Showing 21 - 40 of 41 Results for "Cameroon"

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Interventions are needed for adolescents to reduce acceptance of gender-based violence and stigma against people living with HIV. A study found high rates of stigma among adolescent girls. A nationally representative survey of youth in Tanzania found high rates of acceptance for a husband to beat his wife if she goes out without telling him; argues with him; burns food; or refuses to have sex with him. In 35% of countries with data available, more than 50% of women and men report discriminatory attitudes toward people living with HIV (UNAIDS, 2015e).
Mitigating Risk
1 study
Efforts are needed to effectively implement Option B+ in non-prejudicial ways. Women who were sex workers reported being denied care until delivery. Women who were not accompanied by husbands were denied any health services during pregnancy. A sign on health centers read: “Notice: all pregnant women are supposed to come with their husbands/partners at their first visit. You will not be given services without implementing this” (Beckham et al., 2015: 66).
Antenatal Care - Treatment
1 study
Strategies, including legal strategies, are needed to empower pregnant women living with HIV to ask questions, be properly informed and to challenge stigma, disrespect and abuse. [See also %{s:67}] Consequences for violating patient confidentiality, redress for women with HIV facing discrimination in facilities, and stigma reduction efforts are needed to increase adherence to cART, prior to, during and post pregnancy, including training for providers.
Antenatal Care - Treatment
1 study
Stigma reduction interventions are needed so that women with HIV can choose replacement feeding, breastfeeding and weaning schedules. Studies found that HIV-positive women feared that if they used infant formula or abruptly weaned, they would be stigmatized for their HIV-positive serostatus.
Postpartum
1 study
Intensified efforts are needed to increase male and female condom use and reduce multiple partnerships by people who know their HIV-positive status and are not virally suppressed, including young people. Studies found that consistent condom use between discordant couples (or with partners whose serostatus was unknown) was low and, among those on treatment, decreased over time. Lack of condom use was associated with fear of disclosure. People living with HIV as well as couples also believed that treatment with antiretroviral therapy meant that they were either cured of HIV or could no longer transmit the virus and were less likely to disclose their positive serostatus. In some studies, men are more likely to report condom use than women, "given the limited control that women have over the use of the male condom" (Walusaga et al., 2012: 698). Particular attention is also needed to provide condoms to men living with HIV who frequent sex workers, as well as for sex workers themselves to protect themselves (Paz-Bailey et al., 2012). [See %{s:9}]
Staying Healthy and Reducing Transmission
1 study
Women and men need accurate information on vertical transmission, treatment adherence strategies, the importance of their viral load and the low risk of vertical transmission if virally suppressed. Adherence has been challenging for women living with HIV postpartum, even for those initiating ART during pregnancy at CD4 counts under 350, with adequate adherence dropping from 75.7% during pregnancy to 53% postpartum globally (Nachega et al., 2012 cited in Coutsoudis et al., 2013). Knowledge of HIV and vertical transmission has shown to be correlated with increased initiation, adherence and retention for pregnant women living with HIV.
Antenatal Care - Treatment
1 study
Effective programs (as described here) must be expanded to reach many more young people, especially young people who are most neglected such as very young adolescents, out-of-school youth, young people living with HIV, homeless and rural youth, as well as lesbian, MSM and transgender adolescents and other key populations. [See also %{s:73}] Studies found adolescent girls did not know that anal sex increased the risk of HIV acquisition, did not use condoms, and did not know that oral sex carries a low risk of HIV acquisition. Out-of school-youth were at high risk of early sexual debut. A scan of sex education curricula found that information on key aspects of sex such as information on condoms in addition to negative, fear-based curriculum were prevalent and that less than half of out of school youth were reached. In some countries, pornography was the principal source of information about sex and pornography often depicts condom-free sex and gender inequality, with men in domineering roles (Day, 2014).
Mitigating Risk
1 study
Interventions are needed to reduce cross-generational sex and marriage. Studies found that young women relied on older men to pay their school fees in exchange for sex. Numerous studies found significant numbers of young girls having sexual relationships with older men, who are more likely to be HIV-positive and seek sexual partnerships with younger women. Studies also found that due to poverty, parents encouraged transactional sex and that efforts are needed to address parental pressures.
Mitigating Risk
1 study
Women Prisoners and Female Partners of Male Prisoners
Prevention for Key Affected Populations
"... Prisons have been largely neglected in the global response to the HIV pandemic" (Angora et al., 2011: 1244). Comprehensive HIV prevention, voluntary testing, care and treatment are often not provided in pretrial detention, even where these services exist in the community (Csete, 2011). "Many prison systems limit access to antiretroviral therapy, according to country reports to UNAIDS" (UNA...
Promoting Women’s Leadership
Strengthening the Enabling Environment
Strengthening womens rights and health NGOs and supporting women leaders who can mobilize in-country efforts in the interests of women and girls affected by HIV is critical. "...It is not enough for programmes and strategies to be designed on behalf of those living with AIDS; we have much to learn from their experiences, and how they struggle to negotiate being positive and maintaining sex live...
Hepatitis
Preventing, Detecting and Treating Critical Co-Infections
Hepatitis is an inflammation of the liver, most often caused by a virus. The most common types of viruses are hepatitis A, hepatitis B, hepatitis C, hepatitis D and hepatitis E. "Hepatitis A and E are typically caused by ingestion of contaminated food or water and are not known to cause chronic liver disease" (WHO, 2010c). A vaccine exists for hepatitis A and a meta-analysis of eight studies fr...
Providing clinic services that are youth-friendly, conveniently located, affordable, confidential and non-judgmental, can increase use of clinic reproductive health services, including HIV testing and counseling and treatment services
Increasing Access to Services
7 studies Gray IIIb, IV HIV testing, STIs, South Africa and Swaziland, Zimbabw, adolescents, health services, mass media, providers, support, treatment, youth Botswana, Kenya, Madagascar, Malawi, Mozambique, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda, Zimbabwe
Pre-Conception
Safe Motherhood and Prevention of Vertical Transmission
Although many women do not learn their HIV status until they become pregnant, for those women who know they are HIV-positive prior to choosing to become pregnant, pre-conception assessments may inform both her and her partner of the safest way to become pregnant without HIV transmission to the infant or HIV transmission between serodiscordant couples. Therefore, throughout their reproductive ye...
Promoting Women’s Employment, Income and Livelihood Opportunities
Strengthening the Enabling Environment
Women's economic dependence on men and unequal access to resources, including land and income-generating opportunities, increases the likelihood of women and girls engaging in a variety of unsafe sexual behaviors including transactional sex, coerced sex, earlier sexual debut, and multiple sexual partners, and thus increases their risk of becoming infected with HIV (Gillespie and Kadiyala, 2005)...
Antenatal Care - Testing and Counseling
Safe Motherhood and Prevention of Vertical Transmission
In 2007, only an estimated 18% of pregnant women were offered HIV tests (ITPC, 2009). "The purpose of antenatal VCT should be to help a woman prepare for a possible positive HIV diagnosis [and] to provide her with information about PMTCT options" (De Bruyn and Paxton, 2005: 145). In developing country settings, between eight and ten percent of women report having received PMTCT interventions (P...
Postpartum
Safe Motherhood and Prevention of Vertical Transmission
Postpartum care is the most neglected aspect of maternal health, yet a time of high risk for maternal mortality. "The majority of maternal deaths occur during or immediately after childbirth; ...up to half of all newborn deaths occur within the first 24 hours of life" (WHO et al., 2011c). While many women access antenatal care, much fewer women globally have access to postnatal care. For exampl...
Prevention for Women
In this era of great strides forward in treatment, it is important not to lose sight of the continued need to undertake a range of interventions to prevent HIV transmission. An estimated 2.7 million people newly acquired HIV infection in 2010, as they did for each of the years 2009, 2008 and 2007, down from 3.1 million people in 2002 (WHO et al., 2011b). However, even with all this encouraging ...
HIV Testing and Counseling for Women
Knowing ones HIV serostatus is the first step in getting the appropriate treatment and care. According to UNAIDS, fewer than 40% of those living with HIV are aware of their serostatus (UNAIDS, 2010c). In parts of sub-Saharan Africa, more than 80% of people living with HIV do not know their positive serostatus (Anand et al., 2009). Global consensus exists that greater knowledge of HIV status is ...
Tuberculosis
Preventing, Detecting and Treating Critical Co-Infections
Tuberculosis is the leading cause of death among people with HIV globally, accounting for almost 25% of all HIV deaths in 2008 (WHO, 2009i). The risk of acquiring TB is 21-34 times greater among people living with HIV than in the general population. In 2010, of 8.8 million incident TB cases worldwide, 1.1 million were among people living with HIV, with an estimated 350,000 deaths (WHO, 2011f). ...
Staying Healthy and Reducing Transmission
Treatment
"Me, I try to tell the man that, 'In this house we have been found with this problem. We should accept it. I should not point a finger at you. You, too, should not point a finger at me. Just buy your protection.' And so, little by little what he does now is different from what he did in the past." --Malawi woman living with HIV (Mkandawire-Valhmu and Stephens, 2010: 691)Successfully treated peo...