Minerva

A Canadian study of over 11 500 non-smoking women, of whom 11.1% reported exposure to passive smoking during pregnancy, reports that adverse outcomes were experienced more frequently by women who were exposed to smoke. These included babies with smaller head circumferences, lower birth weights, and increased rates of stillbirths and preterm births (BJOG published online 23 March 2011, doi:10.1111/j.1471-0528.2011.02941.x).

A very complex economic analysis of whether it’s cost effective to screen for Chagas disease in all Latin American women giving birth in Spain concluded that the “test option” was still preferable to the “no test” option. Chagas disease is imported by migration and in non-endemic countries the disease is spread through vertical transmission. The threshold analysis concluded that even with a drop in Chagas prevalence, a drop in the probability of vertical transmission, and an increase in screening costs, the test option was still worth adopting (Acta Tropica published online 9 March 2011, doi:10.1016/j.actatropica.2011.02.012).

A genetic link has been established between the …