Prevention of HIV and other STIs in rural Senegal: a study of prevention-related events collected by sentinel observers

We conducted a study of AIDS/STI prevention-related events based on a network of sentinel observers over a 35-month period in three rural communities of Senegal (May 2000 - March 2003). In one of these communities we also conducted a population-based study on self-reported prevention events and attitudes towards AIDS. Sentinel observers recorded 1 590 AIDS/STI prevention-related events. More than half of the reported events were radio programmes.The proportion of events on the occasion of which therapies was addressed increased significantly between 2000 and 2001, from less than 3% to about 10%, while sharp decreases in the proportion of events dealing with condoms and STIs, both from around 25% to less than 15%, were observed at the same time. The population-based survey indicated that men were more influenced by individual events like informal discussions or radio programmes while women seemed to be more influenced by collective events such as public meetings and school education. Keywords: rural Africa,AIDS/STI prevention-related events, sentinel observers, population-based survey.RÉSUMÉNous avons mené une étude des événements relatifs à la prévention du SIDA et des IST à l\'aide d\'un réseau d\'observateurs-sentinelles sur une durée de 35 mois (mai 2000 - mars 2003) dans trois communautés rurales du Sénégal. Dans l\'une d\'elle, nous avons également conduit en population générale une étude des événements autodéclarés relatifs à la prévention et des attitudes vis-à-vis du SIDA. Les observateurs-sentinelles ont enregistré 1 590 événements. Plus de la moitié concernaient des émissions de radio. La part des événements faisant état des traitements du SIDA a augmenté de 3% à 10% entre 2000 et 2001 alors que celles des événements qui faisaient état du préservatif d\'une part et des IST d\'autre part, ont chuté toutes deux de 25% à 15% sur la même période. L\'enquête en population générale a révélé que les hommes étaient plus influencés par les événements individuels comme les discussion informelles ou les programmes radiodiffusés alors que les femmes semblaient avoir été plus sensibles aux événements collectifs du type réunion publique ou cours donnés à l\'école. Mots clés: Afrique, zone rurale, SIDA/STI, événements relatifs à la prévention, observateurs-sentinelles, enquête en population générale.Journal of Social Aspects of HIV/AIDS, Vol 2(2) 2005: 251-25

Rapid decline in child mortality in a rural area of Senegal

Retrospective and prospective demographic and health data collected on the population of Mlomp (6352 people in 1985), a rural area of Senegal, show that the probability of dying before the age of 5 years declined from 350 to 81 deaths per hundred livebirths in the last 25 years. This dedine is greater and faster than ever observed in Senegal. The drop in mortality mainly results from improved access to new and efficient health services-a dispensary and a maternity clinic-and from growth surveillance, health education, vaccination and malaria programmes initiated in the 1960s and 1970s. Although socioeconomic conditions have changed in the area, the influence of classical factors such as women's educational level and improvement in transportation has probably been limited. Deaths from diseases that can be prevented by immunization (such as neonatal tetanus, measles, whooping cough) are now very rare (3% of the deaths of children under 5 years during the period 1985–1989). Although the risks of dying from diarrhoea or acute respiratory infections are much lower than in other rural areas of Senegal, these are still the main causes of deaths (33% and 19% of deaths after 1 month of age). Malaria, despite its high morbidity during the rainy season, causes few deaths (4%). This reflects the success of the health education programme promoting chemoprophylaxis and early treatment of fever cases. Mlomp is one example of an African rural area where the provision of well-organized health services at a reasonable cost has produced a dramatic decline in child mortality

Highlights from the 20th International Symposium on HIV and Emerging Infectious Diseases (ISHEID) 16-18 May 2018, Marseille, France: from HIV and comorbidities to global health.

The 20th International Symposium on HIV and Emerging Infectious Diseases took place in Marseille, France. It had a refreshing European look with reinforced partnerships with the European AIDS Clinical Society and the British HIV Association and with international speakers and participants. Topics included HIV and global health, HIV and hepatitis cure, the microbiome and immunotherapies, clinical research and methodology, as well as chemsex, pre-exposure prophylaxis, sexually transmitted infections and emerging infectious diseases. Novel areas of research were also described, such as electronic technology in order to improve HIV management, and the expert patient

Sustainable computational science: the ReScience initiative

Computer science o ers a large set of tools for prototyping, writing, running, testing, validating, sharing and reproducing results, however computational science lags behind. In the best case, authors may provide their source code as a compressed archive and they may feel con dent their research is reproducible. But this is not exactly true. Jonathan Buckheit and David Donoho proposed more than two decades ago that an article about computational results is advertising, not scholarship. e actual scholarship is the full so ware environment, code, and data that produced the result. is implies new work ows, in particular in peer-reviews. Existing journals have been slow to adapt: source codes are rarely requested, hardly ever actually executed to check that they produce the results advertised in the article. ReScience is a peer-reviewed journal that targets computational research and encourages the explicit replication of already published research, promoting new and open-source implementations in order to ensure that the original research can be replicated from its description. To achieve this goal, the whole publishing chain is radically di erent from other traditional scienti c journals. ReScience resides on GitHub where each new implementation of a computational study is made available together with comments, explanations, and so ware tests

Eliminating Rabies in Estonia

The compulsory vaccination of pets, the recommended vaccination of farm animals in grazing areas and the extermination of stray animals did not succeed in eliminating rabies in Estonia because the virus was maintained in two main wildlife reservoirs, foxes and raccoon dogs. These two species became a priority target therefore in order to control rabies. Supported by the European Community, successive oral vaccination (OV) campaigns were conducted twice a year using Rabigen® SAG2 baits, beginning in autumn 2005 in North Estonia. They were then extended to the whole territory from spring 2006. Following the vaccination campaigns, the incidence of rabies cases dramatically decreased, with 266 cases in 2005, 114 in 2006, four in 2007 and three in 2008. Since March 2008, no rabies cases have been detected in Estonia other than three cases reported in summer 2009 and one case in January 2011, all in areas close to the South-Eastern border with Russia. The bait uptake was satisfactory, with tetracycline positivity rates ranging from 85% to 93% in foxes and from 82% to 88% in raccoon dogs. Immunisation rates evaluated by ELISA ranged from 34% to 55% in foxes and from 38% to 55% in raccoon dogs. The rabies situation in Estonia was compared to that of the other two Baltic States, Latvia and Lithuania. Despite regular OV campaigns conducted throughout their territory since 2006, and an improvement in the epidemiological situation, rabies has still not been eradicated in these countries. An analysis of the number of baits distributed and the funding allocated by the European Commission showed that the strategy for rabies control is more cost-effective in Estonia than in Latvia and Lithuania

ADEPT: an advanced MMI for a power plant

Biblioteca Centrale CNR / CNR - Consiglio Nazionale delle RichercheSIGLEITItal