PLoS medicine
-
Data exclusivity, the granting of exclusive rights over the data required for registration of pharmaceuticals, can jeopardize access to medicines and public health.
-
Heikens discusses a new study published inPLoS Medicine that is helpful in reconsidering the applicability of the WHO treatment guidelines.
-
Multicenter Study
Determinants of treatment adherence among smear-positive pulmonary tuberculosis patients in Southern Ethiopia.
Defaulting from treatment remains a challenge for most tuberculosis control programmes. It may increase the risk of drug resistance, relapse, death, and prolonged infectiousness. The aim of this study was to determine factors predicting treatment adherence among smear-positive pulmonary tuberculosis patients. ⋯ Defaulting due to treatment noncompletion in this study setting is high, and the main determinants appear to be factors related to physical access to a treatment centre. The continuation phase of treatment is the most crucial time for treatment interruption, and future interventions should take this factor into consideration.
-
Controlled Clinical Trial
Defective awakening response to nocturnal hypoglycemia in patients with type 1 diabetes mellitus.
Nocturnal hypoglycemia frequently occurs in patients with type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM). It can be fatal and is believed to promote the development of the hypoglycemia-unawareness syndrome. Whether hypoglycemia normally provokes awakening from sleep in individuals who do not have diabetes, and whether this awakening response is impaired in T1DM patients, is unknown. ⋯ A fall in plasma glucose to 2.2 mmol/l provokes an awakening response in most healthy control participants, but this response is impaired in T1DM patients. The counterregulatory increase in plasma epinephrine that we observed to precede awakening suggests that awakening forms part of a central nervous system response launched in parallel with hormonal counterregulation. Failure to awaken increases the risk for T1DM patients to suffer prolonged and potentially fatal hypoglycemia.
-
Comment
Aquatic insects and Mycobacterium ulcerans: an association relevant to Buruli ulcer control?
Texeira and colleagues discuss the association between arthropods and M. ulcerans in the light of a new study in PLoS Medicine.