Pregnant women’s construction of social support from their intimate partners during pregnancy

There is a growing body of research aimed at understanding social support during pregnancy in South Africa. Pregnancy is constantly referred to as one of the challenging and stressful periods affecting women’s physical and psychological well-being. Various research studies on social support argue that social support is paramount at this stage. Research on social support indicates that having adequate and quality social support impacts on how pregnant women experience pregnancy. My interest in social support comes in the wake of absent fathers in South Africa and with the emerging trend of “new” fathers. Although there is a volume of research on social support, it tends to be realist. Using a social constructionist framework, I explore other ways of talking about social support in an attempt to expand the discourse around social support. I explore how pregnant women talk about social support during pregnancy from their intimate partners in the small rural municipality of Elundini, Eastern Cape, South Africa. Intimate partner support was limited to heterosexual partners regardless of their marital status. The sampling procedure followed a non-probability sampling method. Participants of the study were between 24 and 32 years old. Their gestational age ranged between five and eight months. Fourteen in-depth interviews using photo-elicitation were conducted with seven participants and were analysed using a social constructionist informed thematic analysis. The major theme that emerged from the analysis was partner involvement and absence during pregnancy. The analysis of results suggests that expectant father presence translates to social support. Participants constructed his presence as reassurance in the context of possible abandonment. Absence was constructed in different ways: participants constructed absence as unjust and unfair, absence and marriage, temporary absence in the form of cultural phenomenon of ukwaliswa/ukubukubazana, absence as normal but burdening to the pregnant women’s social network. Participants reported that social support from the expectant father affected pregnancy wantedness

Pregnant women’s construction of social support from their intimate partners during pregnancy

There is a growing body of research aimed at understanding social support during pregnancy in South Africa. Pregnancy is constantly referred to as one of the challenging and stressful periods affecting women’s physical and psychological well-being. Various research studies on social support argue that social support is paramount at this stage. Research on social support indicates that having adequate and quality social support impacts on how pregnant women experience pregnancy. My interest in social support comes in the wake of absent fathers in South Africa and with the emerging trend of “new” fathers. Although there is a volume of research on social support, it tends to be realist. Using a social constructionist framework, I explore other ways of talking about social support in an attempt to expand the discourse around social support. I explore how pregnant women talk about social support during pregnancy from their intimate partners in the small rural municipality of Elundini, Eastern Cape, South Africa. Intimate partner support was limited to heterosexual partners regardless of their marital status. The sampling procedure followed a non-probability sampling method. Participants of the study were between 24 and 32 years old. Their gestational age ranged between five and eight months. Fourteen in-depth interviews using photo-elicitation were conducted with seven participants and were analysed using a social constructionist informed thematic analysis. The major theme that emerged from the analysis was partner involvement and absence during pregnancy. The analysis of results suggests that expectant father presence translates to social support. Participants constructed his presence as reassurance in the context of possible abandonment. Absence was constructed in different ways: participants constructed absence as unjust and unfair, absence and marriage, temporary absence in the form of cultural phenomenon of ukwaliswa/ukubukubazana, absence as normal but burdening to the pregnant women’s social network. Participants reported that social support from the expectant father affected pregnancy wantedness

Evaluating impact assessment of LED projects in Makana Municipality

Amongst other socio-economic challenges that South Africa has, unemployment still remains high; in July 2010 unemployment was at 25.3 percentage and in July 2011 it was at 25.7 percentage ; in a space of a year it grew by 0.4 percentage (Trading Economics, 2012). Even though South Africa has made some significant progress with its democracy; there is still significant socioeconomic problems. Poverty, lack of economic empowerment among the disadvantaged groups are amongst and lack of proper education are amongst some of these pressing challenges in South Africa. More than a quarter of South Africa's population currently receives social grants (Index mundi, 2011). The Eastern Cape Province is still faced with significant socio-economic challenges such as high unemployment rate. 74 percentage unemployed are the economically active group as they are under the age of 35 (ECDC, 2011:22). “More than a quarter (26.4 percentage) of households in the Eastern Cape relies on government grants as their main source of income. Nationally, the youth unemployment rate is estimated to be close to 35 percentage, with more than three million young people out of work. Youth unemployment in the Eastern Cape averages 41.4 percentage. This is more than twice the adult unemployment rate (18.4 percent). A total of 695,175 young people have been without work every year in the Eastern” (ECDC, 2010-2011: 23). Besides, this province has a third largest number of people who are living with HIV/AIDS in the country. These statistics have a major significance on the province’s economic prospects and progress (ECDC, 2010-2011:22). The RSA Constitution 1996, the White Paper on Local Government 1998 has mandated local governments to facilitate LED. South Africa adopted LED as a way of fighting poverty and stimulating economic growth and development for local residents. LED is promoting skills development, SMMEs and tourism to encourage economic development. However the success of LED has received mixed views in that; some successes of LED were recorded in urban or metropolitan municipalities. Few successes have been recorded of LED projects in rural municipalities. Some of the constraints of LED consist of capacity problems within the municipalities, understanding the role of LED in the municipality and lack of funding. In Makana Municipality, about 23 percentage of households live below poverty line of (R800.00 – R9600 a year). Most of the population earns between R801.00-R1600.00 per month with 24.7 percentage. A mere 0.6 percentage earn R204801.00 or more compared to 12.7 percentage with no income. Inadequate infrastructure poses as a threat to attracting and retaining investment in this municipality. In light of the above paragraphs, this thesis evaluated the impact assessment of the LED projects within Makana Municipality. The premise of this thesis is that realization and significant support of LED projects would impact positively on unemployment and poverty rate that this municipality is facing and subsequently; the burden of unemployment and poverty will be reduced in the region, province and country

Quantification of Human Immunodeficiency Virus -1 Viral Load using Nucleic Acid Sequence-based Amplification (NASBA) in North Central Nigeria

Viral load (VL) quantification is considered an integral part of the standard care in human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infected individuals but in Nigeria as in most of sub-SaharanAfrica, this has not reached themajority of patients. We report the first field application of the NucliSens EasyQ HIV-1 platform for the real time quantification of HIV-1 VL combining NASBAamplification and real time detection with molecular beacons among HIV-1 infected individuals in north central Nigeria where the predominant HIV-1 subtypes are CRF02_AGandG.CD4 countswere enumerated using a fluorescence-activated cell sorter system. Of one hundred and forty nine (n=149) plasma sample from patients with mean age of 32 years andmade up of 77males and 72 females, fifty {n = 50 (37.9%); 28males and 22 females}hadVLs below the lower detection limit (LDL=25 IU/ml) set by the assay while eighty- two {n = 82 (62.1%); 39 males and 43 females}hadVLlevels above the LDL. Furthermore, 13 of 82 (15.9%) patientswith viral loads above the LDL had VLs between 26-1000 IU/ml while 69 (84.1%) had VLs of 1001-2400000 IU/ml. 17 (11.4%) of the samples could not be analyzed due to poor viral amplification. Among individuals with both CD4 and VL results (n=56), those with CD4 of 1-418 cell/μl presented with higher VL usually above 45,000 IU/ml when comparedwith thosewithCD4 of over 500 cell/μl. Our findings highlight the pattern, usefulness and feasibility of VL quantification by NucliSens EasyQinmonitoringHIV-1 patients inNigeria.Keywords: HIV-1,Viral load quantitation,Nigeri

Household Transmission of Rotavirus in a Community with Rotavirus Vaccination in Quininde, Ecuador

Background: We studied the transmission of rotavirus infection in households in peri-urban Ecuador in the vaccination era. Methods: Stool samples were collected from household contacts of child rotavirus cases, diarrhea controls and healthy controls following presentation of the index child to health facilities. Rotavirus infection status of contacts was determined by RT-qPCR. We examined factors associated with transmissibility (index-case characteristics) and susceptibility (householdcontact characteristics). Results: Amongst cases, diarrhea controls and healthy control household contacts, infection attack rates (iAR) were 55%, 8% and 2%, (n = 137, 130, 137) respectively. iARs were higher from index cases with vomiting, and amongst siblings. Disease ARs were higher when the index child was ,18 months and had vomiting, with household contact ,10 years and those sharing a room with the index case being more susceptible. We found no evidence of asymptomatic infections leading to disease transmission. Conclusion: Transmission rates of rotavirus are high in households with an infected child, while background infections are rare. We have identified factors associated with transmission (vomiting/young age of index case) and susceptibility (young age/sharing a room/being a sibling of the index case). Vaccination may lead to indirect benefits by averting episodes or reducing symptoms in vaccinees

Seroprevalence of Hepatitis B Virus and Human Immunodeficiency Virus infection among students in Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Nigeria

Hepatitis B virus (HBV) and Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) are endemic in sub-Saharan Africa. Evidence on HBV co-infection rates with HIV infection among individuals remains conflicting. The study was conducted to determine the seroprevalence of HBV and HIV infections and the possible potential risk factors among students of Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), Zaria, Nigeria. Blood samples were collected from 600 consenting consecutive students aged between 16 and 40 years old at the University Health Services, ABU, Zaria. The sera were screened for HBsAg, anti-HBs, HBeAg, anti-HBe and anti-HBc using diagnostic kits and for Human Immunodeficiency Virus using DetermineTMHIV-1/2 kits. Reactive sera for HBsAg were further confirmed using ELISA kits. For HBsAg, 9.2% (55/600) tested positive among which, none had detectable anti-HBs antibodies, indicating recent infection. About 7.3%, 36.4% and 94.5% were positive for HBeAg, anti-HBe and anti-HBc respectively. Seroprevalence of HIV infection was 2.8% (17/600). One (0.2%) of the student was infected with both HBV and HIV. There was a significant association between age group (p=0.016), gender (p=0.049), family history of HBV infection (p=0.000), and seroprevalence of HBsAg. While for HIV, only menial jobs (p = 0.001) was significantly associated with the infection. The results showed close contact among family members to be a predisposing factor to these viral infections. A total of 314 students were ignorant of HBV and four of them were infectious. The seroprevalence of HBsAg obtained in this study indicates high endemicity according to WHO classification. However, seroprevalence of HIV and its co-infection rate with HBV were very low. This was encouraging and it indicates that the campaign on HIV is yielding the desired result. Therefore similar campaign should be extended to Hepatitis B.Keywords: Seroprevalence; HIV; HBsAg; Serological markers; Students; Nigeri

Novel Human Rotavirus Genotype G5P[7] from Child with Diarrhea, Cameroon

We report characterization of a genotype G5P[7] human rotavirus (HRV) from a child in Cameroon who had diarrhea. Sequencing of all 11 gene segments showed similarities to >5 genes each from porcine and human rotaviruses. This G5P[7] strain exemplifies the importance of heterologous animal rotaviruses in generating HRV genetic diversity through reassortment

Epidemiology of Rotavirus and Astrovirus Infections in Children in Northwestern Nigeria

Background: Recent estimates attribute 527 000 deaths in children less than five years of age to rotavirus diarrhea annually, with 145 000 occurring in sub-Saharan Africa. Human astroviruses have been identified as one of the most frequent causes of infantile diarrhea, second in incidence only to rotavirus. This study was conducted to determine the prevalence of rotavirus and astrovirus and also to establish the circulating strains of rotavirus in a community in Nigeria where most diarrheic patients do not visit clinics or health care centers. Methods: A total of 154 stool samples (134 diarrheic and 20 non-diarrheic) were collected from infants and young children less than 5 years of age from January-March 2002. Samples were obtained by house-to-house visit in randomly selected districts in Zaria, Northwestern Nigeria. The samples were screened for rotavirus and astrovirus antigens using commercially available Enzyme Linked Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA) kits. All positive group A rotavirus samples were further subjected to VP6 sub-group ELISA, Polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (PAGE) to determine their RNA electropherotypes and Reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) to determine their VP7 and VP4 genotypes. Results: Rotavirus and astrovirus antigens were detected in 9% (12) and 5% (7) of the 134 diarrheic stool samples respectively. No viral antigen was detected in the non-diarrheic stools. Rotavirus infection was more common in younger children than astrovirus infection. VP6 sub-group II specificity (58.3%), long RNA electropherotypes (41.6%), VP7 genotype G1 (33.3%) and VP4 genotype P [6] (33.3%) were the most common strains in circulation at that time in the community. Of significance is the fact that a large proportion of the rotavirus strains in circulation could not be assigned either a VP6 sub-group or RNA electrophoretic pattern probably as a result of low viral load. Conclusion: In this community-based study, rotavirus and astrovirus were significantly associated with diarrhea. However, the prevalence of rotavirus infection among children appears to be low while that of astrovirus falls in the range seen in hospital-based studies around the continent.Contexte: Des estimations r\ue9centes attribuent 527 000 d\ue9c\ue8s annuels d'enfants de moins de 5 ans \ue0 la diarrh\ue9e par rotavirus, parmi lesquels 145 000 surviennent en Afrique Sub Saharienne. Les astrovirus humains ont \ue9t\ue9 identifi\ue9s comme l'une des causes les plus fr\ue9quentes de diarrh\ue9e infantile, en second lieu viennent les atrovirus. Cette \ue9tude a \ue9t\ue9 men\ue9e pour d\ue9terminer la pr\ue9valence des rotavirus et astrovirus et \ue9tablir les souches circulantes de rotavirus dans une population du Nig\ue9ria ou la plupart des patients diarrh\ue9iques ne consultent pas en clinique ni les centres de sant\ue9. M\ue9thode: Un total de 154 \ue9chantillons de selles (134 diarrh\ue9iques et 20 non-diarrh\ue9iques) ont \ue9t\ue9 collect\ue9s chez des enfants de moins de 5 ans de janvier \ue0 mars 2002. Les \ue9chantillons ont \ue9t\ue9 recueillis par des visites de porte \ue0 porte dans des districts de Zaria (Nord-Ouest du Nig\ue9ria) s\ue9lectionn\ue9s par tirage au sort. Les \ue9chantillons ont \ue9t\ue9 analys\ue9s \ue0 la recherche d'antig\ue8nes anti rotavirus et astrovirus en utilisant les kits ELISA disponibles dans le commerce. Tous les tests positifs pour identification du groupe A des rotavirus ont \ue9t\ue9 soumis \ue0 l'identification par ELISA du sous groupe VP6 ainsi qu'\ue0 l'\ue9lectrophor\ue8se au gel de polyacrylamide pour d\ue9terminer leur type \ue9lectrophor\ue9tique d'ARN. La PCR-RT a \ue9t\ue9 utilis\ue9e pour d\ue9terminer le g\ue9notype VP4 et VP7. R\ue9sultats: Les antig\ue8nes anti rotavirus et astrovirus ont \ue9t\ue9 retrouv\ue9s dans respectivement 9% (12) et 5%(7) des 131 \ue9chantillons de selles de patients diarrh\ue9iques. Aucun antig\ue8ne viral n'a \ue9t\ue9 d\ue9tect\ue9 dans les selles non diarrh\ue9iques. L'infection \ue0 Rotavirus \ue9taient plus fr\ue9quente chez les jeunes enfants que celle \ue0 astrovirus. La sp\ue9cificit\ue9 du sous-groupe VP6, un long type \ue9lectrophor\ue9tique d'ARN (41,6%) le g\ue9notype G1 VP7 (33,3%) et le g\ue9notype P [6] VP4 (33,3%) ont \ue9t\ue9 les brins circulants les plus communs a cette p\ue9riode dans la population. L'\ue9l\ue9ment important est le fait que l'importante proportion de rotavirus circulants ne pouvaient \ueatre attribu\ue9 \ue0 un sous groupe VP6 ou \ue0 un type \ue9lectrophor\ue9tique en raison de la faible charge virale. Conclusion: Dans cette \ue9tude, rotavirus et astrovirus \ue9taient significativement associ\ue9s \ue0 la diarrh\ue9e. Il appara\ueet cependant que la pr\ue9valence de l'infection \ue0 rotavirus parmi les enfants semble faible tandis que celle des astrovirus tombe dans l'intervalle des \ue9tudes conduites dans les h\uf4pitaux sur tout le continent

Epidemiology of rotavirus diarrhea in children under 5 years in Northern Cameroon

Background: Rotavirus still remains the major cause of diarrhea in children below 5 years. No data on rotavirus epidemiology is available in the Northern regions of Cameroon. We aimed to determine the prevalence of group A rotavirus (RVA) in children below 5 years with diarrhea in two regions of Northern Cameroon (North West and Far North Regions) so as to improve our knowledge on the burden of rotavirus disease for imminent introduction of a rotavirus vaccine. Methods: Stool samples were collected during 2010 and 2011 from 390 children below 5 years presenting with diarrhea in four hospitals in Northern Cameroon and were screened for rotavirus group A by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction. Results: This study revealed that 42.8% of the children below 5 years had group A rotavirus infection, 46.5% in the Far North region while the North West had a prevalence of 33.9%. Of the 252 hospitalized and the 138 outpatient children, 124(49.2%) and 43(31.2%) (P=0.00085), respectively, were positive for group A rotavirus. Children below 24 months were most affected (44.7%), while the age group 49-60 months had the lowest prevalence (25%). The RVA prevalence was 44.6% in the urban and 28.9% in the rural settings of our study. It was observed that the proportion of children with diarrhea who had rotavirus accompanied with fever and vomiting in the outpatient group and inpatient group were 13.0% and 28.6% respectively, P=0.03. Conclusion: This study showed high incidence of rotavirus infection especially among hospitalized children in Northern Cameroon, suggesting that rotavirus is a major cause of childhood morbidity and mortality in this area