Heterogeneity of treatment effects was neither rigorously nor routinely reported in a sample of randomised controlled trials published in 5 leading medical journals, suggesting the need for revised standards of reporting.

Oral and vaginal metronidazole antibiotics are equally effective, regardless of route, in decreasing concentrations of most anaerobic bacteria for treatment of bacterial vaginosis in pregnancy, a condition associated with risk of pre-term birth.

Mark Schiffman and colleagues discuss the recent reassessment by the World Health Organization International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) of the carcinogenicity of different HPV types.

Infection of different mammalian cell types by the intracellular pathogen Trypanosoma cruzi induces a range of host responses, involving cytokine-independent gene expression, a block in the cell cycle and impairment of cytokinesis.

While most European countries have delayed decisions on a universal routine childhood varicella vaccination program, Paolo Bonanni and colleagues discuss the benefits, challenges and practicalities of how such a program may be put into effect across Europe.