The detection and management of gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) has been a source of controversy for many years. Evidence has now accumulated that dietary and insulin therapy are effective and reduce the risk of macrosomia and Caesarean section. Studies are underway to assess the impact of screening and of the different diagnostic criteria for GDM. However, studies to date have reported onl...

Worldwide, approximately 2.5 million children (95% CI: 2.2-2.6) are living with HIV infection. In 2007 alone, approximately 420,000 children (95%CI: 350,000-540,000) were newly infected with HIV - a vast majority of these infections were acquired through maternal-fetal transmission. Many of these infections could have been reduced by timely diagnosis and the delivery of interventions aimed at p...

Gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) is defined as 'carbohydrate intolerance resulting in hyperglycemia of variable severity with onset or first recognition during pregnancy'. GDM is associated with several detrimental health consequences during pregnancy and delivery for both mother and baby. The largest public health impact of GDM is through its role on future diabetes in the mother and obesit...

protected sexual encounters, contaminated needles and from mother to child during the peripartum period or while breastfeeding. Several evidence-based ap proaches are used for preventing HIV transmission that can be broadly categorized into pharmacologic and nonpharmacologic strategies. Here, we review the evidence and clinical practice for pharmacologic strategies employed to prevent HIV trans...

OBJECTIVE To determine the operational effectiveness of the South African programme for preventing mother-to-child transmission (PMTCT) of HIV in reducing rates of early transmission of infection. METHODS Participants were mother-infant pairs who participated in the South African PMTCT programme between October 2002 and November 2004. This was a prospective cohort study. Three sites in differ...

OBJECTIVE To investigate the substance use and sexual behavior of adolescents in multicultural families compared with adolescents in Korean families in South Korea. METHODS Data from the 2013 Korean Youth Risk Behavior Web-Based Survey collected from 66,591 adolescents aged 12-18 years (mean age 14.89±1.76 years) were analyzed. We classified the adolescents into four groups: those whose fathe...

103 In this issue of the Medical Journal of Malaysia, Ng et al report on the HBsAg prevalence rates of new students enrolled for undergraduate and postgraduate studies in the faculties of Medicine and Dentistry of University of Malaya, during the period from 2005 to 2011 . On the whole, the HBsAg prevalence rate was 0.62% (18/ 2923 students) but the rate was lower at 0.20% (3/1533) for those bo...

On 14 December 2001, the High Court of South Africa delivered its judgment in Treatment Action Campaign et al v Minister of Health et al, ruling that the government was in breach of its constitutional obligations and must promptly develop and implement a comprehensive national program to prevent mother-to-child transmission of HIV, including making antiretroviral drugs available for this purpos...

INTRODUCTION Various interventions to prevent mother-to-child-transmission (MTCT) of HIV have been investigated and implemented. A number of systematic reviews assessing the efficacy of interventions for the prevention of MTCT of HIV reported antiretroviral prophylaxis, caesarean section before labour and before ruptured membranes, and complete avoidance of breastfeeding were efficacious for pr...

INTRODUCTION To achieve the global goal of eliminating mother-to-child transmission of HIV, retention of HIV-positive women and their babies throughout the cascade of prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV (PMTCT) services is necessary. Little evidence has been published on coverage of the cascade in resource-limited settings. Along with PMTCT service expansion in Cambodia, a nationa...