Reduced Semen Quality And Risk Behaviour Amongst Men Consulting A Referral STD Clinic

A CAJM article on the reduced semen quality among Zimbabwean men who consult referral STD clinics.Sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) and infertility are public health challenges that continue to represent a high demand and costly adult medical care conditions in most developing countries. Few studies address strategies for prevention of infertility secondary to STDs through behavioural change and early and prompt STD treatment. A prospective cohort design was used to study the effects of urogenital infection on semen quality in consenting consecutive subjects that presented with chronic or recurrent sexually transmitted diseases. Health seeking behavioural correlates and socio-economic variables were compared between index subjects at a genito-urinary referral clinic and those that presented with non-STD conditions at a referral polyclinic

A comprehensive RNA-Seq-based gene expression atlas of the summer squash (Cucurbita pepo) provides insights into fruit morphology and ripening mechanisms

Background: Summer squash (Cucurbita pepo: Cucurbitaceae) are a popular horticultural crop for which there is insufficient genomic and transcriptomic information. Gene expression atlases are crucial for the identification of genes expressed in different tissues at various plant developmental stages. Here, we present the first comprehensive gene expression atlas for a summer squash cultivar, including transcripts obtained from seeds, shoots, leaf stem, young and developed leaves, male and female flowers, fruits of seven developmental stages, as well as primary and lateral roots. Results: In total, 27,868 genes and 2352 novel transcripts were annotated from these 16 tissues, with over 18,000 genes common to all tissue groups. Of these, 3812 were identified as housekeeping genes, half of which assigned to known gene ontologies. Flowers, seeds, and young fruits had the largest number of specific genes, whilst intermediate-age fruits the fewest. There also were genes that were differentially expressed in the various tissues, the male flower being the tissue with the most differentially expressed genes in pair-wise comparisons with the remaining tissues, and the leaf stem the least. The largest expression change during fruit development was early on, from female flower to fruit two days after pollination. A weighted correlation network analysis performed on the global gene expression dataset assigned 25,413 genes to 24 coexpression groups, and some of these groups exhibited strong tissue specificity. Conclusions: These findings enrich our understanding about the transcriptomic events associated with summer squash development and ripening. This comprehensive gene expression atlas is expected not only to provide a global view of gene expression patterns in all major tissues in C. pepo but to also serve as a valuable resource for functional genomics and gene discovery in Cucurbitaceae

Progress and Research Needs of Plant Biomass Degradation by Basidiomycete Fungi

Peer reviewe

Zimbabwean capacity for HIV/AIDS research: current situation and new demands

It is now almost 20 years since the AIDS virus was first identified and considerable energy and resources have been invested in attempts to control the HIV epidemic. However, the epidemic has continued unabated and many people in Zimbabwe and other sub-Saharan African countries continue to succumb to the disease. This paper describes the establishment and function of the National AIDS Council (NAC) of Zimbabwe. The NAC mobilises national funds through an AIDS levy to support local HIV/AIDS activities. The NAC would like to ensure that the HIV/AIDS activities it supports are based on scientific evidence. The aim is to enhance effectiveness of funds from the NAC, through properly targeted evidence-based socio-behavioural interventions to prevent further spread of the virus particularly among young people. The NAC therefore funds projects by local non-governmental organizations (NGOs), public sector and private organisations through a district based approach. Local researchers could play an important role in monitoring and evaluating these projects to ensure effectiveness and value for money and to make certain that maximum resources reach the intended beneficiaries. The paper also describes the ZIMAIDS Information Portal initiative. This portal will provide information on HIV/AIDS for the utilisation of different stakeholders, people living with HIV, policy makers, health care givers, research workers and the public. The purpose is to deliver a comprehensive and heterogeneous collection of information sources through a secure access layer. The information system will be available in many versions— online, offline version, voice and print. To close the digital gap between urban and rural areas in Zimbabwe, this initiative will establish at district and eventually at village level, information way stations, which are equipped to access health information electronically. The Zimbabwe Science News Volume 35 (1+ 2) 2001, pp. 43-5

Risk factors for gonococcal and chlamydial cervical infection in pregnant and non-pregnant women in Zimbabwe

No Abstract. Central African Journal of Medicine Vol. 45 (10) 1999: pp. 252-25

Challenges of using HIV as a primary risk indicator: Need for integrated blood donor risk management model

Background: The use of risk modelling in blood safety is increasing getting momentum. NBSZ initiated blood donor risk profiling based on donation frequency (r-coding) since 1994 and in 2006 a generic risk classification model was developed (include age and donation venue) which was mainly based on HIV risk considerations. The blood safety implications of this model, which include all the four routinely tested transfusion transmission infections (TTI) has not been studied. We aim to assess whether the use of HIV as a primary risk indicator is sufficient in Zimbabwe and the possible blood safety concerns for this. Methods: Blood donor data on HIV, HBV, HCV and Syphilis from 2002 to 2011 was analysed. The NBSZ blood donor risk model developed in 2006, which has four levels [RC I (lower) - RC IV (higher)] of blood safety, was evaluated based on the TTIs seroprevalence results. The TTIs relative risk (RR) for usable (RC I and II) and unusable (RC III and IV) were determined and 95% CI determined. Sub-group analysis by gender was also done to aid in explaining the results. Results: A total of 627,072 donations were analysed. The overall TTIs seroprevalence by donor risk category are shown in Table 1. NBSZ donor risk classification seems to be performing well for all TTIs except for HBV, which has highest seroprevalence in RC II. The overall relative risk (RR) for TTIs in risk categories for unusable units over usable units is 3.5 (95% CI, 3.3-3.8), 1.3 (1.2-1.3), 1.3 (1.1-1.5) and 2.1 (1.9-2.4) for HIV, HBV, HCV and Syphilis respectively. The average RR in all risk categories for males being TTI positive compared to females is 0.70, 1.95, 1.6 and 1.2 for HIV, HBV, HCV and Syphilis respectively. [TABLE PRESENTED] Discussion and conclusions: The results for HIV, HCV and Syphilis indicate increasing safety concerns from low (RC I) to high (RC II) as we expect the model to perform. However, the high HBV seroprevalence in RC II is of concern to blood safety as these are usable blood units. Further analysis also noted that in risk category II, which is mainly composed of new donors in schools, the HBV risk is 68% higher when compared with other combined risk categories. Males are 95%, 60% and 20% more likely to be positive for HBV, HCV and Syphilis than females. However, they are 30% less likely to be HIV positive when compared to female donors. In conclusion, our results points to blood safety concerns for HBV in Zimbabwe and hence there is need to review the current NBSZ blood donor risk classification model taking into consideration other TTIs and cost-effectiveness analysis