OBJECTIVES To assess impact of daily and intermittent iron-folate (IFA) supplementation on physical work capacity of underprivileged schoolgirls in Vadodara. DESIGN Randomized controlled trial. SETTING Municipal Primary schools. PARTICIPANTS Schoolgirls (n=163) in the age group of 9-13 years. INTERVENTION Three randomly selected schools were given IFA tablets (100 mg elemental iron + 0....

UNLABELLED In view of high iron needs for adolescent growth, this paper studied the impact of daily vs. intermittent (once and twice weekly) iron folic acid (IFA) supplementation on hemoglobin levels and pubertal growth among primary school girls in early adolescence (9-13 years) of Vadodara, India. Methods. Hemoglobin (Hb), height and weight of the girls were assessed using standard methods. I...

Incomplete Freund's adjuvant (IFA) is used as standard adjuvant for the production of specific antibodies. In this study, we evaluated the ability of supplementation of IFA with 1alpha,25-dihydroxyvitamin D(3) [1alpha,25(OH)(2)D(3)] or C-phosphate-guanosine-oligodeoxynucleotide (CpG-ODN) to enhance the quantity of specific IgY found in the eggs of hyperimmunized laying hens. In this comparative...

INTRODUCTION Early neonatal deaths account for 75% of neonatal deaths globally. Antenatal iron-folic acid (IFA) supplementation has significantly reduced the risk of early neonatal deaths in China and Indonesia. We investigated the impact of antenatal IFA supplements on the risk of early neonatal deaths in Nepal and Pakistan during the last decade. METHODS Data from the most recent singleton ...

BACKGROUND Identification of Burkholderia pseudomallei, the cause of melioidosis, using routine methods takes several days. Use of a monoclonal antibody-based immunofluorescent assay (IFA) on positive blood cultures may speed diagnosis. METHODS We tested the diagnostic accuracy of the IFA on 545 blood cultures positive for Gram-negative organisms at Udon Thani Hospital, Thailand, between June...

Epstein-Barr virus (EBV), a human herpesvirus, affects up to 95% of adults. Diagnosis of acute EBV infection can be challenging and often relies on the serologic antibody pattern to 3 distinct antigens, most often determined by indirect fluorescent antibody (IFA), enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISAs), and, more recently, multiplex assays. We compared a multiplex assay for the simultaneou...

CONTEXT Almost 70% of young children in India are anemic. Current policy recommends routine iron-folic acid (IFA) supplementation to all under 5 children. A potential risk of this approach is an increase in infectious diseases in general, and malaria in particular. EVIDENCE ACQUISITION An extensive literature search including PubMed, the World Health Organization (WHO) document library, and t...

BACKGROUND The study objective was to understand community preparedness for iron and folic acid (IFA) supplementation early in pregnancy and to inform the design of a large-scale trial of early introduction of IFA supplementation in rural Bangladesh. METHODS 66 in-depth interviews (pregnant women, husbands, and older women in the household), 20 key-informant interviews, 3 focus-group discussi...