Vitamin D deficiency is more common in South Asia and Southeast Asia than is appreciated. Most studies defined 25-hydroxyvitamin D levels [25(OH)D] levels of less than 50 nmol/L (20 ng/mL) as vitamin D deficiency. With this cut-off level, the prevalence of vitamin D deficiency was about 70% or higher in South Asia and varied from 6-70% in Southeast Asia. The determinants for the variation of vi...

BACKGROUND Dengue virus causes one of the most significant infectious diseases in tropical and subtropical regions, notable number of which is imported into China every year. RESULTS In this study, the molecular epidemiologic and phylogenetic analyses of dengue cases imported into Guangzhou in South China during 2009-2013 were conducted. During that period, 46 imported dengue cases were ident...

Drought in South Asia affect food and water security and pose challenges for millions of people. For policy-making, planning, and management of water resources at sub-basin or administrative levels, high-resolution datasets of precipitation and air temperature are required in near-real time. We develop a high-resolution (0.05°) bias-corrected precipitation and temperature data that can be used ...

Twelve years ago we published a special theme issue of The BMJ on South Asia, the first time that the journal had devoted a full issue to a region outside Europe. Bringing together scientists and health professionals at a time of conflict in South Asia, the theme issue covered a range of topics relevant to the region. It argued that while politics divide us, opportunities exist for people to un...

The population genetic structure of the crimson snapper Lutjanus erythropterus in East Asia was examined with a 427-bp hypervariable portion of the mtDNA control region. A total of 262 samples were collected and 75 haplotypes were obtained. Neutrality tests (Tajima’s and Fu’s) suggested that Lutjanus erythropterus in East Asia had experienced a bottleneck followed by population expansion since ...

The poultry industry has for some time occupied a leading role among agricultural industries in many parts of the world. Poultry meat production has shown much higher growth than any other type of meat during the past decade. The potential for growth is obvious in view of the value of this kind of meat in modern day human diets. Chicken meat production has been on the increase in all continents...

In 2008 there were 11682 cases of oral cancer in the United Kingdom; this is 16.41/100000 population, and 3.7% of all cancers. Ethnic coding of these data is poor, and so databases were combined to report rates for the incidence of oral cancer in South Asians compared with those among other ethnic groups in West Yorkshire, 2001-2006. A total of 2157 patients with oral cancer were identified in ...

BACKGROUND Integrating consumer perspectives in developing and adapting psychological treatments (PTs) can enhance their acceptability in diverse cultural contexts. OBJECTIVE To describe the explanatory models (EMs) of depression in South Asia with the goal of informing the content of culturally appropriate PTs for this region. METHODS Two methods were used: a systematic review of published...

The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) provides widespread Aerosol Optical Depth (AOD) datasets for climatological and environmental health research. Since MODIS AOD clearly lacks coverage in orbit-scanning gaps and cloud obscuration, some applications will benefit from data recovery using multi-temporal AOD. Aimed at qualitatively describing the relationship between multi-te...

South Asia has experienced regular outbreaks of H5N1 avian influenza virus since its first detection in India and Pakistan in February, 2006. Till 2009, the outbreaks in this region were due to clade 2.2 H5N1 virus. In 2010, Nepal reported the first outbreak of clade 2.3.2 virus in South Asia. In February 2011, two outbreaks of H5N1 virus were reported in the State of Tripura in India. The anti...