Posted 11/06/2021. Burkholderia pseudomallei, a bacterium found in soil, can cause melioidosis, a potentially fatal disease. Melioidosis was first described in Myanmar but rarely reported over the past decades due to lack of awareness and limited diagnostic facilities. Frank Smithuis and colleagues report a widespread distribution of the organism in Myanmar soil. This should alert clinicians to consider melioidosis as a potential cause of sepsis, pneumonia or abscesses.

Posted 09/06/2021. Chris Paton and colleagues describe how predictive human-computer interaction (HCI) modelling could be used to improve the safety and usability of digital health systems. We reviewed the history of predictive modelling in HCI and describe how modelling could be integrated with the human-centred design techniques used when developing digital health interventions.

Posted 08/06/2021. Alice Kamau and colleagues show that passively collected routine health facility data does offer opportunities to detect malaria ‘hotstops’ down to the village level, at an affordable cost. It will be important, however, to refine the current surveillance tools such that they have the potential of collecting information at sufficiently precise scale.

Posted 28/05/2021. Reagan Mogire, Sarah Atkinson and colleagues show that the prevalence of vitamin D deficiency (<50 nmol/L) is low (7.8%) in African children, although 37.1% have insufficient levels (50–75 nmol/L). Risk factors for vitamin D deficiency include high latitude, older age, winter and rainy seasons, Gc2 vitamin D binding protein genotype and malaria.