This Week in PLoS Medicine: PCV7 vaccination; Clinical training; Off-label pharmaceuticals & more

Today, PLoS Medicine published four new articles on a range of topics, and announced an update to the World Health Report 2012 collection.

A cross sectional study by Stefan Flasche and colleagues documents the serotype replacement of S. pneumoniae that has occurred in England since the introduction of PCV7 vaccination.

Philip Ayieko and colleagues report their cluster-randomized trial in Kenyan district hospitals that evaluated a complex intervention involving improved training and supervision for clinicians. They found better performance among hospitals assigned to the complex intervention on a variety of process of care measures, as compared to those receiving the control intervention.

Aaron Kesselheim and colleagues analyzed unsealed whistleblower complaints against pharmaceutical companies filed in US federal fraud cases that contained allegations of off-label marketing, and develop a taxonomy of the various off-label practices.

Analysis by Andrew Gibbs and colleagues discuss the African Women’s Protocol, a framework for ensuring reproductive rights are supported throughout the continent and can form the basis of interventions to improve women’s reproductive health, including the MDGs.

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