A descriptive record-based review of adverse events following immunization (AEFI) was carried out in Oman using the national database for the period 1996-2005. A total of 790 adverse event reports were received with an annual rate during the review period of 33.7 per 100 000 population or 10.8 per 100 000 doses administered. There were no reported deaths. The most frequently reported AEFI were ...

BACKGROUND Globally, pneumonia is a leading cause of mortality and morbidity in children younger than 5 years. Underlying HIV infection is an important risk factor for pneumonia morbidity and mortality in children. There are, however, no global or country level estimates of pneumonia burden in HIV-infected children. We assessed the role of HIV in pneumonia incidence and mortality and estimated ...

BACKGROUND Data about influenza mortality burden in northern China are limited. This study estimated mortality burden in Beijing associated with seasonal influenza from 2007 to 2013 and the 2009 H1N1 pandemic. METHODS We estimated influenza-associated excess mortality by fitting a negative binomial model using weekly mortality data as the outcome of interest with the percent of influenza-posi...

OBJECTIVE To analyse the prevalence of fetal and infant deaths due to birth defects in Korea and those trends according to maternal age. DESIGN Retrospective national cohort study SETTING: Korean Vital Statistics database of the Korean Statistical Information Service, between 2009 and 2015. PARTICIPANTS 2176 infant deaths and 4343 fetal deaths caused by birth defects, among 3 181 145 total ...

OBJECTIVE To examine the feasibility and effectiveness of community-based maternal mortality surveillance in rural Ghana, where most information on maternal deaths usually comes from retrospective surveys and hospital records. METHODS In 2013, community-based surveillance volunteers used a modified reproductive age mortality survey (RAMOS 4+2) to interview family members of women of reproduct...

BACKGROUND In Botswana the maternal mortality ratio in 2010 was 163 per 100 000 live births. It is a priority to reduce this ratio to meet Millennium Development Goal 5 target of 21 per 100 000 live births. OBJECTIVE To investigate the underlying circumstances of maternal deaths in Botswana.Method. Fifty-six case notes from the 80 reported maternal deaths in 2010 were reviewed. Five clinician...

The fact that we as humans are bipeds and locomote over the ground with one foot in contact (walking), no feet in contact (running), or both feet in contact (standing) creates a major challenge to our balance control system. Because two-thirds of our body mass is located two-thirds of body height above the ground we are an inherently unstable system unless a control system is continuously actin...

Two new reports conclude that the health costs of war are unaffordable A war on Iraq could cause half a million deaths and devastate the lives, health and environment of the combatants, Iraqi civilians, and people in neighbouring countries and beyond. The details are examined in an independent report entitled Collateral damage: the health and environmental costs of war on Iraq, prepared by heal...

AIM To estimate the impact of smoking-attributable cancer mortality on trends in cancer mortality in New South Wales (NSW), Australia, between 1972 and 2008. STUDY TYPE The study is a retrospective analysis of cancer mortality in NSW using NSW Central Cancer Registry data. METHODS Smoking-attributable cancer deaths were estimated using the smoking impact ratio method, which provides an indi...

582 www.thelancet.com Vol 389 February 11, 2017 Being pregnant in the UK has never been safer. The latest Confi dential Enquiries into Maternal Deaths and Morbidity reported that fewer than one in 10 000 women died in or around pregnancy in the UK during 2012–14 (241 women within the triennium), the lowest rate recorded since such surveillance began in 1952 in England and Wales. This maternal m...