About the Authors

Kany-Kany Angelique Luabeya

Affiliation Africa Centre for Health and Population Studies, University of KwaZulu Natal, Somkhele, South Africa

Nontobeko Mpontshane

Affiliation Church of Scotland Hospital, Tugela Ferry, South Africa

Malanie Mackay

Affiliation Department of Medical Microbiology, Nelson R. Mandela School of Medicine, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, South Africa

Honorine Ward

Affiliation Division of Geographic Medicine and Infectious Diseases, Tufts-New England Medical Centre, Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America

Inga Elson

Affiliation Department of Chemical Pathology, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, South Africa

Meera Chhagan

Affiliations Department of Paediatrics and Child Health, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, South Africa, Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy, Tufts University, Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America

Andrew Tomkins

Affiliation Centre for International Child Health, University of London, London, United Kingdom

Jan Van den Broeck

Affiliation Tropical Medicine Research Institute, University of the West Indies, Kingston, Jamaica

Michael L. Bennish

To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: mbennish@hotmail.com

Affiliation Nuffield Department of Clinical Medicine, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom

Competing Interests

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Author Contributions

Principal investigator for the study: MLB. Served as Project Directors: JVdB KAL. Supervised the field work for the study: NM. Conducted the laboratory studies: MM HW IE. Designed the study: MLB AT. Wrote the grant proposal: MLB. Wrote the initial study protocol: MLB JVdB. Revised the study protocol: KAL JVdB MLB. Designed the analysis plan and conducted the analysis: JVdB MLB. Drafted the manuscript: MLB KAL JVdB. Critically reviewed and approved the manuscript: all authors.