PLoS medicine
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If you could only choose five psychotropic medicines: updating the interagency emergency health kit.
Mark van Ommeren and colleagues describe how they chose five psychotropic medicines to add to the Interagency Emergency Health Kit, which is a box with medicines and medical supplies designed to help people in major humanitarian emergencies.
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Lawrence Gostin and colleagues discuss their work on the Joint Action and Learning Initiative on National and Global Responsibilities for Health (JALI), which aims to secure a global health agreement (such as a Framework Convention on Global Health) that would inform post-Millennium Development Goal global health commitments.
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In the second article in a six-part PLoS Medicine series on Migration & Health, Brian Gushulak and Douglas MacPherson discuss the pre-departure phase of migration and the specific health risks and policy needs associated with this phase.
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Randomized Controlled Trial
The impact of retail-sector delivery of artemether-lumefantrine on malaria treatment of children under five in Kenya: a cluster randomized controlled trial.
It has been proposed that artemisinin-based combination therapy (ACT) be subsidised in the private sector in order to improve affordability and access. This study in western Kenya aimed to evaluate the impact of providing subsidized artemether-lumefantrine (AL) through retail providers on the coverage of prompt, effective antimalarial treatment for febrile children aged 3-59 months. ⋯ Subsidizing ACT in the retail sector can significantly increase ACT coverage for reported fevers in rural areas. Further research is needed on the impact and cost-effectiveness of such subsidy programmes at a national scale.
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Aripiprazole, a second-generation antipsychotic medication, has been increasingly used in the maintenance treatment of bipolar disorder and received approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for this indication in 2005. Given its widespread use, we sought to critically review the evidence supporting the use of aripiprazole in the maintenance treatment of bipolar disorder and examine how that evidence has been disseminated in the scientific literature. ⋯ A single trial by Keck et al. represents the entirety of the literature on the use of aripiprazole for the maintenance treatment of bipolar disorder. Although careful review identifies four critical limitations to the trial's interpretation and overall utility, the trial has been uncritically cited in the subsequent scientific literature. Please see later in the article for the Editors' Summary.