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Background: Globally, significant progress has been made in reducing maternal mortality, yet in many low-resource contexts it remains unacceptably high. Many of these deaths are due to postpartum haemorrhage and are preventable with access to essential obstetric care. Where there are barriers to access, maternal deaths could be prevented if community-level misoprostol was available. The purpose of this study was to explore perceptions of stakeholders regarding misoprostol use in the Lao People’s Democratic Republic, a setting with high maternal mortality. Methods: Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 35 stakeholders in the capital, Vientiane and in one northern province identified as a site for a possible intervention. The sample included international and national stakeholders involved in policy-making and providing maternal and reproductive health services. Findings: Most stakeholders supported a pilot program for community distribution of misoprostol but levels of awareness of the drug’s use in preventing postpartum haemorrhage and level of influence over policy direction varied considerably. Some international organizations, all identified as powerful in influencing policy, were ambivalent about the use of community distribution of misoprostol. Concerns related to the capacity of village health workers or lay people to safely administer misoprostol, whether its distribution would undermine efforts to improve access to safe delivery services and active management of the third stage of labour, the ease with which prescription drugs can be bought over the counter, and technical, logistical, and financial constraints. Conclusion: Access to appropriate oxytocic drugs is a matter of health equity. In settings without access to essential obstetrical care, misoprostol represents a viable solution for the prevention of postpartum haemorrhage. Understanding stakeholders’ perspectives and their legitimate concerns on misoprostol can inform interventions in order to assuage these concerns and enable disadvantaged women to access misoprostol and its potentially life-saving benefits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Post-Exposure Prophylaxis (PEP) is a preventive strategy that aims to avert the transmission of HIV to an exposed individual following occupational and non-occupational exposure, e.g. sexual contact, injecting drug use (IDU), needle stick injuries. Timely access to PEP (Within 72 hours) is an integral component to treatment as prevention alongside early treatment to achieve a significant reduction in a new transmission of HIV. In Queensland, it is estimated that around 5000 people live with HIV. The year 2014 saw an increase of 35% newly diagnosed cases of HIV as compared to the year 2013, thus the need to impede the spread of this pandemic is crucial. This project aims to improve the out of hour access to PEP in Queensland through Emergency Departments(ED). A mapping activity of access to PEP across Queensland was carried out by the project team through: • Consultation with the Queensland Department of Health, Communicable Diseases Branch (CDB) • A Community Survey to scope the experiences of people accessing PEP. • Consultation with Community organisations, Public/Private hospitals, HIV Public Health Team, Sexual Health Clinics to scope issues received regarding access to PEP. • Enquiry to all HHS Emergency Departments, Directors of Emergency Medicine and Nurse Unit Managers prescribing PEP to obtain local PEP protocol implementation. A PEP working group was formed that comprised of state-wide representatives from HIVFQ, sexual health clinics, hospital emergency dept., community groups and the Communicable Disease Branch of Queensland Department of Health. Some of the key points identified by the working group were: • Demand for PEP is steadily increasing each year. • People have positive experiences accessing PEP at sexual health clinics, however, some negative experiences were reported by those accessing PEP out of hours at Hospital Emergency Departments (EDs). • Some hospital EDs were less knowledgeable about PEP and were unable to locate the clinical guidelines in a timely manner. • Wait times in EDs averaged 4 hours, which was an added stressor for people waiting for PEP. • Some people experienced stigma, discrimination and judgements when trying to access PEP at EDs. The working group met to review the current PEP landscape and developed the following interventions to improve access to PEP: • Development of a user-friendly PEP Folder for Emergency and Pharmacy Departments including algorithms and flowcharts. This will be rolled out with nursing and pharmacy champions around Queensland, who are best placed to raise awareness of PEP (and PrEP3). • Coordination of resources available to the community including updating the clinic search tool on the ENDHIV website and PEP Emergency Card. • Production of PEP education/training videos for hospital staff to be incorporated into all Queensland hospital pre-vocational trainings and other clinical inductions • Endorsement of the resources from the Queensland Emergency Department State Advisory Panel. We hope these interventions will not only help reduce new transmission of HIV, but also educate clinicians and community on testing, treatment and stigma associated with HIV, thus working towards an HIV-free generation [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Saliva is a reliable, noninvasive, and cost-effective alternative to biomarkers measured in other biological fluids. Within certain populations, saliva sampling may be difficult because of insufficient saliva flow, which may compromise disease diagnosis or research integrity. Methods to improve flow rates (eg, administering citric acid, chewing gum, or collecting cotton) may compromise biomarker integrity, especially if the methods involve the presence of a collection aid in the oral cavity. Anecsdotal strategies (eg, looking at pictures of food or imagining food) have not been evaluated to date. In this study, we evaluate whether 2 novel collection techniques improve saliva flow or interfere with assay of common biomarkers (ie, cortisol, dehydroepiandrosterone, and testosterone). We evaluate an over-the-counter anhydrous crystalline maltose lozenge intended to increase saliva production for patients with xerostomia long after the lozenge dissolves. We then evaluate whether the smell of freshly cooked bacon stimulates a pavlovian-type reflex. Methods: Saliva was collected from 27 healthy young adults (aged 20-34 years; 12 men) on a basal day and a lozenge day, providing 5 samples at 15-minute intervals. Twenty participants then returned for the bacon day condition, providing 2 saliva samples with an interval of 15 minutes between samples. Collection times required to generate 2 mL of saliva across collection strategies were recorded, and then saliva samples were assayed for cortisol, dehydroepiandrosterone, and testosterone. Findings: Repeated analysis of variance measures revealed that both the lozenges and bacon significantly decreased collection time compared with the passive drool collection on the basal day. No significant effects were found related to the quantification of cortisol, testosterone, or dehydroepiandrosterone when comparing lozenge or bacon to the basal day. In addition, bivariate correlations revealed that concentrations from timematched control samples correlated significantly with concentrations from the lozenge and bacon conditions. Implications: These results indicate that both the lozenge and smelling bacon improve saliva collection times and that neither technique interferes with salivary hormone concentrations. This study reveals new methods to augment saliva collection strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The monoclonal antibody daratumumab, approved for treating myeloma, targets CD38, a protein on myeloma and also on CD34+ hematopoietic progenitor cells. Because mobilized CD34+ cells are critical for stem cell transplant, we investigated the in vitro activity of daratumumab on mobilized CD34+ cells from myeloma patients with no prior exposure to daratumumab. Methods: We determined the number of CD38 molecules per CD34+ cell, and whether daratumumab bound to CD34+ cells, whether C1q bound to daratumumab-coated CD34+ cells and whether daratumumab-related complement-dependent cytotoxicity (CDC) occurred. We also examined CD34+ cell progenitor cell colony capacity in assays with pre-plating incubation of CD34+ cells with daratumumab alone or with daratumumab and the CD59 inhibitory antibody BRIC229, and also assessed CD34+ cell responses to increasing doses of daratumumab in caspase 3/7 activity assays. Results: Although 75% of mobilized CD34+ cells co-express CD38, CD38 was minimally present on CD34+ cells compared to Daudi and KG-1 controls, C1q did not bind to daratumumab-coated CD34+ cells, and CDC did not occur. CD34+ cells incubated in complement-rich human serum with daratumumab alone or with daratumumab and BRIC229, and then plated in progenitor cell assays, produced similar numbers of colonies as controls. In progenitor cell assays with cryopreserved or fresh unselected or CD34-selected cells, daratumumab did not affect progenitor cell capacity, and in caspase 3/7 activity assays CD34+ cells were not affected by increasing doses of daratumumab. Conclusion: In vitro, daratumumab is not toxic to mobilized CD34+ progenitor cells from myeloma patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]