BACKGROUND M. tuberculosis and helminth infection each affects one third of the world population. Helminth infections down regulate cell mediated immune responses and this may contribute to lower efficacy of BCG vaccination and higher prevalence of tuberculosis. OBJECTIVE To determine the effect of maternal helminth infection on maternal and neonatal immune function and immunity to TB. METH...

Varicella infection during the first and second trimester of pregnancy may increase the risk for congenital varicella syndrome 0.5-1.5% above the baseline risk for major malformation. Third trimester infection may lead to maternal pneumonia which can be life threatening if not treated appropriately. Varicella-zoster immune globulin (VZIG) should be administered as soon as possible preferably wi...

OBJECTIVE The objective was to study passively acquired influenza H1N1 pandemic (H1N1pdm) maternal antibody kinetics and its impact on subsequent influenza infection and vaccination in ferrets during an outbreak of the H1N1pdm. DESIGN AND MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Infectivity of the H1N1pdm in the respiratory tract of ferrets was compared with the previous seasonal A/South Dakota/6/2007 (SD07, H1...

BACKGROUND HIV-exposed newborns may be at higher risk of sepsis because of immune system aberrations, impaired maternal antibody transfer and altered exposure to pathogenic bacteria. METHODS We performed a secondary analysis of a study (clinicaltrials.gov, number NCT00136370) conducted between April 2004 and October 2007 in South Africa. We used propensity score matching to evaluate the assoc...

Maternal exposure to genital and reproductive infections has been associated with schizophrenia in previous studies. Impairments in several neuropsychological functions, including verbal memory, working memory, executive function, and fine-motor coordination occur prominently in patients with schizophrenia. The etiologies of these deficits, however, remain largely unknown. We aimed to assess wh...

Maternal viral infection is known to increase the risk for schizophrenia and autism in the offspring. Using this observation in an animal model, we find that respiratory infection of pregnant mice (both BALB/c and C57BL/6 strains) with the human influenza virus yields offspring that display highly abnormal behavioral responses as adults. As in schizophrenia and autism, these offspring display d...

Listeria monocytogenes is an important cause of maternal-fetal infections and serves as a model organism to study these important but poorly understood events. L. monocytogenes can infect non-phagocytic cells by two means: direct invasion and cell-to-cell spread. The relative contribution of each method to placental infection is controversial, as is the anatomical site of invasion. Here, we rep...

BACKGROUND Intrauterine infection is the main contributor to maternal-infantile transmission of HBV. This is a retrospective study of 158 HBsAg-positive pregnant women who delivered children from Jan 1st, 2004 to Dec.31th, 2006 in Wuhan City, China. We investigated the measures taken to prevent maternal-infantile transmission of hepatitis B virus and the infection status of children. METHODS ...

OBJECTIVES To describe the incidence, characteristics and risk factors for critical care admission with severe maternal sepsis in the UK. DESIGN National cohort study. SETTING 198 critical care units in the UK. PARTICIPANTS 646 pregnant and recently pregnant women who had severe sepsis within the first 24 hours of admission in 2008-2010. PRIMARY AND SECONDARY OUTCOME MEASURES Septic sho...

Studies in humans and animal models link maternal infection and imbalanced levels of inflammatory mediators in the foetal brain to the aetiology of neuropsychiatric disorders. In a number of animal models, it was shown that exposure to viral or bacterial agents during a period that corresponds to the second trimester in human gestation triggers brain and behavioural abnormalities in the offspri...