Problem statement: A high mortality rate (crude mortality 43.6%) of pre-weaned dairy calves resulted in unavailability of replacement heifers in Kuwait. Dairy producers resorted to import pregnant heifers for herd replacement. This study was undertaken to investigate the effects of dam vaccination and age, serum Immunoglobulin (Ig) on disease syndromes and mortality in preweaned calves. Approac...

The demographic transition in the Arab countries of Western Asia in general has been somewhat peculiar. Total fertility rose substantially before it began its historical decline. Life expectancy rose at a very fast pace. The very high fertility rates, resulted in an extremely youthful populations which, combined with low mortality schedules, resulted in crude death rates (CDRs) of 3 to 4 per th...

Malawi is one of the countries in the sub-Saharan Africa with high prevalence of HIV/AIDS. This paper analyzes socio-demographic effects using estimates and projections by the United Nations Population Division. It compares estimates and projections for both short term (2005-2020) and also long term (1980-2050), with the reality of HIV/AIDS and without the scenario of it. Detailed comparisons a...

BACKGROUND Noroviruses are the most common cause of acute gastroenteritis across all ages worldwide. These pathogens are generally understood to exhibit a wintertime seasonality, though a systematic assessment of seasonal patterns has not been conducted in the era of modern diagnostics. METHODS We conducted a systematic review of the Pubmed Medline database for articles published between 1997...

This report presents several key demographic and maternal and infant health indicators using 2016 final birth data. Trends in the general fertility rate (the number of births per 1,000 women aged 15–44), age-specific birth rates, cesarean delivery, preterm, and triplet and higher-order multiple birth rates are presented by age of mother. For each indicator, data for 2016 are compared with 2015,...

OBJECTIVE Whether neonatal hyperbilirubinemia and/or phototherapy increase the risk of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is unclear. We sought to quantify the risk of ASD associated with elevated total serum bilirubin (TSB) levels and with phototherapy. METHODS In a retrospective cohort study of 525 409 infants born at ≥35 weeks' gestation in 15 Kaiser Permanente Northern California (KPNC) hospi...

OBJECTIVE To examine maternal and obstetric factors influencing births by cesarean section according to health care funding. METHODS A cross-sectional study with data from Southeastern Brazil. Caesarean section births from February 2011 to July 2012 were included. Data were obtained from interviews with women whose care was publicly or privately funded, and from their obstetric and neonatal r...

In a context where 46 countries now consider their fertility rate to be too low, attention is turning to the need for policy actions to increase fertility rates. This article discusses the reasons why action is required and why countries have been slow to take policy action. It then considers a wide range of possible policies and assesses them against a set of eleven social policy principles. T...

OBJECTIVES This article examines the effect of abortion legalization on fertility rates in the United States. METHODS Fertility rates were compared over time between states that varied in the timing of abortion legalization. RESULTS States legalizing abortion experienced a 4% decline in fertility relative to states where the legal status of abortion was unchanged. The relative reductions in...