Alternative complement pathway inhibition does not abrogate meningococcal killing by serum of vaccinated individuals (Publications)
and D, C3, C5 and MASP-2 inhibitors. B meningococci were not included in this study since the immune response against protein-based vaccines is more complex. Unsurprisingly, inhibition of C5 abrogated killing [...] conditions can be treated with monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) that bind to the complement component C5 and prevent formation of the membrane attack complex (MAC). While MAC is involved in uncontrolled lysis
New antiparasitic flexible triaryl diamidines, their prodrugs and aza analogues: synthesis, <em>in vitro</em> and<em> in vivo</em> biological... (Publications)
of > 60 days upon a 4 × 5 mg/kg dose i. p. treatment. Moreover, thermal melting analysis measurement ΔT(m) for this series of diamidines/poly (dA-dT) complexes fell between 0.5 and 19 °C with 6c showing [...] amidines (6a-c, 13a,b and 17), their aza analogues (23 and 27) and respective methoxyamidine prodrugs (5, 7, 12a,b, 22 and 26). All diamidines were assessed in vitro against Trypanosoma brucei rhodesiense
Health of farming communities prior to modification of the occupational environment through a watershed development project in Kolar, India (Publications)
the age of 5 years in the four project villages and four comparison villages. Results: Respondents (n = 333) reported household‑level occurrences of VBDs (chikungunya, 3.3%; and dengue, 1.5%), consuming [...] consuming unsafe water (54.5%) and frequent pesticide application in fields (26.7%). The prevalence of child underweight was 23.8%. Conclusions: VBDs, poor water quality and child undernutrition were found to
Financially incentivized knowledge assessments to improve provider compliance with treatment guidelines: a cluster-randomized controlled trial (Publications)
BACKGROUND: Despite increasing access to health care, under-5 mortality remains high in many parts of Sub-Saharan Africa. Interventions to improve quality of care have mostly focused on additional training [...] chosen for this study. All health care workers providing outpatient services to children under age 5 in these facilities will be included in the study. Facilities were randomized with equal probability [...] financing to health care worker performance on knowledge assessments can...
Leishmanicidal and cholinesterase inhibiting activities of phenolic compounds from <em>Allanblackia monticola</em> and <em>Symphonia globulifera</em> (Publications)
xanthones: allanxanthone A (5), xanthone V-1 (6) and globulixanthone C (7) as active constituents. Compounds 1 and 6 were isolated from S. globulifera leaves, while compounds 2-5 were obtained from A. monticola [...] guttiferone F (4) (IC50 = 2.77 and 3.50 mu M, respectively) were more active than galanthamine (ICSO = 8.5) against BChE
Resource utilization and hospital cost of HIV/AIDS care in Italy in the era of highly active antiretroviral therapy (Publications)
proportion of patients receiving HAART in the third and fourth group increased from 37.1% to 56.5% and from 15.3% to 31.5%. The number of hospital days observed in this study was much lower than previously published [...] costs (L = Italian Lire, 1997 exchange rate US$ 1 = 1,704 Italian Lire) were L.23,725,584 (US$ 13,923.5), L.15,208,287 (US$ 8,925.1), L.11,942,761 (US$ 7,008.7) and L.7,660,942 (US$ 4,495.9) for the four
Follow-up of the Swiss Cohort Study on Air Pollution and Lung Diseases in Adults (SAPALDIA 2) 1991-2003: methods and characterization of participants (Publications)
and to have reported respiratory symptoms in the first assessment. Average weight had increased by 5.5 kg in 11 years and 28% of smokers in 1991 had quit by the time of the reassessment [...] 8047 individuals (86% of alive persons), 6 528 individuals (70%) agreed to the health examination and 5 973 subjects (62%) completed the entire protocol. Non-participants in the reassessment were on average
Field issues related to effectiveness of insecticide-treated nets in Tanzania (Publications)
environment. Finally, bioassays were carried out with Anopheles gambiae on polyester netting with 0.5, 2, 5, 10 and 30 mg/m(2) of deltamethrin, alphacypermethrin and lambdacyhalothrin to assess the effectiveness [...] the 20% of nets that were reported as having been re-treated within the last 12 months had less than 5 mg/m(2) of insecticide. According to the World Health Organization this is insufficient to be effective
One-hour rule-in and rule-out of acute myocardial infarction using high-sensitivity cardiac troponin I (Publications)
developed in the derivation cohort to the validation cohort, 50.5% of patients could be classified as "rule-out", 19% as "rule-in", 30.5% as "observe ". In the validation cohort the negative predictive [...] positive predictive value (PPV) for acute myocardial infarction in the "rule-in" zone was 75.6% (95%CI, 68.5-81.8%), respectively. NPV of the 1h-algorithm was higher compared to the classical dichotomous inte
Limited value of whole blood Xpert® MTB/RIF for diagnosing tuberculosis in children (Publications)
14 (6.0%) had culture-confirmed tuberculosis. The Xpert(R) MTB/RIF assay detected M. tuberculosis in 5/232 (2.2%) blood samples with 1 (0.4%) error reading and presumably 1 (0.4%) false-positive result. [...] assay in children with culture-confirmed (1/14) versus no tuberculosis (1/117) was 7.1% (95% CI, 1.3-31.5). Three of the five Xpert(R) MTB/RIF positive patients had negative cultures, but were classified as [...] against a composite reference standard (culture-confirmed, highly probable or...