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April 2013

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In their monthly editorial, the PLOS Medicine Editors reflect on the critical need for access to high quality health information for both citizens and health workers across the globe. In low- and middle-income countries, such information is often not available where it is needed, or the information is not usable because it is in the wrong language or because it does not match the context or level of education of the health care provider.

In a recently published white paper, Neil Pakenham-Walsh and Molly Land argue that, because access to health information is a key determinant to the human right to the highest attainable standard of health, governments have a legal responsibility under international human rights law to provide access to health care information to citizens and health workers. The PLOS Medicine Editors reflect on the potential for initiatives, such as HIFA-Watch (http://www.hifa2015.org/hifa-watch/), run by Health Information for All by 2015 (HIFA2015), to evoke change by highlighting both positive and negative examples of practice by governments.

Image Credit: Moving Mountains Trust at flickr.com

Editorial

Focusing the Spotlight on Lack of Access to Health Information

The PLoS Medicine Editors

PLOS Medicine: published April 30, 2013 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1001438

Essay

Untreated Pain, Narcotics Regulation, and Global Health Ideologies

Nicholas B. King, Veronique Fraser

PLOS Medicine: published April 2, 2013 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1001411

Perspectives

Is It Time to Screen Women with History of Hypertensive Pregnancy Disorders for Diabetes?

Thach Tran

PLOS Medicine: published April 16, 2013 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1001428

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Air Pollution and Atherosclerosis: New Evidence to Support Air Quality Policies

Nino Künzli

PLOS Medicine: published April 23, 2013 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1001432

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  1. Fine Particulate Air Pollution and the Progression of Carotid Intima-Medial Thickness: A Prospective Cohort Study from the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis and Air Pollution

Health in Action

Implementation and Scale-Up of Psycho-Trauma Centers in a Post-Conflict Area: A Case Study of a Private–Public Partnership in Northern Uganda

Etheldreda Nakimuli-Mpungu, Stephen Alderman, Eugene Kinyanda, Kathleen Allden, Theresa S. Betancourt, Jeffrey S. Alderman, Alison Pavia, James Okello, Juliet Nakku, Alex Adaku, Seggane Musisi

PLOS Medicine: published April 16, 2013 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1001427

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  8. Country Contextualization of the Mental Health Gap Action Programme Intervention Guide: A Case Study from Nigeria

Policy Forums

Big Data Opportunities for Global Infectious Disease Surveillance

Simon I. Hay, Dylan B. George, Catherine L. Moyes, John S. Brownstein

PLOS Medicine: published April 2, 2013 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1001413

Industry Use of Evidence to Influence Alcohol Policy: A Case Study of Submissions to the 2008 Scottish Government Consultation

Jim McCambridge, Ben Hawkins, Chris Holden

PLOS Medicine: published April 23, 2013 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1001431

Grand Challenges in Global Mental Health: Integration in Research, Policy, and Practice

Pamela Y. Collins, Thomas R. Insel, Arun Chockalingam, Abdallah Daar, Yvonne T. Maddox

PLOS Medicine: published April 30, 2013 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1001434

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Guidelines and Guidance

PRISMA for Abstracts: Reporting Systematic Reviews in Journal and Conference Abstracts

Elaine M. Beller, Paul P. Glasziou, Douglas G. Altman, Sally Hopewell, Hilda Bastian, Iain Chalmers, Peter C. Gøtzsche, Toby Lasserson, David Tovey, for the PRISMA for Abstracts Group

PLOS Medicine: published April 9, 2013 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1001419

Research Articles

Intimate Partner Femicide in South Africa in 1999 and 2009

Naeemah Abrahams, Shanaaz Mathews, Lorna J. Martin, Carl Lombard, Rachel Jewkes

PLOS Medicine: published April 2, 2013 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1001412

Supervised and Unsupervised Self-Testing for HIV in High- and Low-Risk Populations: A Systematic Review

Nitika Pant Pai, Jigyasa Sharma, Sushmita Shivkumar, Sabrina Pillay, Caroline Vadnais, Lawrence Joseph, Keertan Dheda, Rosanna W. Peeling

PLOS Medicine: published April 2, 2013 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1001414

Life Expectancies of South African Adults Starting Antiretroviral Treatment: Collaborative Analysis of Cohort Studies

Leigh F. Johnson, Joel Mossong, Rob E. Dorrington, Michael Schomaker, Christopher J. Hoffmann, Olivia Keiser, Matthew P. Fox, Robin Wood, Hans Prozesky, Janet Giddy, Daniela Belen Garone, Morna Cornell, Matthias Egger, Andrew Boulle, for the International Epidemiologic Databases to Evaluate AIDS Southern Africa (IeDEA-SA) Collaboration

PLOS Medicine: published April 9, 2013 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1001418

Herpes Zoster Vaccine Effectiveness against Incident Herpes Zoster and Post-herpetic Neuralgia in an Older US Population: A Cohort Study

Sinéad M. Langan, Liam Smeeth, David J. Margolis, Sara L. Thomas

PLOS Medicine: published April 9, 2013 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1001420

Preeclampsia as a Risk Factor for Diabetes: A Population-Based Cohort Study

Denice S. Feig, Baiju R. Shah, Lorraine L. Lipscombe, C. Fangyun Wu, Joel G. Ray, Julia Lowe, Jeremiah Hwee, Gillian L. Booth

PLOS Medicine: published April 16, 2013 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1001425

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Prophylactic Perioperative Sodium Bicarbonate to Prevent Acute Kidney Injury Following Open Heart Surgery: A Multicenter Double-Blinded Randomized Controlled Trial

Michael Haase, Anja Haase-Fielitz, Michael Plass, Hermann Kuppe, Roland Hetzer, Claire Hannon, Patrick T. Murray, Michael J. Bailey, Rinaldo Bellomo, Sean M. Bagshaw

PLOS Medicine: published April 16, 2013 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1001426

Fine Particulate Air Pollution and the Progression of Carotid Intima-Medial Thickness: A Prospective Cohort Study from the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis and Air Pollution

Sara D. Adar, Lianne Sheppard, Sverre Vedal, Joseph F. Polak, Paul D. Sampson, Ana V. Diez Roux, Matthew Budoff, David R. Jacobs Jr, R. Graham Barr, Karol Watson, Joel D. Kaufman

PLOS Medicine: published April 23, 2013 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1001430

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Risk of a Second Primary Cancer after Non-melanoma Skin Cancer in White Men and Women: A Prospective Cohort Study

Fengju Song, Abrar A. Qureshi, Edward L. Giovannucci, Charlie S. Fuchs, Wendy Y. Chen, Meir J. Stampfer, Jiali Han

PLOS Medicine: published April 23, 2013 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1001433

Cinacalcet in Patients with Chronic Kidney Disease: A Cumulative Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials

Suetonia C. Palmer, Ionut Nistor, Jonathan C. Craig, Fabio Pellegrini, Piergiorgio Messa, Marcello Tonelli, Adrian Covic, Giovanni F. M. Strippoli

PLOS Medicine: published April 30, 2013 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1001436

Excess Long-Term Mortality following Non-Variceal Upper Gastrointestinal Bleeding: A Population-Based Cohort Study

Colin John Crooks, Timothy Richard Card, Joe West

PLOS Medicine: published April 30, 2013 | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1001437