Between December 2010 and August 2011 an outbreak of measles occurred in Serbia with 363 reported cases. Sera and/or nose/throat swabs were collected from 193 patients and tested for measles-specific IgM antibodies by ELISA and viral RNA by RT-PCR, respectively. Epidemiological data were obtained from the surveillance database of the Institute of Public Health of Serbia. Of the 363 cases involved in the outbreak, 113 were laboratory confirmed. More than one third of the patients were hospitalized (n = 130, 35·8%) and for 15 (4·1% of the reported outbreak cases) the infection was complicated by pneumonia. Mostly pre-school children aged ⩽4 years (37·8%) and adults aged ⩾30 years (27·3%) were affected. The majority of patients belonged to the Roma population with a preponderance of female cases (57·0%). Nearly 94% of the patients were either unvaccinated or of unknown vaccination status. The main outbreak virus was the D4-Hamburg strain. The outbreak in Serbia occurred after several years of very low measles incidence despite a high routine immunization coverage in the general population, suggesting that special efforts to identify and vaccinate susceptible population groups are required even in countries with apparently good disease control.

Results of the present study suggest that there is a correlation between HCV genotype 1b and the development of HCC. Our findings also add support to the hypothesis that cirrhosis is a major step in liver carcinogenesis associated with HCV, which suggests an indirect role of HCV in the pathogenesis of HCC.

Annulations of allene‐substituted proline derivatives promoted by transition metals have been investigated as a general way to access bicyclic structures with a bridgehead nitrogen. Two processes, Pd‐ and Ag‐catalysed cyclisations, have been employed complementary to control the substitution pattern of the product. The investigated methodologies afforded the bicyclic derivatives in comparable yields, while Ag‐catalysis showed higher level of diastereoselectivity. Both processes have been utilized in the synthesis of naturally occurring pyrroles longamide B, stylisine D and their derivatives.

A facile synthetic route has been developed for the preparation of pyrrolizinone derivatives employing N-allyl imides as starting materials. The nucleophilic addition of a vinyl Grignard reagent/RCM/elimination sequence afforded pyrrolizinones in good yields and has been applied for the preparation of naturally occurring quinolactacide and marinamide.

A novel synthetic route for highly substituted conjugated ketones has been developed utilizing glycals as starting materials. The two‐step process combined the Heck reaction/Lewis acid promoted ring opening to afford the products in 33–80 % overall yields and with a high level of trans stereoselectivity. Since the products are essentially the aldols, this methodology may be employed in some cases as an alternative synthetic route to the typical aldol condensation. Densely substituted, selectively protected conjugated ketones are synthetically attractive structures which, in our case, proved to be biologically equally appealing. Namely, they showed activity against several cancer cell lines, such as HeLa, K562, MDA‐MB‐453, in some instances overperforming cisplatin used as a standard.

The aim of this study was to determine the seroprevalence of Helicobacter pylori and the distribution of anti-H.pylori IgA and IgG antibodies in asymptomatic children aged between 7 and 18 y. We studied the serum samples of 283 children using the commercial ELISA test for the detection of anti-H. pylori IgA and IgG antibodies. The overall prevalence of anti-H. pylori antibodies was 36.4%. The seroprevalence was 35%, 28.3%, 37.5%, and 42.2% for the ages of 7, 10, 14 and 18 y, respectively. Serum IgG antibodies alone were detected in 88.3%, IgA alone in 4.9%, and both IgA and IgG antibodies were detected in 6.8% of samples. The mean levels of IgG antibodies to H. pylori increased with age. We concluded that the prevalence of H. pylori antibodies in Serbian children was high (36.4%), ranging from 35% to 42.2%. The detection of IgG antibodies is useful for the determination of seroprevalence in asymptomatic children.

Octahydro‐dipyrroloquinoline skeleton is the building component of a very few naturally occurring compounds. Nevertheless, these natural products have been attractive synthetic targets, and their study commanded development of efficient synthesis of this core. While the reported methods are based on the dimerization procedure of N‐arylpyrrolidines of N‐arylhomopropargyl amines, our approach relay on dipolar cycloaddition/amination sequence. This strategic approach allows sequential introduction of aromatic moieties increasing the product diversity and hence may be useful in further exploration of incargranine B or seneciobipyrrolidine derivatives.

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