Preconception and prenatal care--useful tools for providers of women's health.

Health care providers have a unique opportunity to change the behaviors of their patients. Preconception and prenatal care allow for interventions to abate risky behaviors that can affect not only the woman but also her developing fetus. If we can assist the reproductive age woman in modifying her high-risk activities, there will be improved birth outcomes and healthier mothers to care for their offspring. Alcohol and tobacco use, sexually transmitted infections and obesity are the top four modifiable risk factors. This article will address the impact that these behaviors have on women and tools to assist the health care provider in changing these bad habits and promoting healthy pregnancies. The theory of "fetal origins of disease" is emerging as one of the most powerful and compelling reasons to engage our patients before and during their pregnancy. Preventive medicine needs to start in the womb if we want to have the highest impact on healthy adulthood.

CD8 T cells are essential for recovery from a respiratory vaccinia virus infection.

The precise immune components required for protection against a respiratory Orthopoxvirus infection, such as human smallpox or monkeypox, remain to be fully identified. In this study, we used the virulent Western Reserve strain of vaccinia virus (VACV-WR) to model a primary respiratory Orthopoxvirus infection. Naive mice infected with VACV-WR mounted an early CD8 T cell response directed against dominant and subdominant VACV-WR Ags, followed by a CD4 T cell and Ig response. In contrast to other VACV-WR infection models that highlight the critical requirement for CD4 T cells and Ig, we found that only mice deficient in CD8 T cells presented with severe cachexia, pulmonary inflammation, viral dissemination, and 100% mortality. Depletion of CD8 T cells at specified times throughout infection highlighted that they perform their critical function between days 4 and 6 postinfection and that their protective requirement is critically dictated by initial viral load and virulence. Finally, the ability of adoptively transferred naive CD8 T cells to protect RAG⁻/⁻ mice against a lethal VACV-WR infection demonstrated that they are both necessary and sufficient in protecting against a primary VACV-WR infection of the respiratory tract.