PLoS neglected tropical diseases
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Systemic upregulation of inflammatory cytokines is characteristic of critical severe hand, foot, and mouth disease (HFMD) with pulmonary edema. Thus, immunomodulatory medicines such as steroids, including methylprednisolone, have been proposed to treat patients with severe HFMD in China, because it is postulated that inflammatory cytokines play a role in the development of severe complications. This study is to further investigate the inflammatory response in the relatively mild HFMD patients, and whether steroid treatment has a beneficial effect on the suppression of inflammation in HFMD patients. ⋯ Whether steroid treatment has any beneficial effect on the prognosis of HFMD patients requires to be further investigated.
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Randomized Controlled Trial
The easiest children to reach are most likely to be infected with ocular Chlamydia trachomatis in trachoma endemic areas of Niger.
Control programs for trachoma use mass antibiotic distributions to treat ocular Chlamydia trachomatis in an effort to eliminate this disease worldwide. To determine whether children infected with ocular Chlamydia are more likely to present later for examination than those who are uninfected, we compare the order of presentation for examination of children 0-5 years, and the presence of ocular Chlamydia by PCR in 4 villages in Niger where trachoma is endemic. ⋯ This study demonstrates that even if the WHO recommended 80% treatment coverage is not reached in certain settings, children 0-5 years with the greatest probability of ocular Chlamydia have higher odds of receiving attention because they are the first to present. These results suggest there may be diminishing returns when using scarce resources to track down the last few children in a mass treatment program.
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The soil-transmitted threadworm, Strongyloides stercoralis, is one of the most neglected among the so-called neglected tropical diseases (NTDs). We reviewed studies of the last 20 years on S. stercoralis's global prevalence in general populations and risk groups. ⋯ Our findings show high infection prevalence rates in the general population in selected countries and geographical regions. S. stercoralis infection is prominent in several risk groups. Adequate information on the prevalence is still lacking from many countries. However, current information underscore that S. stercoralis must not be neglected. Further assessments in socio-economic and ecological settings are needed and integration into global helminth control is warranted.
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Randomized Controlled Trial
Impact of health education on soil-transmitted helminth infections in schoolchildren of the Peruvian Amazon: a cluster-randomized controlled trial.
To control soil-transmitted helminth (STH) infections, the World Health Organization recommends school-based deworming programs with a health hygiene education component. The effect of such health hygiene interventions, however, has not been adequately studied. The objective of the present study was to determine the effectiveness of a health hygiene education intervention on the occurrence of STH re-infection four months post-de-worming. ⋯ A school-based health hygiene education intervention was effective in increasing STH knowledge and in reducing Ascaris lumbricoides infection. The benefits of school-based periodic deworming programs are likely to be enhanced when a sustained health hygiene education intervention is integrated into school curricula.
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This study designed and applied accessible yet systematic methods to generate baseline information about the patterns and structure of Canada's neglected tropical disease (NTD) research network; a network that, until recently, was formed and functioned on the periphery of strategic Canadian research funding. ⋯ The publication specialties, composition, and position of NTD researchers within Canada's NTD country network provide evidence that while Canadian researchers currently remain the overall gatekeepers of the NTD research they generate; there is opportunity to leverage existing research collaborations and help advance regions and NTD areas that are currently under-developed.