Noncommunicable diseases and injuries (NCDIs) account for nearly 70% of deaths worldwide, with an estimated 75% of these deaths occurring in low- and middle-income countries. Globally, the burden of disease from noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) is most often caused by the "big 4," namely: diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, cancer, and chronic lung diseases. However, in Malawi, these 4 conditions...

BACKGROUND The shortage of doctors in all specialties in Malawi is particularly severe in rural areas. Contributory factors are the low number of students graduating each year, migration of doctors, and the preference of new graduates for practising in urban areas. Attempts to increase the output from Malawi's only medical school are insufficient to meet the country's healthcare needs. METHOD...

The scale-up of antiretroviral therapy (ART) in Malawi was based on a public health approach adapted to its resource-poor setting, with principles and practices borrowed from the successful tuberculosis control framework. From 2004 to 2015, the number of new patients started on ART increased from about 3000 to over 820,000. Despite being a small country, Malawi has made a significant contributi...

BACKGROUND There is a growing awareness of the importance of surgical disease within global health. We hypothesised that surgical disease in low income countries predominantly affects young adults and may therefore have a significant economic impact. METHODS We retrospectively reviewed all surgical admission data from two rural government district hospitals in two different sub-Saharan Africa...

BACKGROUND Supplementing pregnant and lactating mothers with small quantity lipid-based nutrient supplements (SQ-LNS) has resulted in improvements in birth outcomes in some low-income settings. In order to be effective, SQ-LNS must be consumed regularly over sustained periods. METHODS The objective was to assess and compare acceptability of and adherence to SQ-LNS consumption among pregnant a...

a r t i c l e i n f o Numerous biological and chemical paleorecords have been used to infer paleoclimate, lake level fluctuation and faunal composition from the drill cores obtained from Lake Malawi, Africa. However, fish fossils have never been used to examine changes in African Great Lake vertebrate aquatic communities nor as indicators of changing paleolimnological conditions. Here we presen...

References 1. Platt L, Easterbrook P, Gower E, McDonald B, Sabin K, McGowan C, et al. Prevalence and burden of HCV co-infection in people living with HIV: a global systematic review and meta-analysis. Lancet Infect Dis. 2016;16:797–808. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S1473-3099(15)00485-5 2. Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS. Malawi: HIV and AIDS estimates (2015). [cited 2016 Jul 7]. http:/...

We investigated the presence of 4 human polyomaviruses (PyVs) (WU, KI, Merkel cell, and Malawi) in respiratory specimens from a community-based birth cohort. These viruses typically were acquired when children were ≈1 year of age. We provide evidence that WU, KI, and Malawi, but not Merkel cell PyVs, might have a role in respiratory infections.

BACKGROUND Trachoma, one of the neglected tropical diseases is suspected to be endemic in Malawi. OBJECTIVES To determine the prevalence of trachoma and associated risk factors in central and southern Malawi. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS A population based survey conducted in randomly selected clusters in Chikwawa district (population 438,895), southern Malawi and Mchinji district (popula...

BACKGROUND BCG vaccination of infants is thought to provide good protection in all settings. This study investigated whether Malawian infants made weaker responses across a cytokine panel after BCG vaccination, compared with UK infants. METHODS Diluted whole-blood samples were cultured with Mycobacterium tuberculosis purified protein derivative for 6 days from BCG-vaccinated infants 3 months ...