<i>Background</i>: Preconception care (PCC) is recommended for optimizing a woman’s health prior to pregnancy to minimize the risk of adverse pregnancy and birth outcomes. We aimed to evaluate the impact of strategy and a novel risk classification model of China´s “National Preconception Health Care Project” (NPHCP) in identifying risk factors and stratifying couples’ preconception health ...

Anti-Retroviral Therapy (ART) is the recommended first line therapy for patients with HIV. Since 2004, Chinese government has provided free Chinese herbal medicine (CHM) for Chinese HIV/AIDS patients. Data of living patients with HIV from the NFTCMP database and Center for Disease Control (CDC) database during 2003–2016 in Guangxi province was obtained and compared. Patients were divided into 3 ...

Background: Shufeng Jiedu (SFJD) capsules can be used as adjunctive treatment for patients with community-acquired pneumonia, but the effectiveness and safety of SFJD are not clear. This review aims to evaluate the effectiveness and safety of SFJD based on randomized controlled trials (RCTs).<p> <p>Methods: A systematic review was conducted by searching PubMed, Embase, Scopus, Web of Science, ...

Background - Aliivibrio salmonicida is the causative agent of cold-water vibriosis in salmonids (Oncorhynchus mykiss and Salmo salar L.) and gadidae (Gadus morhua L.). Virulence-associated factors that are essential for the full spectrum of A. salmonicida pathogenicity are largely unknown. Chitin-active lytic polysaccharide monooxygenases (LPMOs) have been indicated to play roles in both chitin ...

Chronic wounds are often colonized with biofilm-producing bacteria, such as Staphylococcus epidermidis, and these wounds often have high degree of complexity and are often challenging to treat. There is a high resistance to the traditional antimicrobial treatments and that is why these infections sometimes are persistent. Photodynamic therapy (PDT) is proposed as a potential solution to the problems ...

Infected chronic skin wounds and other skin infections are increasingly putting pressure on the health care providers and patients. The pressure is especially concerning due to the rise of antimicrobial resistance and biofilm-producing bacteria that further impair treatment success. Therefore, innovative strategies for wound healing and bacterial eradication are urgently needed; utilization ...

Vaginal infections are associated with high recurrence, which is often due to a lack of efficient treatment of complex vaginal infections comprised of several types of pathogens, especially fungi and bacteria. Chitosan, a mucoadhesive polymer with known antifungal effect, could offer a great improvement in vaginal therapy; the chitosan-based nanosystem could both provide antifungal effects and ...

Burns and other skin injuries are growing concerns as well as challenges in an era of antimicrobial resistance. Novel treatment options to improve the prevention and eradication of infectious skin biofilm-producing pathogens, while enhancing wound healing, are urgently needed for the timely treatment of infection-prone injuries. Treatment of acute skin injuries requires tailoring of formulation to ...

Chlorhexidine and its salts are reported as being used in cosmetics as an active ingredient to give the desired effect or as a preservative in concentrations of up to 0.3 %. Such products include mouthwashes, hair dying and bleaching formulations, shampoos, anti hair “aging” products and exfoliants, body lotions, eye creams, face cleansers, sun cream, after-sun lotions, ...

<i>Background</i> - In order to adequately monitor cytokines in experimental models, currently available methods and commercially available kits should be compared.<br><br> <i>Aim</i> - To compare the plasma and tissue concentrations of IL-1β, IL-6, IL-8, IL-10, and TNF as a measure of systemic inflammation in septic pigs.<br><br> <i>Methods</i> - Cytokines were quantified from blood and tissue ...