As the end of the year approaches, the CIDG editorial base in Liverpool thanks all its readers, protocol and review authors, CIDG Editors and Cochrane members for their contributions throughout 2015. Here we all are at our Christmas celebration!

Researchers from Emory University, the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, and the World Health Organization have carried out an updated Cochrane review to assess the effectiveness of interventions to improve water quality for preventing diarrhoea.

Diarrhoea counts for 1.8 million deaths in children in low- and middle-income countrie (LMICs). One of the identified strategies to prevent diarrhoea is hand washing. This reduces the incidence of diarrhoea by about 30% in child day-care centres in high-income countries and in communities in low- and middle-income countries.This 'hand washing promotion for preventing diarrhoea' review has recently been updated and is available in Issue 9, 2015 of the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews: 

Professor Jimmy Volmink, Dean of the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences of Stellenbosch University in Cape Town, and Director of Cochrane South Africa, delivered the prestigious LSTM Leverhulme Lecture at LSTM on Tuesday evening.His lecture entitled “Ecstasies and agonies of evidence synthesis” was introduced by LSTM’s Chairman, James Ross OBE, and was delivered to a mix of staff, students and invited guests as well as a significant number of online viewers via a livestream.

This is the first episode of the LSTM Podcast Series (March 2014)  http://www.lstmed.ac.uk/news-events/mediaIn this podcast, Kayla Barnes interviews Professor Paul Garner who discusses his work as Coordinating Editor of the Cochrane Infectious Diseases Group (CIDG). 

Primer in Systematic Reviews: TuberculosisNational Institute for Research in TuberculosisChennai,  August 2015A course organized between :• The International Union against TB and Lung Disease, Delhi

Large scale programmes to deworm all school children in low income countries as promoted by the World Health Organization, do not lead to the acclaimed educational and economic benefits, according to a newly updated Cochrane systematic review

Using insecticides to treat walls, bednets, bedsheets or curtains is known to prevent malaria, but may also be effective at preventing leishmaniasis according to a systematic review carried out by an international team of researchers working with the Cochrane Infectious Diseases Group at LSTM.