HIV Infection and Sexual Behaviour Among Women With Infertility in Tanzania: A Hospital-Based Study.

Infertility is common in Africa, but virtually no data exist on HIV prevalence among infertile women. Mainly anthropological studies in Africa have shown that infertile women have higher risks of marital instability and possibly also have more sexual partners than fertile women. This study was conducted in a hospital in northwest Tanzania during 1994 and 1995. Women presenting themselves with infertility problems to the outpatient clinic were interviewed, examined and blood was drawn. Women who came to deliver in the hospital, excluding primiparae, were taken as a control group. The analysis was limited to women > or = 24 years. In total 154 infertile and 259 fertile women were included in the study. HIV prevalence was markedly higher among infertile women than among fertile women: 18.2% and 6.6% respectively (adjusted odds ratio [OR] for age, residence and occupation 2.7; 95%-confidence interval [CI]: 1.4-5.3). Data on past sexual behaviour showed that infertile women had more marital breakdowns, more lifetime sexual partners and a higher level of exposure to sexually transmitted diseases (STD). Women with fertility problems appear to have higher HIV prevalence, which justifies more attention for such women in the context of AIDS programmes. In addition, caution is needed when using sentinel surveillance data from antenatal clinics to monitor HIV prevalence

Islamic influences on urban form in Sumatra in the seventeenth to nineteenth centuries CE

This article focuses on the evolution of three urban centres: Palembang, Padang and Tanjung Pinang. Where appropriate, brief information about other towns is added which shows that the three towns are typical for towns on the east coast, the west coast and the islands in the Straits of Malacca respectively. Unfortunately, there is no place in the Minangkabau highlands for which historical sources exist that can help to reconstruct the townscape in a comparably detailed way. The descriptions of Palembang, Padang and Tanjung Pinang give details of Islamic buildings and provide information about the development of the settlements as a whole. These morphological histories have a value in their own right. They form a baseline to assess fully the specific Islamic influence on urban form in the disruption of some Islamic transformations. The Dutch changes bring out the previous Islamic influences more sharply. In the last section the emic (indigenous) conceptions of 'urban' will be analysed, by exploring the contrast between town and village and the role of Islamic buildings to accentuate the difference. The conclusion will list the most important empirical generalisations drawn from the descriptions. © 2004 Editors, Indonesia and the Malay World