Publicaties

Equitable access to antiretroviral therapy (ART) for men and women with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection is a principle endorsed by most countries and funding bodies, including the U.S. President's Emergency Plan for AIDS (acquired immunodeficiency syndrome) Relief (PEPFAR) (1). To evaluate gender equity in ART access among adults (defined for this report as persons aged >/=15 years), 765,087 adult ART patient medical records from ...

BACKGROUND: The effectiveness of insecticide-treated nets in preventing malaria is threatened by developing resistance against pyrethroids. Little is known about how strongly this affects the effectiveness of vector control programmes. METHODS: Data from experimental hut studies on the effects of long-lasting, insecticidal nets (LLINs) on nine anopheline mosquito populations, with varying levels of mortality in World Health Organization ...

OBJECTIVES: To describe the occurrence of cysticercosis in patients living in rural areas of Northern Vietnam presenting clinical signs of neurocysticercosis. METHODS: Serological antigen detection, reflecting current infection with viable larval stages of Taenia solium, was used to estimate the prevalence of active cysticercosis in this patient population. RESULTS: The seroprevalence in epileptic patient population was

BACKGROUND: To achieve the goal of malaria elimination in low transmission areas such as in Cambodia, new, inexpensive, high-throughput diagnostic tools for identifying very low parasite densities in asymptomatic carriers are required. This will enable a switch from passive to active malaria case detection in the field. METHODS: DNA extraction and real-time PCR assays were implemented in an "in-house" designed mobile laboratory allowing ...

The two classical forms of human trypanosomoses are sleeping sickness due to Trypanosoma brucei gambiense or T. brucei rhodesiense, and Chagas disease due to T. cruzi. However, a number of atypical human infections caused by other T. species (or sub-species) have been reported, namely due to T. brucei brucei, T. vivax, T. congolense, T. evansi, T. lewisi, and T. lewisi-like. These cases are reviewed here. Some infections were transient in ...

Although malaria remains one of the most important infectious causes of morbidity and mortality world-wide with 40% of the global population at risk, significant progress has been made toward elimination, notably with the development and use of rapid diagnostic tests, insecticide-treated bed nets, indoor residual spraying, and artemisinin-based combination therapies (ACTs). P. falciparum infection remains the most common cause of severe ...

BACKGROUND: Adherence to effective malaria medication is extremely important in the context of Cambodia's elimination targets and drug resistance containment. Although the public sector health facilities are accessible to the local ethnic minorities of Ratanakiri province (Northeast Cambodia), their illness itineraries often lead them to private pharmacies selling "cocktails" and artemether injections, or to local diviners prescribing animal ...

BACKGROUND: Despite much success in reducing the burden of malaria in Vietnam, pockets of malaria persist and eliminating them remains an important development goal. In central Vietnam, insecticide-treated hammocks have recently been introduced to help counter the disease in the highly forested, mountainous areas, where other measures have so far been unsuccessful. This study assesses the cost-effectiveness of using long-lasting ...