This Week in PLoS Medicine: C-reactive protein in coronary artery disease; Secondary prevention of suicide; challenges for the pandemic

Three articles are published in PLoS Medicine this week. A systematic review and meta-analysis by Harry Hemingway and colleagues looks at the role of C-reactive protein as a prognostic marker of coronary artery disease. The authors find substantial biases, preventing them from drawing clear conclusions relating to the use of this marker in clinical practice.

In a Research in Translation article Leo Sher and colleagues discuss recent research on interventions to prevent secondary suicide, arguing that attempts to reduce suicide in a population do not always focus enough on high-risk patients

And in a Policy Forum this week Maria Van Kerkhove and colleagues say six public health challenges and need for data are evident, based on lessons learn from the 2009 influenza pandemic.  (Our Editorial this month, which asks whether  journal publishing is an efficient enough mechanism for information sharing in the wake of the SARS and H1N1 pandemics, is also displayed on the homepage this week).