July 2012

As technology advances and devices become more affordable and adaptable, the use of technology—most notably, mobile technology—to inform and guide humanitarian relief efforts has become a reality. This month the PLOS Medicine Editors discuss the concept of digital humanitarianism and the possibilities it affords for facilitating collection and dissemination of information in crises and delivery of relief and development aid. The Editors discuss the how mobile phones were used in unexpected ways following the earthquake in Haiti to track population movements, and how worldwide, thousands of remote volunteers have aided in tracking and mapping humanitarian needs online. This mapping also occurred following the Christchurch earthquake, and more recently has been used in political crises such as that in Libya. Using these examples, the PLOS Medicine Editorial discusses the characteristics of digital humanitarianism (and its generation of data), organizations that promote digital humanitarianism, and the role of journals in a future where data can be generated faster and at higher volumes.

Image Credit: Indigoprime at flickr.com

Editorial

Digital Humanitarianism: Collective Intelligence Emerging

The PLoS Medicine Editors

PLOS Medicine: published July 31, 2012 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1001278

Essays

The Impact of Transnational “Big Food” Companies on the South: A View from Brazil

Carlos A. Monteiro, Geoffrey Cannon

PLOS Medicine: published July 3, 2012 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1001252

The Ethics of Switch/Simplify in Antiretroviral Trials: Non-Inferior or Just Inferior?

Andrew Carr, Jennifer Hoy, Anton Pozniak

PLOS Medicine: published July 17, 2012 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1001240

Researching New Methods of Screening for Adverse Pregnancy Outcome: Lessons from Pre-eclampsia

Gordon C. S. Smith

PLOS Medicine: published July 31, 2012 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1001274

Perspectives

Averting an Impending Storm: Can We Reengineer Health Systems to Meet the Needs of Aging Populations?

Arlene S. Bierman

PLOS Medicine: published July 17, 2012 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1001267

Medical Device Regulation: Time to Improve Performance

Sanket S. Dhruva, Rita F. Redberg

PLOS Medicine: published July 31, 2012 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1001277

Thinking Forward: The Quicksand of Appeasing the Food Industry

Kelly D. Brownell

PLOS Medicine: published July 3, 2012 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1001254

Health in Action

Integrating Mental Health and Development: A Case Study of the BasicNeeds Model in Nepal

Shoba Raja, Chris Underhill, Padam Shrestha, Uma Sunder, Saju Mannarath, Sarah Kippen Wood, Vikram Patel

PLOS Medicine: published July 10, 2012 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1001261

Policy Forums

Lessons from Agriculture for the Sustainable Management of Malaria Vectors

Matthew B. Thomas, H. Charles J. Godfray, Andrew F. Read, Henk van den Berg, Bruce E. Tabashnik, Joop C. van Lenteren, Jeff K. Waage, Willem Takken

PLOS Medicine: published July 10, 2012 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1001262

Treatment of Young Children with HIV Infection: Using Evidence to Inform Policymakers

Andrew J. Prendergast, Martina Penazzato, Mark Cotton, Philippa Musoke, Veronica Mulenga, Elaine J. Abrams, Diana M. Gibb

PLOS Medicine: published July 24, 2012 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1001273

The Co-Management of Tuberculosis and Diabetes: Challenges and Opportunities in the Developing World

Timothy Sullivan, Yanis Ben Amor

PLOS Medicine: published July 24, 2012 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1001269

Social Entrepreneurship for Sexual Health (SESH): A New Approach for Enabling Delivery of Sexual Health Services among Most-at-Risk Populations

Joseph D. Tucker, Kevin A. Fenton, Robert Peckham, Rosanna W. Peeling

PLOS Medicine: published July 17, 2012 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1001266

“Big Food,” the Consumer Food Environment, Health, and the Policy Response in South Africa

Ehimario U. Igumbor, David Sanders, Thandi R. Puoane, Lungiswa Tsolekile, Cassandra Schwarz, Christopher Purdy, Rina Swart, Solange Durão, Corinna Hawkes

PLOS Medicine: published July 3, 2012 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1001253

Reviews

HIV Treatment as Prevention: Models, Data, and Questions—Towards Evidence-Based Decision-Making

The HIV Modelling Consortium Treatment as Prevention Editorial Writing Group

PLOS Medicine: published July 10, 2012 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1001259

HIV Treatment as Prevention: Modelling the Cost of Antiretroviral Treatment—State of the Art and Future Directions

Gesine Meyer-Rath, Mead Over

PLOS Medicine: published July 10, 2012 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1001247

HIV Treatment as Prevention: Issues in Economic Evaluation

Till Bärnighausen, Joshua A. Salomon, Nalinee Sangrujee

PLOS Medicine: published July 10, 2012 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1001263

HIV Treatment as Prevention: Optimising the Impact of Expanded HIV Treatment Programmes

Wim Delva, Jeffrey W. Eaton, Fei Meng, Christophe Fraser, Richard G. White, Peter Vickerman, Marie-Claude Boily, Timothy B. Hallett

PLOS Medicine: published July 10, 2012 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1001258

HIV Treatment as Prevention: Debate and Commentary—Will Early Infection Compromise Treatment-as-Prevention Strategies?

Myron S. Cohen, Christopher Dye, Christophe Fraser, William C. Miller, Kimberly A. Powers, Brian G. Williams

PLOS Medicine: published July 10, 2012 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1001232

HIV Treatment as Prevention: The Utility and Limitations of Ecological Observation

M. Kumi Smith, Kimberly A. Powers, Kathryn E. Muessig, William C. Miller, Myron S. Cohen

PLOS Medicine: published July 10, 2012 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1001260

HIV Treatment as Prevention: Natural Experiments Highlight Limits of Antiretroviral Treatment as HIV Prevention

David P. Wilson

PLOS Medicine: published July 10, 2012 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1001231

HIV Treatment as Prevention: Considerations in the Design, Conduct, and Analysis of Cluster Randomized Controlled Trials of Combination HIV Prevention

Marie-Claude Boily, Benoît Mâsse, Ramzi Alsallaq, Nancy S. Padian, Jeffrey W. Eaton, Juan F. Vesga, Timothy B. Hallett

PLOS Medicine: published July 10, 2012 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1001250

HIV Treatment as Prevention: Principles of Good HIV Epidemiology Modelling for Public Health Decision-Making in All Modes of Prevention and Evaluation

Wim Delva, David P. Wilson, Laith Abu-Raddad, Marelize Gorgens, David Wilson, Timothy B. Hallett, Alex Welte

PLOS Medicine: published July 10, 2012 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1001239

Research Articles

Risk Factors for Death among Children Less than 5 Years Old Hospitalized with Diarrhea in Rural Western Kenya, 2005–2007: A Cohort Study

Ciara E. O'Reilly, Peter Jaron, Benjamin Ochieng, Amek Nyaguara, Jacqueline E. Tate, Michele B. Parsons, Cheryl A. Bopp, Kara A. Williams, Jan Vinjé, Elizabeth Blanton, Kathleen A. Wannemuehler, John Vulule, Kayla F. Laserson, Robert F. Breiman, Daniel R. Feikin, Marc-Alain Widdowson, Eric Mintz

PLOS Medicine: published July 3, 2012 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1001256

Antiretroviral Therapy for Prevention of Tuberculosis in Adults with HIV: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Amitabh B. Suthar, Stephen D. Lawn, Julia del Amo, Haileyesus Getahun, Christopher Dye, Delphine Sculier, Timothy R. Sterling, Richard E. Chaisson, Brian G. Williams, Anthony D. Harries, Reuben M. Granich

PLOS Medicine: published July 24, 2012 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1001270

HIV Treatment as Prevention: Systematic Comparison of Mathematical Models of the Potential Impact of Antiretroviral Therapy on HIV Incidence in South Africa

Jeffrey W. Eaton, Leigh F. Johnson, Joshua A. Salomon, Till Bärnighausen, Eran Bendavid, Anna Bershteyn, David E. Bloom, Valentina Cambiano, Christophe Fraser, Jan A. C. Hontelez, Salal Humair, Daniel J. Klein, Elisa F. Long, Andrew N. Phillips, Carel Pretorius, John Stover, Edward A. Wenger, Brian G. Williams, Timothy B. Hallett

PLOS Medicine: published July 10, 2012 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1001245

Plasma Phospholipid Fatty Acid Concentration and Incident Coronary Heart Disease in Men and Women: The EPIC-Norfolk Prospective Study

Kay-Tee Khaw, Marlin D. Friesen, Elio Riboli, Robert Luben, Nicholas Wareham

PLOS Medicine: published July 3, 2012 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1001255

Surveillance of Infection Severity: A Registry Study of Laboratory Diagnosed Clostridium difficile

Iryna Schlackow, A. Sarah Walker, Kate Dingle, David Griffiths, Sarah Oakley, John Finney, Ali Vaughan, Martin J. Gill, Derrick W. Crook, Tim E. A. Peto, David H. Wyllie

PLOS Medicine: published July 31, 2012 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1001279

Effect of a Community-Based Nursing Intervention on Mortality in Chronically Ill Older Adults: A Randomized Controlled Trial

Kenneth D. Coburn, Sherry Marcantonio, Robert Lazansky, Maryellen Keller, Nancy Davis

PLOS Medicine: published July 17, 2012 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1001265

Reduction in Clostridium difficile Infection Rates after Mandatory Hospital Public Reporting: Findings from a Longitudinal Cohort Study in Canada

Nick Daneman, Therese A. Stukel, Xiaomu Ma, Marian Vermeulen, Astrid Guttmann

PLOS Medicine: published July 17, 2012 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1001268

Cover

Digital humanitarianism: Collective intelligence emerging.

Editorial

Essays

Perspectives

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Health in Action

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Policy Forums

Reviews

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