Sub-Saharan Africa is endemic for Kaposi's sarcoma-associated herpesvirus (KSHV) and there is a high rate of early childhood infection; however, the transmission sources are not well characterized. We examined household members as potential KSHV transmission sources to young children in the KSHV-endemic country of Zambia. To this end, we enrolled and followed Zambian households with at least on...

Sub-Saharan Africa is endemic for Kaposi’s sarcoma-associated herpesvirus (KSHV) and there is a high rate of early childhood infection; however, the transmission sources are not well characterized. We examined household members as potential KSHV transmission sources to young children in the KSHV-endemic country of Zambia. To this end, we enrolled and followed Zambian households with at least on...

Transmission of Trichinella to humans is still a global public health concern. Although theoretically possible, vertical transmission of Trichinella has rarely been investigated. In June 2005 an outbreak of trichinellosis was reported in Udomxay province, the Northern Lao Peoples' Democratic Republic (PDR). In February and March 2006 we performed a study of all pregnant and lactating mothers an...

This paper examines the ethical, economic and social issues that should be considered when antiretroviral interventions are being planned to reduce mother-to-child transmission of the human immunodeficiency virus. Interventions aiming to reduce mother-to-child transmission should be concerned with the rights of both the child and the mother. Women should not be seen as vectors of transmission b...

background the rate of mother-to-infant hepatitis c virus (hcv) transmission is relatively low, however, this mode of infection is the most important route for childhood hcv involvement. the chances of transmission are increased by the level of maternal hcv viraemia and maternal human immunodeficiency virus (hiv) co infection. objectives the objective of the present study was to determine the p...

Pneumococcal vaccine-naïve mother-child dyads in South Africa had nasopharyngeal swabs taken 9 times within the first 2 years of the children's lives between January 2007 and May 2009. To quantify the strength of the association of serotype-specific carriage in mother-child dyads, a stochastic transmission model was fitted to the data. Children were more susceptible to individual serotypes incl...

BACKGROUND Despite free healthcare to pregnant women and children under the age of six, access to healthcare has failed to secure better child health outcomes amongst all children of the country. There is growing evidence of socioeconomic gradient on child health outcomes METHODS The objectives of this study were to measure inequalities in child mortality, HIV transmission and vaccination cov...