BACKGROUND The Integrated Management of Childhood Illness Strategy (IMCI) is effective in improving management of sick children, and thus child survival. It is currently recommended that in-service IMCI case management training (ICMT) occur over 11-days; that the participant: facilitator ratio should be </=4:1 and that at least 30% of ICMT time be spent on clinical practice. In 2006-2007, appro...

INTRODUCTION Current evidence on the root-causes of deaths among children younger than 5 years is critical to direct international efforts to improve child survival, focus on health promotion and achieve Millennium Development Goal 4. We report a hospital-based estimate for 2005-2007 of the major causes of death in children in this age-group in south-west Nigeria. METHODS We used retrospectiv...

Merriel et al. analysed the WHO International Clinical Trials Registry Platform (ICTRP) for trials that are within the broad remit of obstetricians and gynaecologists, and conducted in lowand middle-income countries between 2012 and 2014. They identified 509 registered trials evenly distributed across obstetrics and gynaecology. The question we must ask is whether the numbers represent a low le...

BACKGROUND 3 years before the 2015 deadline, Ethiopia achieved Millennium Development Goal 4. The under-5 mortality decreased 69%, from 205 deaths per 1000 livebirths in 1990 to 64 deaths per 1000 livebirths in 2013. To understand the underlying factors that contributed to the success in achieving MDG4, Ethiopia was selected as a Countdown to 2015 case study. METHODS We used a set of compleme...

A safe, reliable, affordable, and easily accessible water supply is essential for good health. Yet, for several decades, about a billion people in developing countries have not had a safe and sustainable water supply. It has been estimated that a minimum of 7.5 litres of water per person per day is required in the home for drinking, preparing food, and personal hygiene, the most basic requireme...

Congenital diseases of dysmotility are a serious problem in children and, potentially, also in adults. Advances have recently been made in understanding one cause of pediatric dysmotility, Hirschsprung’s disease, which is the most visible congenital defect of the enteric nervous system (ENS). Although the diagnosis of Hirschsprung’s disease is sometimes missed, and the length of involved gut ma...

The reduction in mortality in children younger than 5 years over recent decades has been impressive, but shortfalls still exist in achievement of the MDG4 targets. Acceleration of progress for child survival would need increased emphasis on quality care at and around birth, and timely and effi cacious treatment for neonatal infections, diarrhoea, and pneumonia in regions where these causes cont...

The reduction in mortality in children younger than 5 years over recent decades has been impressive, but shortfalls still exist in achievement of the MDG4 targets. Acceleration of progress for child survival would need increased emphasis on quality care at and around birth, and timely and effi cacious treatment for neonatal infections, diarrhoea, and pneumonia in regions where these causes cont...

W ith the draft sequence of the human genome came the surprise that there were fewer genes than imagined. From where does complexity spring if not from the number of genes in an organism? RNA splicing provides at least part of the answer. Pre-mRNA splicing by alternative pathways is well known to expand an organism’s protein diversity by generating distinct protein isoforms. Beyond cis-splicing...

withheld at the request of the investigator. The Use of Positron Emission Tomography–computed Tomography (PET–CT) to Visualize the Substrate of Sudden Cardiac Death Principal Investigator: Stephan Danik, Massachusetts General Hospital Co-Investigator(s): Barrett Conor, Massachusetts General Hospital Sanjeev Francis, Massachusetts General Hospital Quynh Truong, Massachusetts General Hospital The...