With the advent of new vaccines targeted to highly endemic diseases in low- and middle-income countries (LMIC) and with the expansion of vaccine manufacturing globally, there is an urgent need to establish an infrastructure to evaluate the benefit-risk profiles of vaccines in LMIC. Fortunately the usual decade(s)-long time gap between introduction of new vaccines in high and low income countrie...

BACKGROUND The global response to HIV has started over 18 million persons on life-saving antiretroviral therapy (ART)-the vast majority in low- and middle-income countries (LMIC)-yet substantial gaps remain: up to 40% of persons living with HIV (PLHIV) know their status, while another 30% of those who enter care are inadequately retained after starting treatment. Identifying strategies to enhan...

UNLABELLED BACKGROUND Maternal mortality and morbidity remains high in many low- and middle-income countries (LMIC). Gestational Diabetes Mellitus (GDM) represents an underestimated and unrecognised impediment to optimal maternal health in LMIC; left untreated - it also has severe consequences for the offspring. A better understanding of the barriers hindering detection and treatment of GDM ...

Controlled human infection model (CHIM) studies have pivotal importance in vaccine development, being useful for proof of concept, pathogenesis, down-selection and immunogenicity studies. To date, however, they have seldom been carried out in low and middle income countries (LMIC), which is where the greatest burden of vaccine preventable illness is found. This workshop discussed the benefits...

BACKGROUND Developing evidence for the implementation and scaling up of mental healthcare in low- and middle-income countries (LMIC) like Ethiopia is an urgent priority. AIMS To outline a mental healthcare plan (MHCP), as a scalable template for the implementation of mental healthcare in rural Ethiopia. METHOD A mixed methods approach was used to develop the MHCP for the three levels of the...

BACKGROUND Given the high prevalence of depression in primary health care (PHC), the use of screening instruments has been recommended. Both brief and long depression screening instruments have been validated in low and middle income countries (LMIC), including within HIV care settings. However, it remains unknown whether the brief instruments validated in LMIC are as accurate as the long ones....

We identify the need for a theory of demand for health insurance suited to the informal sector in lowand middle income countries (LMIC) where some 3 billion people lack health cover. Excluded from formal governance structures, they rely on informal arrangements by which rulesin-use shape choices, behaviours and decisions. We explore the fundamental assumptions of standard economic theories of d...

Systematic reviews are powerful tools for summarizing vast amounts of data in controversial areas; but their utility is limited by methodological choices and assumptions. Two systematic reviews of literature on the quality of private sector primary care in low and middle income countries (LMIC), published in the same journal within a year, reached conflicting conclusions. The difference in find...

Identification of the causative pathogen in infectious diseases is important for surveillance and to guide treatment. In low- middle-income countries (LMIC), conventional culture identification methods, including biochemical are reference-standard. Biochemical methods can lack sensitivity specificity have slow turnaround times, causing delays definitive therapy. Matrix-assisted laser desorption...

The unprecedented, successful collaborative international effort to provide universal access to HIV care, including effective antiretroviral therapy (ART), has reached a critical time point. The global economic downturn, changing donor priorities and competing priorities in the health sector threaten the capacity of various agencies to maintain support for the continued scaleup of access toward...