Toxoplasmosis in Kosovo pregnant women

This study presents the initial results of a collaborative project aimed at the evaluation of Toxoplasma seroprevalence in a population of Kosovar pregnant women. The serum samples of 334 pregnant women were tested to detect IgG, IgM, IgG avidity for toxoplasmosis. Data regarding age, occupation, area of origin and education were also obtained for the pregnant women examined; 97/334 (29.4%) resulted positive for IgG antibodies, four of whom (4.1%) were also positive for IgM, (1.2% of the total population examined). All four IgM-positive pregnant women also demonstrated low avidity tests. The rate of IgG seroprevalence found in our study was lower than that observed in various European countries, especially those of western Europe. Conversely, the percentage of recent infections was higher than expected. The higher rate of infections could be the result of a recent toxoplasmosis epidemic in Kosovo, most likely due to the altered hygienic conditions caused by the forced transfer of the ethnic-Albanian population from an area of low (Serbia) to high (Kosovo) toxoplasmosis prevalence

Detection of Antibodies to Human Herpesvirus 8 (HHV-8) among Women of Child-Bearing Age in the Apulia Region (South-Eastern Italy):

In this study the authors investigated the presence of serum antibodies to Human Herpesvirus 8 (HHV-8) in a group of women of child-bearing age in the Apulia region (South Eastern Italy). A seroprevalence of 16.8% was observed, increasing, although non significantly, with the age of the women (10.6% in women between 19 and 25 years, 25.3% in women aging more than 35 years). The presence of antibodies to Hepatitis C Virus (HCV) was significantly associated to the detection of antibodies to HHV-8. Possible mother-to-child transmission of HHV-8 as well as the outcome of fetuses or children born to HHV-8 positive mothers are still a matter of debate. This study, showing the wide diffusion of HHV-8 infection in healthy women of child-bearing age in our geographical area, highlights the urgency of studies aimed to better clarify these relevant topics

Innovation and Access to Medicines for Neglected Populations: Could a Treaty Address a Broken Pharmaceutical R&D System?

As part of a cluster of articles leading up to the 2012 World Health Report and critically reflecting on the theme of “no health without research,” Suerie Moon and colleagues argue for a global health R&D treaty to improve innovation in new medicines and strengthening affordability, sustainable financing, efficiency in innovation, and equitable health-centered governance

LeadSimm: Collaborative Leadership Development for the Knowledge Society

This paper has three purposes. First, it begins by discussing the basis of the industrial leadership models asserting that the traditional perspectives of leadership are no longer congruent for the challenges facing a knowledge based society. Second, it sets forth a perspective called collaborative leadership. Collaborative Leadership is a term derived chiefly by integrating the leadership models of Burns (1978), Rost (1993) and Foster (1989) and melding them with the characteristics of the learning organization espoused by Senge (1990). The term collaborative leadership is used to connote the extension and integration of these ideas into a practitioners model that is more congruent with the human intensive, organizational learning oriented, and interdependent intricacies and demands of a knowledge based workforce. It views leadership not as something the leader bestows or gives to his or her followers but as the essence of a collective relationship wherein people do leadership together. While leaders remain embodied individuals, leadership becomes a shared and communal concept (Foster, 1989). Third, since the conception of leadership is changed from the industrial perspective, that of a unitary actor who gives leadership, to a more postindustrial point of view, that of leadership as a collaborative dynamic, a learning method which can demonstrate the efficacy of collaborative leadership and organizational learning is required. LeadSimm is discussed as one method that promotes this leadership and learning paradigm