This Week in PLoS Medicine: Iraqi civilian deaths; Intravaginal practices & HIV; Water softeners & eczema

Madelyn Hsiao-Rei Hicks and colleagues provide a detailed analysis of the 92,614 Iraqi civilian violent deaths during 2003-2008 of the Iraq war and show that unknown perpetrators caused 74% of deaths, Coalition forces 12%, and anti-Coalition forces 11%. A Perspective is provided by Robert Muggah.

Pooling of data from 14,874 women in an individual participant data meta-analysis by Nicola Low and colleagues reveals that some intravaginal practices increase the risk of HIV acquisition.

In a randomised trial evaluating the effect of installing ion-exchange water softeners in the households of children with eczema, Kim Thomas and colleagues found no evidence of improvement in eczema severity.

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