Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences
The vision of the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences is to be a dynamic, people-centred and inclusive environment, internationally recognised for its excellence in research, education and clinical training in medicine and health sciences, and for the contribution it makes to improving health and health care in South Africa, the African continent and beyond.
This faculty was known as the Faculty of Health Sciences until 30 April 2012.
Sub-communities within this community
Recent Submissions
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The use of the full blood count and differential parameters to assess immune activation levels in asymptomatic, untreated HIV infection
(Health & Medical Publishing Group, 2014)Background. A feature of HIV/AIDS is chronic immune activation, which results in a number of complications including inflammation-related disorders and blood cytopaenias. Immune activation status is not routinely tested ...
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Pediatric multidrug-resistant tuberculosis clinical trials : challenges and opportunities
(Published by Elsevier on behalf of International Society for Infectious Diseases, 2017)On June 17, 2016, RESIST-TB, IMPAACT, Vital Strategies, and New Ventures jointly hosted the Pediatric Multidrug Resistant Tuberculosis Clinical Trials Landscape Meeting in Arlington, Virginia, USA. The meeting provided ...
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Maternal colonization or infection with extended-spectrum beta-lactamase-producing Enterobacteriaceae in Africa : a systematic review and meta-analysis
(Published by Elsevier on behalf of International Society for Infectious Diseases, 2017)Objective: To summarize published studies on the prevalence of and risk factors for maternal bacterial colonization and/or infection with extended-spectrum beta-lactamase-producing Enterobacteriaceae (ESBL-E) in pregnant ...
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Xpert MTB/RIF assay shows faster clearance of Mycobacterium tuberculosis DNA with higher levels of rifapentine exposure
(American Society for Microbiology, 2016-12)The Xpert MTB/RIF assay is both sensitive and specific as a diagnostic test. Xpert also reports quantitative output in cycle threshold (CT ) values, which may provide a dynamic measure of sputum bacillary burden when used ...
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Stool culture for diagnosis of pulmonary tuberculosis in children
(American Society for Microbiology, 2017-12)Bacteriological confirmation of Mycobacterium tuberculosis is achieved in the minority of young children with tuberculosis (TB), since specimen collection is resource intensive and respiratory secretions are mostly ...
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Direct susceptibility testing of Mycobacterium tuberculosis for Pyrazinamide by Use of the Bactec MGIT 960 system
(American Society for Microbiology, 2016-05)Pyrazinamide (PZA) is a key antituberculosis drug, yet no rapid susceptibility test is commercially available. PZA drug susceptibility testing (DST) was performed directly on sputum samples from 327 patients and compared ...
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Infectious disease exposures and outbreaks at a South African neonatal unit with review of neonatal outbreak epidemiology in Africa
(Elsevier, 2017)Background: Hospitalized neonates are vulnerable to infection, with pathogen exposures occurring in utero, intrapartum, and postnatally. African neonatal units are at high risk of outbreaks owing to overcrowding, ...
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Prolonged exposure therapy and supportive counselling for posttraumatic stress disorder in adolescents in a community-based sample, including experiences of stakeholders : study protocol for a comparative randomized controlled trial using task-shifting
(BMC (part of Springer Nature), 2018-09-06)Background: There is a dearth of empirical evidence on the effectiveness of pharmacological and non-pharmacological treatments for adolescents with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in developing countries. The primary ...
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Cost of illness for outpatients attending public and private hospitals in Bangladesh
(BMC (part of Springer Nature), 2016)Background: A central aim of Universal Health Coverage (UHC) is protection for all against the cost of illness. In a low income country like Bangladesh the cost burden of health care in tertiary facilities is likely to be ...
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Standardising evidence strength grading for recommendations from multiple clinical practice guidelines : a South African case study
(BMC (part of Springer Nature), 2018-08-29)Background: Significant resources are required to write de novo clinical practice guidelines (CPGs). There are many freely-available CPGs internationally, for many health conditions. Developing countries rarely have the ...
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Outcomes of community-based differentiated models of multi-month dispensing of antiretroviral medication among stable HIV-infected patients in Lesotho : a cluster randomised non-inferiority trial protocol
(BMC (part of Springer Nature), 2018-08-29)Background: Current World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines recommend early initiation of HIV positive patients on antiretroviral therapy (ART) irrespective of their clinical or immunological status known as the test ...
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Opportunities for human resources for health and rehabilitation : a response to Jesus et al.
(World Health Organization, 2017)We welcome Jesus et al.’s paper, which makes an important contribution to the under-researched area of the physical rehabilitation workforce. The authors present recommendations to “advance a policy and research agenda for ...
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Nutritional supplements for people being treated for active tuberculosis
(Cochrane, 2016-06-29)Background: Tuberculosis and malnutrition are linked in a complex relationship. Tuberculosis may cause undernutrition through increasedmetabolic demands and decreased intake, and nutritional deficiencies may worsen the ...
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GenoType MTBDRsl assay for resistance to second-line anti-tuberculosis drugs
(Cochrane, 2016-09-08)Background: Genotype® MTBDRsl (MTBDRsl) is a rapid DNA-based test for detecting specific mutations associated with resistance to fluoroquinolones and second-line injectable drugs (SLIDs) in Mycobacterium tuberculosis ...
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Public stewardship of private for-profit healthcare providers in low- and middle-income countries
(Cochrane, 2016-08-11)Background: Governments use different approaches to ensure that private for-profit healthcare services meet certain quality standards. Such government guidance, referred to as public stewardship, encompasses government ...
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Brief school-based interventions and behavioural outcomes for substance-using adolescents
(Cochrane, 2016-01-20)Background: Adolescent substance use is a major problem in and of itself, and because it acts as a risk factor for other problem behaviours. As substance use during adolescence can lead to adverse and often long-term ...
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Interventions for improving coverage of childhood immunisation in low- and middle-income countries
(Cochrane, 2016-07-10)Background: Immunisation is a powerful public health strategy for improving child survival, not only by directly combating key diseases that kill children but also by providing a platform for other health services. However, ...
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Barriers and enablers for the development and implementation of allied health clinical practice guidelines in South African primary healthcare settings : a qualitative study
(BioMed Central, 2017)Background: The South African allied health (AH) primary healthcare (PHC) workforce is challenged with the complex rehabilitation needs of escalating patient numbers. The application of evidence-based care using clinical ...
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Iodine concentration in breastmilk and urine among lactating women of Bhaktapur, Nepal
(MDPI, 2016-04-28)Adequate iodine concentration in breastmilk (BMIC) is essential for optimal neonatal thyroid hormone synthesis and neurological development in breastfed infants. For many decades, iodine deficiency has been a public health ...
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Integrating mHealth at point of care in low- and middle-income settings : the system perspective
(Taylor & Francis Open, 2017)While the field represents a wide spectrum of products and services, many aspects of mHealth have great promise within resource-poor settings: there is an extensive range of cheap, widely available tools which can be used ...
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A roadmap for the implementation of mHealth innovations for image-based diagnostic support in clinical and public-health settings : a focus on front-line health workers and health-system organizations
(Taylor & Francis Open, 2017)Background: Diagnostic support for clinicians is a domain of application of mHealth technologies with a slow uptake despite promising opportunities, such as image-based clinical support. The absence of a roadmap for the ...
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Observed HIV drug resistance associated mutations amongst naïve immunocompetent children in Yaounde, Cameroon
(European HIV/AIDS and Infectious Diseases Academy, 2017)Introduction: The emergence of drug resistance mutations (DRMs) has been a major threat for successful lifelong combination antiretroviral therapy (cART), especially for HIV-vertically infected children within the context ...
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Cerebrospinal fluid amino acid profiling of pediatric cases with tuberculous meningitis
(Frontiers Media, 2017)Background: In Africa, tuberculosis is generally regarded as persisting as one of the most devastating infectious diseases. The pediatric population is particularly vulnerable, with infection of the brain in the form of ...
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White matter abnormalities in children with HIV infection and exposure
(Frontiers Media, 2017)Background: Due to changes in guidelines and access to treatment, more children start combination antiretroviral therapy (ART) in infancy. With few studies examining the long-term effects of perinatal HIV infection and ...
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Larger subcortical gray matter structures and smaller corpora callosa at age 5 years in HIV infected children on early ART
(Frontiers Media, 2017)Sub-Saharan Africa is home to 90% of HIV infected (HIV+) children. Since the advent of antiretroviral therapy (ART), HIV/AIDS has transitioned to a chronic condition where central nervous system (CNS) damage may be ongoing. ...
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The association of OASL and type I interferons in the pathogenesis and survival of intracellular replicating bacterial species
(Frontiers Media, 2017)The type I IFN response quickly became associated with its role in the innate immune response to viral infection. The past few years have seen the significance of IFNs expand in breadth to include non-viral pathogens. ...
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Frequency of Mycobacterium tuberculosis-specific CD8+ T-cells in the course of anti-tuberculosis treatment
(Elsevier, 2015)Anti-tuberculosis drug treatment is known to affect the number, phenotype, and effector functionality of antigen-specific T-cells. In order to objectively gauge Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB)-specific CD8+ T-cells at the ...
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Why healthcare workers are sick of TB
(Elsevier, 2015)Dr Thato Mosidi never expected to be diagnosed with tuberculosis (TB), despite widely prevalent exposure and very limited infection control measures. The life-threatening diagnosis of primary extensively drug-resistant TB ...
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Mycobacterium bovis in a free-ranging black rhinoceros, Kruger National Park, South Africa, 2016
(Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2017)In 2016, an emaciated black rhinoceros (Diceros bicornis) was found in Kruger National Park, South Africa. An interferon-γ response was detected against mycobacterial antigens, and lung tissue was positive for Mycobacterium ...
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Capacity-building for a strong public health nutrition workforce in low-resource countries
(World Health Organization -- WHO, 2017-4)INTRODUCTION: Neglected for several decades, nutrition is now firmly on the development agenda. Important landmarks are the initiation of the Scaling Up Nutrition movement in 2010; the adoption by the World Health ...
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