivery. We report on the development of a tool to measure management practices in India's district health bureaucracy.

The inter-annual variability of heat-related mortality in nine European cities (1990-2010).

Background: The association between heat and daily mortality and its temporal variation are well known. However, few studies have analyzed the inter-annual variations in both the risk estimates and impacts of heat. The aim is to estimate inter-annual variations in the effect of heat for a fixed temperature range, on mortality in 9 European cities included in the PHASE (Public Health Adaptation Strategies to Extreme weather events) project for the period 1990-2010.

Understanding the implementation of maternity waiting homes in low- and middle-income countries: a qualitative thematic synthesis.

Background: Maternity waiting homes (MWHs) are accommodations located near a health facility where women can stay towards the end of pregnancy and/or after birth to enable timely access to essential childbirth care or care for complications. Although MWHs have been implemented for over four decades, different operational models exist. This secondary thematic +analysis explores factors related to their implementation.

Harm reduction and e-cigarettes: Distorting the approach.

Some supporters of electronic cigarettes have argued that they should be considered a form of harm reduction, analogous to that which has been successful with narcotics. In this viewpoint, we contend that this argument is based on highly selective use of the evidence, coupled with a fundamental misunderstanding of a comprehensive harm minimisation strategy. This includes not only harm reduction but also reduction in demand and supply-two elements that are explicitly rejected by many advocates of electronic cigarettes.

Circadian variation in acute myocardial infarct size assessed by cardiovascular magnetic resonance in reperfused STEMI patients.

Objective: Clinical studies using serum cardiac biomarkers to investigate a circadian variation in acute myocardial infarct (MI) size in ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) patients reperfused by primary percutaneous coronary intervention (PPCI) have produced mixed results. We aimed to investigate this phenomenon using acute MI size measured by cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR).

Methods: Patient-level data was obtained from 4 randomized controlled trials investigating the MI-limiting effects of cardioprotective therapies in this pooled analysis.

Cash transfers, maternal depression and emotional well-being: Quasi-experimental evidence from India's Janani Suraksha Yojana programme.

Maternal depression is an important public health concern. We investigated whether a national-scale initiative that provides cash transfers to women giving birth in government health facilities, the Janani Suraksha Yojana (JSY), reduced maternal depression in India's largest state, Uttar Pradesh. Using primary data on 1695 women collected in early 2015, our quasi-experimental design exploited the fact that some women did not receive the JSY cash due to administrative problems in its disbursement - reasons that are unlikely to be correlated with determinants of maternal depression.

Quantifying the Area at Risk in Reperfused ST-Segment-Elevation Myocardial Infarction Patients Using Hybrid Cardiac Positron Emission Tomography-Magnetic Resonance Imaging.

Background: Hybrid positron emission tomography and magnetic resonance allows the advantages of magnetic resonance in tissue characterizing the myocardium to be combined with the unique metabolic insights of positron emission tomography. We hypothesized that the area of reduced myocardial glucose uptake would closely match the area at risk delineated by T2 mapping in ST-segment-elevation myocardial infarction patients.

Methods And Results: Hybrid positron emission tomography and magnetic resonance using (18)F-fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) for glucose uptake was performed in 21 ST-segment-elevation myocardial infarction patients at a median of 5 days.

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 indirect effects of subsidised healthcare in rural Ghana.

Social networks provide a channel through which health policies and programmes can affect those with close social ties to the intended beneficiaries. We provide experimental evidence on the indirect effects of heavily subsidised healthcare. By exploiting data on 2151 households from a randomised study conducted in a rural district of Ghana in 2005, we estimate the extent to which social networks, defined by religion, influence the uptake of primary care services.

Protocol for the evaluation of a social franchising model to improve maternal health in Uttar Pradesh, India.

Background: Social franchising is the fastest growing market-based approach to organising and improving the quality of care in the private sector of low- and middle-income countries, but there is limited evidence on its impact and cost-effectiveness. The "Sky" social franchise model was introduced in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh in late 2013.

Methods/design: Difference-in-difference methods will be used to estimate the impact of the social franchise programme on the quality and coverage of health services along the continuum of care for reproductive, maternal and newborn health.

Delivering medical abortion at scale: a study of the retail market for medical abortion in Madhya Pradesh, India.

Background: Medical abortion (mifepristone and misoprostol) has the potential to contribute to reduced maternal mortality but little is known about the provision or quality of advice for medical abortion through the private retail sector. We examined the availability of medical abortion and the practices of pharmacists in India, where abortion has been legal since 1972.

Methods: We interviewed 591 pharmacists in 60 local markets in city, town and rural areas of Madhya Pradesh.