Role of community nurses in the prevention of tuberculosis in the Tshwane Health District of Gauteng

The objectives of this study were to identify the role of community nurses in the prevention of tuberculosis (TB) and to identify problems experienced by them when fulfilling this role in the Tshwane Health District of Gauteng. A non-experimental, descriptive, quantitative research design method was used to collect data from community nurses. The sample included 59 registered nurses who voluntarily agreed to participate in the study. A questionnaire was used to collect data and quantitative data analysis methods were employed. Various opinions and ideas on the role of community nurses in the prevention of TB and the problems experienced were identified. Based on the results of this research, measures to protect community nurses from contracting TB whilst on duty should be a priority. Government should support TB programmes by providing money to non-governmental organisations and direct observed treatment short course (DOTS) supporters to make follow-up visits to patients possible, thus reducing the number of defaulters. Stringent measures should be taken at all border points to ensure that foreigners are screened for TB, multidrug-resistant TB and extensively drugresistant TB. This study was limited to community nurses in the Tshwane Health District of Gauteng who were registered with the South African Nursing Council (SANC) and therefore this study could not be generalised to registered nurses in the hospital setting or even to clinics in the rest of South Africa.The authors would like to acknowledge the following who contributed to the success of the study: the University of Pretoria and Gauteng Department of Health for providing us with permission to conduct the study, community nurses for agreeing to serve as participants, the supervisors who contributed to the success of the study, library staff, editor Mrs H. Liebenberg, and statistician Mrs J. Sommers.http://www.curationis.org.zaam201

Burden of disease and circulating serotypes of rotavirus infection in sub-Saharan Africa: systematic review and meta-analysis.

Two new rotavirus vaccines have recently been licensed in many countries. However, their efficacy has only been shown against certain serotypes commonly circulating in Europe, North America, and Latin America, but thought to be globally important. To assess the potential impact of these vaccines in sub-Saharan Africa, where rotavirus mortality is high, knowledge of prevalent types is essential because an effective rotavirus vaccine is needed to protect against prevailing serotypes in the community. We did two systematic reviews and two meta-analyses of the most recent published data on the burden of rotavirus disease in children aged under 5 years and rotavirus serotypes circulating in countries in sub-Saharan Africa. Eligible studies were selected from PubMed/Medline, Cochrane Library, EmBase, LILACS, Academic Search Premier, Biological Abstracts, ISI Web of Science, and the African Index Medicus. Depending on the heterogeneity, DerSimonian-Laird random-effects or fixed-effects models were used for meta-analyses. Geographical variability in rotavirus burden within countries in sub-Saharan Africa is substantial, and most countries lack information on rotavirus epidemiology. We estimated that annual mortality for this region was 243.3 (95% CI 187.6-301.7) deaths per 100,000 under 5 years (ie, a total of 300,000 children die of rotavirus infection in this region each year). The most common G type detected was G1 (34.9%), followed by G2 (9.1%), and G3 (8.6%). The most common P types detected were P[8] (35.5%) and P[6] (27.5%). Accurate information should be collected from surveillance based on standardised methods in these countries to obtain comparable data on the burden of disease and the circulating strains to assess the potential impact of vaccine introduction

Track D Social Science, Human Rights and Political Science

Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/138414/1/jia218442.pd

Environmental perception, awareness and behaviour of households in the Johannesburg Metropolitan Area

M.Sc.In daily life, many of our experiences and much of the information directed at us relate to the poor state of the environment and the inadequate attempts of humankind to deal with it. Yet little attention is given to environmental hazards and environmental awareness at the level of the individual household. It is increasingly evident that the quality of our environment is being degraded. The poor state of the environment at the household level is generally associated with racial and ethnic differences, which in turn impact upon socio-economic conditions, which may be attributed in part to environmental injustice, whereby different sectors of the population experience differential exposure to environmental hazards. This study concentrates on the spheres of environmental perception, knowledge and behaviour on the household resolution level. The demographic factors of gender and race and the economic factor of household monthly expenditure are the selected variables used to determine whether these factors do in fact influence the variations in environmental perception, awareness and behaviour in the case of a sample of household respondents in the Johannesburg Metropolitan Area. An analysis was performed on the data collected during the General Household Survey (GHS) (2006), which was conducted by Statistics South Africa. The survey, using a stratified random sample, was conducted on 873 households in the study area. The findings of the study revealed differences in the number and range of concerns raised by male and female respondents on the reported environmental issues. Male respondents are more conscious than females about environmental issues. It was also found that there are significant variations in the level of awareness between male and female respondents with respect to environmental recycling programmes. More male respondents engage in recycling behaviour than is the case with their female counterparts. Respondents from Black population were more inclined to show concern for a wider range of environmental problems than was the case in the other racial groups. Waste is perceived as the most significant environmental problem for racial groups across the board in the Johannesburg Metropolitan Area. Variations were observed in the level of awareness concerning operative recycling programmes in the communities and also in the resultant behaviour with respect to the environment across the racial groups. The number of environmental problems reported as being perceived across the monthly expenditure groups varies between the limited and moderate spending groups. Respondents limited in their monthly expenditure expressed their concern for the physical environment, while high-spending household respondents were more inclined to be concerned about land degradation. It was observed that the level of environmental awareness tends to increase with an increase in monthly expenditure. Furthermore, the findings of the study indicate that an increased level of awareness of community recycling programmes does not necessarily translate into positive behaviour to improve and upgrade the environment, as in the case of collecting waste for recycling

A study of some infectious causes of reproductive disorders in cattle owned by resource-poor farmers in Gauteng Province, South Africa

Two hundred and thirty-nine cattle from Gauteng Province in South Africa were tested for various pathogens causing reproductive diseases including bovine viral diarrhoea/mucosal disease (BVD/MD) virus, infectious bovine rhinotracheitis/infectious pustular vulvovaginitis (IBR/IPV) virus, Neospora caninum and Brucella abortus using various tests. For BVD/MD virus, 49.37 % tested positive, 74.47 % for IBR/IPV virus, 8.96 % for Neospora caninum and 3.8 % for Brucella abortus. The result for Brucella abortus is higher than the national average, possibly due to the small sample size. A high seroprevalence of antibodies to both BVD/MD virus and IBR/IPV virus was evident. These 2 viruses should be considered, in addition to Brucella abortus, when trying to establish causes of abortion in cattle. The clinical significance of Neospora caninum as a cause of abortion in Gauteng needs further investigation. One hundred and forty-three bulls were tested for Campylobacter fetus and Trichomonas fetus, and a low prevalence of 1.4 % and 2.1 % respectively was found in this study. The clinical implications of these findings are discussed