Minorities, immigrants and HIV/AIDS epidemiology: Concerns about the use and quality of data

A European Community concerted action charged with assessing AIDS prevention for migrants and/or ethnic minorities raised the problem of the quality and possibility for misuse of existing HIV and AIDS data. Basing statistics on the number of foreigners in a country is problematical as numbers are affected by variations in definitions and policies concerning immigration. Categorizing by ethnic origin raises serious definitional problems. For the numerator, epidemiology must be based on AIDS case data since systematic HIV testing of migrants is excluded on both practical and human rights grounds, but there are reasons for both over- and under-reporting of AIDS in migrant groups. Underlying issues of stigmatization and of racism are discussed. While there Is need for improvement in the epidemiological data collected, both planning and evaluation of HIV/AIDS prevention programmes should more reasonably be based on proxy indicators, essentially those of knowledge, attitudes and behaviours, as well as on good ethnographie

Minorities, immigrants and HIV/AIDS epidemiology

A European Community concerted action charged with assessing AIDS prevention for migrants and/or ethnic minorities raised the problem of the quality and possibility for misuse of existing HIV and AIDS data. Basing statistics on the number of foreigners in a country is problematical as numbers are affected by variations in definitions and policies concerning immigration. Categorizing by ethnic origin raises serious definitional problems. For the numerator, epidemiology must be based on AIDS case data since systematic HIV testing of migrants is excluded on both practical and human rights grounds, but there are reasons for both over- and under-reporting of AIDS in migrant groups. Underlying issues of stigmatization and of racism are discussed. While there Is need for improvement in the epidemiological data collected, both planning and evaluation of HIV/AIDS prevention programmes should more reasonably be based on proxy indicators, essentially those of knowledge, attitudes and behaviours, as well as on good ethnographies

Families, children, migration and AIDS

Migration is very often a family affair, and often involves children, directly or indirectly. It may give rise to better quality of life for an entire family, or to bitter disappointment, and may also increase vulnerability to HIV and AIDS. This review, carried out for the Joint Learning Initiative on Children and AIDS, links the literature on “migration”, on “HIV and AIDS” and on “families”. Three themes are sketched: (1) As both HIV prevalence and circular migration increase, former migrant workers affected by AIDS may return to their families for care and support, especially at the end of life, often under crisis conditions. Families thus lose promising members, as well as sources of support. However, very little is known about the children of such migrants. (2) Following patterns of migration established for far different reasons, children may have to relocate to different places, sometimes over long distances, if their AIDS-affected parents can no longer care for them. They face the same adaptation challenges as other children who move, but complicated by loss of parent(s), AIDS stigma, and often poverty. (3) The issue of migrant families living with HIV has been studied to some extent, but mainly in developed countries with a long history of migration, and with little attention paid to the children in such families. Difficulties include involuntary separation from family members, isolation and lack of support, disclosure and planning for children's care should the parent(s) die and differences in treatment access within the same family. Numerous research and policy gaps are defined regarding the three themes, and a call is made for thinking about migration, families and AIDS to go beyond description to include resilience theory, and to go beyond prevention to include care

The world's colonization and trade routes formation as imitated by slime mould

The plasmodium of Physarum polycephalum is renowned for spanning sources of nutrients with networks of protoplasmic tubes. The networks transport nutrients and metabolites across the plasmodium's body. To imitate a hypothetical colonization of the world and the formation of major transportation routes we cut continents from agar plates arranged in Petri dishes or on the surface of a three-dimensional globe, represent positions of selected metropolitan areas with oat flakes and inoculate the plasmodium in one of the metropolitan areas. The plasmodium propagates towards the sources of nutrients, spans them with its network of protoplasmic tubes and even crosses bare substrate between the continents. From the laboratory experiments we derive weighted Physarum graphs, analyze their structure, compare them with the basic proximity graphs and generalized graphs derived from the Silk Road and the Asia Highway networks. © 2012 World Scientific Publishing Company

Mapping HIV/STI behavioural surveillance in Europe

Published versio

A grounded theory study of the narrative behind Indian physiotherapists global migration

It is estimated that an additional 6.4 million allied health professionals are required to address India's health challenges. Physiotherapy is amongst the largest of these professions. Over the last decade, thousands of Indian physiotherapists have sought to study and work overseas. In this study, 19 physiotherapists from across India were interviewed. Data were collected and analysed using construct+ivist grounded theory methods. The findings indicate that the Indian physiotherapy profession faces many political and clinical hierarchical challenges within the Indian healthcare infrastructure. The profession's education provision has developed, and the private clinical sector has grown, but there are significant disparities in quality and standards across the sector. The profession in India has variable autonomy, is not nationally regulated, is poorly paid, and the leadership has been divided. The political, educational, and clinical context in Indian physiotherapy impacts upon physiotherapists' ability to practise effectively to their professional satisfaction. Individual physiotherapists are frustrated by their workplace and travel overseas where they hear that the physiotherapy profession and practice is different. Whilst the disjunctures influencing these factors continue, and overseas physiotherapy practice is perceived as different and superior, Indian physiotherapists will continue to seek to migrate overseas, and facilitating their return will be challenging