An overview of the clinical use of filter paper in the diagnosis of tropical diseases.

Tropical infectious diseases diagnosis and surveillance are often hampered by difficulties of sample collection and transportation. Filter paper potentially provides a useful medium to help overcome such problems. We reviewed the literature on the use of filter paper, focusing on the evaluation of nucleic acid and serological assays for diagnosis of infectious diseases using dried blood spots (DBS) compared with recognized gold standards. We reviewed 296 eligible studies and included 101 studies evaluating DBS and 192 studies on other aspects of filter paper use. We also discuss the use of filter paper with other body fluids and for tropical veterinary medicine. In general, DBS perform with sensitivities and specificities similar or only slightly inferior to gold standard sample types. However, important problems were revealed with the uncritical use of DBS, inappropriate statistical analysis, and lack of standardized methodology. DBS have great potential to empower healthcare workers by making laboratory-based diagnostic tests more readily accessible, but additional and more rigorous research is needed

Arabic Cultural Program - Conversation with novelists Mohamed Rabie and Na’il al-Tukhi (Part 1)

The Arabic Cultural program hosted novelists Basma Abdel Aziz, Mohamed Rabie and Na’il al-Tukhi to discuss representations of dystopia in their most recent works. Abdel Aziz’s al-Tabur (The Queue, 2013) Rabie’s Otared (Mercury, 2015) and Eltoukhy’s Nisa’ al-Karantina (Women of Karantina, 2014) all imagine the post-2011 world as a chaotic and violent nightmare

Arabic Cultural Program - Conversation with novelists Mohamed Rabie and Na’il al-Tukhi (Part 2)

The Arabic Cultural program hosted novelists Basma Abdel Aziz, Mohamed Rabie and Na’il al-Tukhi to discuss representations of dystopia in their most recent works. Abdel Aziz’s al-Tabur (The Queue, 2013) Rabie’s Otared (Mercury, 2015) and Eltoukhy’s Nisa’ al-Karantina (Women of Karantina, 2014) all imagine the post-2011 world as a chaotic and violent nightmare

Dystopia Novel

The Arabic Cultural program hosts novelists Basma Abdel Aziz, Mohamed Rabie and Na’il al-Tukhi to discuss representations of dystopia in their most recent works. Abdel Aziz’s al-Tabur(The Queue, 2013) Rabie’s Otared (Mercury, 2015) and Eltoukhy’s Nisa’ al-Karantina (Women of Karantina, 2014) all imagine the post-2011 world as a chaotic and violent nightmare

A review and meta-analysis of the impact of intestinal worms on child growth and nutrition

More than a half of the world's population are infected with one or more species of intestinal worms of which the nematodes Ascaris lumbricoides, Trichuris trichiura and the hookworms are the most common and important in terms of child health. This paper: (1) introduces the main species of intestinal worms with particular attention to intestinal nematodes; (2) examines how such worms may affect child growth and nutrition; (3) reviews the biological and epidemiological factors that influence the effects that worms can have on the growth and nutrition of children; (4) considers the many factors that can affect the impact of treatment with anthelmintic drugs; (5) presents the results of a meta-analysis of studies of the effect of treating worm infections on child growth and nutrition; (6) discusses the results in terms of what is reasonable to expect that deworming alone can achieve; (7) describes some important characteristics of an ideal study of the effects of deworming; and (8) comments on the implications for programmes of recommendations concerning mass deworming