Visceral leishmaniasis (kala-azar) disproportionately affects the rural poor, with approximately 500,000 cases worldwide. Treatment options are limited, especially in resource-poor settings. In this open label, comparator-controlled trial, intramuscular paromomycin was found to be noninferior to intravenous amphotericin B in the treatment of visceral leishmaniasis, with cure rates of 94.6% and 98.8%, respectively.

In this study, the risk of progression of asymptomatic smoldering multiple myeloma to active multiple myeloma was found to be related to the level of serum monoclonal immunoglobulin and the proportion of plasma cells in the bone marrow at the time of diagnosis.

In the previously published Women's Health Initiative comparing conjugated equine estrogens with placebo in women who had undergone hysterectomy, there was a substantially lower rate of events related to coronary heart disease among the women receiving estrogen. The current substudy showed that coronary-artery calcium scores were lower in women receiving estrogen than in those receiving placebo. Since estrogen has complex effects, the new findings should not be construed as being clinically directive.

In this cohort study of patients with onset of multiple sclerosis at the age of 16 years or younger, secondary progression occurred after a median of 28 years and at a median age of 41 years. In comparison with a cohort with onset after 16 years of age, patients with childhood-onset multiple sclerosis took approximately 10 years longer to reach secondary progression but did so at an age approximately 10 years younger.

Entecavir is a new antiviral medication to treat hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection. Initial in vitro studies suggested it had no activity against human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1); thus, it was recommended as primary therapy for HBV in persons with HIV-1 and HBV coinfection who did not require HIV-1 antiviral therapy. In this study, the in vivo and in vitro activity of entecavir against HIV-1 is described.