BACKGROUND Hepatitis B infection (HBV) is a major Public Health Problem. Perinatal transmission can be prevented with the identification of HBsAg(+) women and administration of immunoprophylaxis to their newborns. A national prevention programme for HBV with universal screening of pregnant women and vaccination of infants is in effect since 1998 in Greece. METHODS To evaluate adherence to the...

The "Kraepelinian dichotomy" between schizophrenia (SZ) and bipolar disorder (BD) has been a dominant force in our thinking on the classification of these mental disorders. Emerging evidence indicates that these 2 disorders overlap significantly with regard to epidemiology, clinical presentation, genetic susceptibility, structural neuroanatomy, and treatment. Prenatal infection and immunologic ...

PURPOSE to analyze the clinical and epidemiological profile, the outcome of pregnancy and the vertical transmission of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-infected pregnant women receiving prenatal care at the University Hospital of Santa Maria (HUSM). METHODS A prospective study was conducted on 139 HIV-infected pregnant women attended at the High-Risk Prenatal Care Outpatient Clinic of HUSM,...

In this review, we provide a synopsis of work on the epidemiologic evidence for prenatal infection in the etiology of schizophrenia and autism. In birth cohort studies conducted by our group and others, in utero exposure to infectious agents, prospectively obtained after biomarker assays of archived maternal sera and by obstetric records was related to an increased risk of schizophrenia. Thus f...

A recent rise in the incidence of cancer of the testis in affluent countries and affluent social strata suggests either an iatrogenic effect analogous with adenocarcinoma of the vagina or a prenatal infection analogous with congenital rubella syndrome. Three samples were assembled, two based on registration and one on death certification, and dates of birth were examined for the presence of ste...

OBJECTIVE To identify the frequency of intracranial hemorrhage and its associated factors in premature newborns. METHODS A cross-sectional study based on a survey of medical records of premature neonates submitted to transfontanellar ultrasound at a hospital located in a southern neighborhood of the city of São Paulo, in 2007. RESULTS A 50% rate of intracranial hemorrhage was found among pr...

Human cytomegalovirus (CMV) is the most common cause of viral intrauterine infection and fetal damage largely attributable to maternal primary infection. Most cases of congenital CMV infection in twins reported in the literature involved only 1 twin. We assessed the validity of polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and quantitative PCR on amniotic fluid (AF), at 21 to 22 weeks' gestation and at least...

Third-generation enzyme immunoassays start to de tect anti-HIV antibodies within 20–22 days after exposure; fourthgeneration enzyme immunoassays, which test for p24 antigen and anti-HIV antibodies, can yield positive re sults within 16–18 days. RNA nucleic acid amplification testing starts to de tect HIV infection within 7–14 days. At $75 per test, these RNA tests are too costly for routine use...

remains to be clarifi ed. However, our previous hypothesis that prenatal or perinatal transient infection was an unlikely mode of virus acquisition needs to be modifi ed because PARV4 infection in newborns has recently been demonstrated (10). Although we lacked IgM and IgG serologic data to interpret our fi ndings, our study suggests that PARV4 genotype 3 infection might be characterized by vir...