No abstract

Strategies aimed at encouraging current donors to donate more frequently during the first year may help to establish a regular donation behaviour.

The retrospective data on childhood poisoning from eight regional hospitals in India has been reviewed. The demographic features and types of poisonings encountered have been compared. The analysis of the data indicated that pediatric poisonings constituted 0.23-3.3% of the total poisoning. The mortality ranged from 0.64-11.6% with highest being from Shimla. Accidental poisoning was common involving 50-90% of children below 5 years of age and males outnumbered the females. Suicidal poisoning was seen after 13 years of age and was due to drugs and household chemicals. One of the hospitals in Delhi recorded a very high incidence (66.6%) of drug poisoning in children. The drugs consumed belonged to phenothiazines, antiepileptics and antipyretics. Iron poisoning was seen in younger children. Kerosene was one of the causes of accidental poisoning at all hospitals except Shimla and rural Maharashtra were probably wood charcoal is widely used. Pesticide poisoning was more prevalent in Punjab and West Bengal whereas plant poisoning was very common in Shimla. Significant number of snake envenomation has been recorded from rural Maharashtra. Other less common accidental poisonings in children included alcohol, corrosives, heavy metals, rodenticides, detergents and disinfectants. Thus various regions in the country showed some variation in types and frequency of childhood poisoning which could be attributed to different geographical and socio-economic background.

Innovative ways to increase donor understanding of the implications of risk behaviors and the limitations of current screening procedures should be developed. They might prevent high-risk individuals from donating blood.

SummaryThe aim of this study was to compare the prevalence and factors associated with genital tract infections among HIV-infected pregnant women from African sites. Participants were recruited from Blantyre and Lilongwe, Malawi; Dar es Salaam, Tanzania; and Lusaka, Zambia. Genital tract infections were assessed at baseline. Of 2627 eligible women enrolled, 2292 were HIV-infected. Of these, 47.8% had bacterial vaginosis (BV), 22.4% had vaginal candidiasis, 18.8% had trichomoniasis, 8.5% had genital warts, 2.6% had chlamydia infection, 2.2% had genital ulcers and 1.7% had gonorrhoea. The main factors associated with genital tract infections included genital warts (adjusted odds ratio [AOR] 1.8, 95% CI 1.2-2.7), genital ulcers (AOR 2.4, 95% CI 1.2-5.1) and abnormal vaginal discharge (AOR 2.5, 95% CI 1.9-3.3) for trichomoniasis. BV was the most common genital tract infection followed by candidiasis and trichomoniasis. Differences in burdens and risk factors call for enhanced interventions for identification of genital tract infections among HIV-infected women.

We have studied a woman with transfusion-acquired HIV who appears to have contained infectious virus to consistently undetectable levels over a 13-year period without antiviral treatment. She received the infected transfusion for intra- and postpartum blood loss immediately after delivery of her second child in 1981. She had no acute febrile syndrome and has never had HIV-associated clinical signs or symptoms in the 13 years since infection. She was first tested and found positive for HIV antibodies in 1985, and the infected blood donor was diagnosed with AIDS in 1986 and died of AIDS-related complications in 1989. Two other recipients of packed erythrocytes from this donor (in 1980 and 1982) also became infected and were subsequently diagnosed with AIDS. Between January 1986 and April 1994, in the setting of continuous and unambiguous Western blot HIV-specific antibodies and intermittently positive low-level HIV DNA signal after polymerase chain reaction (PCR) amplification, more than 30 separate cell cocultures performed in several independent laboratories failed to yield evidence of infectious virus, despite special efforts to induce and detect HIV replication. Immunologically, a strong in vitro proliferative response to HIV envelope proteins also distinguished this subject from other asymptomatic HIV+ individuals.

Introduction of newly licensed versions of assays, switching kit manufacturers, and lot-to-lot variations have an impact on rates of deferrals of safe donors as well as sensitivity of routine screening. Before considering changes in screening tests, blood centers should be aware of, and evaluate, the potential impact on donor loss.

Reliable methods for measuring human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) incidence are a high priority for HIV prevention. They are particularly important to assess the population-level effectiveness of new prevention strategies, to evaluate the community-wide impact of ongoing prevention programs, and to assess whether a proposed prevention trial can be performed in a timely and cost-efficient manner in a particular population and setting. New incidence assays and algorithms that are accurate, rapid, cost-efficient, and can be performed on easily-obtained specimens are urgently needed. On May 4, 2011, the Division of AIDS (DAIDS), National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), National Institutes of Health (NIH), sponsored a 1-day workshop to examine strategies for developing new assays to distinguish recent from chronic HIV infections. Participants included leading investigators, clinicians, public health experts, industry, regulatory specialists, and other stakeholders. Immune-based parameters, markers of viral sequence diversity, and other biomarkers such as telomere length were evaluated. Emerging nanotechnology and chip-based diagnostics, including algorithms for performing diverse assays on a single platform, were also reviewed. This report summarizes the presentations, panel discussions, and the consensus reached for pursuing the development of a new generation of HIV incidence assays.