Accès au traitement du sida au Burkina Faso : les hommes vulnérables ?

International audienceThis anthropological research conducted in Burkina Faso shows the difficulties encountered by many men when telling others of their seropositivity and when attending health care facilities for PLWH. The social context of these difficulties is analyzed by studying the values attached to masculinity in the Moose culture. The data were collected through semi-structured individual interviews, direct observation and group interviews between 2003 and 2007. After transcription, these data were processed by means of content analysis. Masculinity, closely related to the social status of the zaksoba (head of household), is considered in terms of men's capacity. It is conditioned by the social recognition of physical, material and moral aptitudes and responsibilities. This helps to better understand men's attitudes when they conceal problems relating to their HIV infection. They experience their inability to preserve their social image and their dominant position as shame and unworthiness. The difficulties many men have in socially accepting their seropositivity, and their vulnerability in terms of access to health care and treatments, are mainly induced by cultural values related to masculinity, which the men defend and emphasize.Cette recherche anthropologique menée au Burkina Faso montre les difficultés de nombreux hommes à dire à autrui leur séropositivité et à fréquenter les lieux de soins des PvVIH. Les conditions sociales de ces difficultés sont analysées à travers les valeurs attachées à la masculinité chez les moose. Entretiens semi-structurés, observation directe et entretiens de groupe ont permis le recueil des données de 2003 à 2007. Ces données transcrites ont été traitées par analyse de contenu. La masculinité, étroitement liée au statut social de zaksoba (chef de famille), se décline en termes de capacité des hommes. Elle est conditionnée par la reconnaissance sociale d'aptitudes et de responsabilités physiques, matérielles et morales. Elle permet de mieux comprendre l'attitude des hommes consistant à taire leurs problèmes relatifs à l'infection à VIH. Ne pas pouvoir préserver leur image sociale d'homme mais aussi leur position dominante se décline pour eux en termes de honte et d'indignité. Les difficultés de nombreux hommes à assumer socialement leur séropositivité et leur vulnérabilité dans l'accès aux soins et aux traitements sont donc en grande partie induites par les valeurs culturelles relatives à la masculinité que les hommes défendent et valorisent habituellement

Gender asymmetry in healthcare-facility attendance of people living with HIV/AIDS in Burkina Faso

International audienceAnthropological research in Burkina Faso indicates that more HIV-positive women than HIV-positive men are attending care facilities for people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWH) and accessing antiretroviral medicine. This article, situated in the field of study of interactions between gender and AIDS, offers a description of this asymmetry and an anthropological analysis of the socio-cultural determinants, through analysis of data from ethnographic research among PLWH and health actors. Examining social representations of femininity and masculinity in Burkinabe society and the organisation of the healthcare system in connection with gender shed light on the decision-making processes of both sexes around therapeutic choices and the itinerary of care. On the one hand, the social values attached to femininity, maternity and the status of wife create conditions for women that favour their attendance at care facilities for PLWH and encourage a widespread practice where wives take the place of their husbands in healthcare queues. Moreover, health policies and the effects of women's empowerment within the healthcare system strengthen women's access to health services. On the other hand, representations of masculinity are fully implicated in the cultural construction of men's reluctance to attend care facilities for PLWH.The values associated with thismasculinitycausemento run great health, economic and social risks, not only for themselves, but also for their wives and children. By better understanding the interaction between gender, the experience of HIV and the institutional organisation of healthcare, we can identify ways to reduce men's reluctance to attend care facilities for PLWH and improve both prevention and treatment-oriented programmes

PT-symmetric supersymmetry in a solvable short-range model

The simplest purely imaginary and piecewise constant $\cal PT$-symmetric potential located inside a larger box is studied. Unless its strength exceeds a certain critical value, all the spectrum of its bound states remains real and discrete. We interpret such a model as an initial element of the generalized non-Hermitian Witten's hierarchy of solvable Hamiltonians and construct its first supersymmetric (SUSY) partner in closed form.Comment: 3 figures, 1 tabl

PT-supersymmetric partner of a short-range square well

In a box of size $L$, a spatially antisymmetric square-well potential of a purely imaginary strength ${\rm i}g$ and size $l < L$ is interpreted as an initial element of the SUSY hierarchy of solvable Hamiltonians, the energies of which are all real for $g < g_c(l)$. The first partner potential is constructed in closed form and discussed.Comment: 8 pages, no figure, presented at PHHQP3, Istanbul, June 20-22, 2005, to be published in Czech. J. Phy

African fan palm (Borassus aethiopum) and oil palm (Elaeis guineensis) are alternate hosts of coconut lethal yellowing phytoplasma in Mozambique

In this study, potential alternate hosts of the phytoplasma causing coconut lethal yellowing disease (CLYD) in Mozambique were investigated based on 16S rRNA and secA genes. The results reveal that the naturalized palm species, Elaeis guineensis and Borassus aethiopum are alternate hosts of CLYD phytoplasma in Mozambique. Based on the iPhyClassifier online software, the phytoplasma detected in B. aethiopum belongs to the 16Sr group XXII-A, which include ‘Candidatus Phytoplasma palmicola’ and ‘Candidatus Phytoplasma cocosnigeriae’. This is the first report associating ‘Candidatus Phytoplasma palmicola’ with wild naturalized palm species in the world. Key words: Alternate hosts, Borassus aethiopum, „Candidatus Phytoplasma palmicola‟, Elaeis guineensis, Mozambique, palm lethal phytoplasma phylogeny

Loss of correlation between HIV viral load and CD4+ T-cell counts in HIV/HTLV-1 co-infection in treatment naive Mozambican patients

Seven hundred and four HIV-1/2-positive, antiretroviral therapy (ART) naïve patients were screened for HTLV-1 infection. Antibodies to HTLV-1 were found in 32/704 (4.5%) of the patients. Each co-infected individual was matched with two HIV mono-infected patients according to World Health Organization clinical stage, age +/-5 years and gender. Key clinical and laboratory characteristics were compared between the two groups. Mono-infected and co-infected patients displayed similar clinical characteristics. However, co-infected patients had higher absolute CD4+ T-cell counts (P = 0.001), higher percentage CD4+ T-cell counts (P < 0.001) and higher CD4/CD8 ratios (P < 0.001). Although HIV plasma RNA viral loads were inversely correlated with CD4+ T-cell-counts in mono-infected patients (P < 0.0001), a correlation was not found in co-infected individuals (P = 0.11). Patients with untreated HIV and HTLV-1 co-infection show a dissociation between immunological and HIV virological markers. Current recommendations for initiating ART and chemoprophylaxis against opportunistic infections in resource-poor settings rely on more readily available CD4+ T-cell counts without viral load parameters. These guidelines are not appropriate for co-infected individuals in whom high CD4+ T-cell counts persist despite high HIV viral load states. Thus, for co-infected patients, even in resource-poor settings, HIV viral loads are likely to contribute information crucial for the appropriate timing of ART introduction

View-based Owicki-Gries reasoning for persistent x86-TSO

The rise of persistent memory is disrupting computing to its core. Our work aims to help programmers navigate this brave new world by providing a program logic for reasoning about x86 code that uses low-level operations such as memory accesses and fences, as well as persistency primitives such as flushes. Our logic, Pierogi, benefits from a simple underlying operational semantics based on views, is able to handle optimised flush operations, and is mechanised in the Isabelle/HOL proof assistant. We detail the proof rules of Pierogi and prove them sound. We also show how Pierogi can be used to reason about a range of challenging single- and multi-threaded persistent program

Teacher's Use of a Drawing Workshop as a Method of Art Therapy

Objective: The purpose of the study is to evaluate the effectiveness of a workshop in watercolour drawing by a future teacher of art as part of art therapy to improve mental state. Background: In modern conditions of development of the innovation and educational process in higher education in the specialties "Fine Arts" and "Design" special attention is paid to the acquisition of professional skills and abilities of students to work in the art space of the Planer. In this regard, master classes are widely used in classes in higher education institutions, but most training is aimed at acquiring professional writing with watercolour. Method: Workshop, as a quick and illustrative example in the performance of a watercolour etude by a teacher, is the strongest means of aesthetic impact, which is to show the secrets of drawing mastery, aesthetic techniques of working with watercolour, brush movements, the appearance of colour fillings, emphasizing a pictorial composition. Results: In the course of the study, it was determined that using a drawing workshop as art therapy is an effective way to improve the mental state. Art-therapeutic work evokes positive emotions, helps form a more active life position, emotionally valuable acceptance of partners, and cohesion. Conclusion: Fine art products constitute objective evidence of a person's mood and thoughts, which allows them to be used to assessing the mental state