Partner Notification of HIV status Among Cameroonian Men Who Have Sex With Men

AbstractHIV prevalence rates are higher among men who have sex with men (MSM) than in the general population. Although there is ample evidence that partner notification (PN) effectively breaks the HIV transmission chain among MSM, it has not been practiced consistently in Cameroon. This study aimed to assess the perceptions and acceptability of PN of HIV status among MSM and use by health care workers (HCWs) in Cameroon. The health belief model underpinned this qualitative inquiry, in which I recruited 15 HCWs and 16 MSM using snowball sampling. I used in-depth personal interviews for data collection with notes taken using Microsoft Word and cross-checked with interviewees. Category coding, thematic analysis, qualitative content analysis, and discourse analysis were applied following an inductive procedure to generate responses to the research questions. The MSM participants reported having multiple sexual partners; 15 expressed the desire to prevent HIV transmission and share their status with partners as a sign of love. The MSM participants said they felt stigmatized by HCWs and the legislature and would prefer to hide their sexual orientation or receive care in centers serving gay men rather than clinics serving the general population. The HCWs participants expressed the desire to receive PN training, saying it would facilitate HIV case identification among MSM. The conclusion is that a collaborative action among the government, HCWs, and the MSM population is critical for Cameroon to control HIV. Furthermore, the amendment of incriminating laws and social barriers may increase access to health care for MSM

Scale-Up and Case-Finding Effectiveness of an HIV Partner Services Program in Cameroon: An Innovative HIV Prevention Intervention for Developing Countries

Partner services (PSs) are a long-standing component of HIV control programs in the United States and some parts of Europe. Small randomized trials suggest that HIV PS can be effective in identifying persons with undiagnosed HIV infection. However, the scalability and effectiveness of HIV PS in low-income countries are unknown

Evidence for an enhanced HIV/AIDS policy and care in Cameroon: proceedings of the second Cameroon HIV Research Forum (CAM-HERO) 2021

To achieve the Sustainable Development Goal of zero hunger, multi-sectoral strategies to improve nutrition are necessary. Building towards this goal, the food and agriculture sector must be considered when designing nutritional interventions. Nevertheless, most frameworks designed to guide nutritional interventions do not adequately capture opportunities for integrating nutrition interventions within the food and agriculture sector. This paper aims to highlight how deeply connected the food and agriculture sector is to underlying causes of malnutrition and identify opportunities to better integrate the food and agriculture sector and nutrition in low and middle income countries. In particular, this paper: (1) expands on the UNICEF conceptual framework for undernutrition to integrate the food and agriculture sector and nutrition outcomes, (2) identifies how nutritional outcomes and agriculture are linked in six important ways by defining evidence-based food and agriculture system components within these pathways: as a source of food, as a source of income, through food prices, women’s empowerment, women’s utilization of time, and women’s health and nutritional status, and (3) shows that the food and agriculture sector facilitates interventions through production, processing and consumption, as well as through farmer practices and behavior. Current frameworks used to guide nutrition interventions are designed from a health sector paradigm, leaving agricultural aspects not sufficiently leveraged. This paper concludes by proposing intervention opportunities to rectify the missed opportunities generated by this approach. Program design should consider the ways that the food and agriculture sector is linked to other critical sectors to comprehensively address malnutrition. This framework is designed to help the user to begin to identify intervention sites that may be considered when planning and implementing multi-sectoral nutrition program

Partner Notification of HIV Status among Cameroonian Men Who Have Sex with Men

HIV prevalence rates are higher among men who have sex with men (MSM) than in the general population. Although there is ample evidence that partner notification (PN) effectively breaks the HIV transmission chain among MSM, it has not been practiced consistently in Cameroon. This study aimed to assess the perceptions and acceptability of PN of HIV status among MSM and use by health care workers (HCWs) in Cameroon. The health belief model underpinned this qualitative inquiry, in which I recruited 15 HCWs and 16 MSM using snowball sampling. I used in-depth personal interviews for data collection with notes taken using Microsoft Word and cross-checked with interviewees. Category coding, thematic analysis, qualitative content analysis, and discourse analysis were applied following an inductive procedure to generate responses to the research questions. The MSM participants reported having multiple sexual partners; 15 expressed the desire to prevent HIV transmission and share their status with partners as a sign of love. The MSM participants said they felt stigmatized by HCWs and the legislature and would prefer to hide their sexual orientation or receive care in centers serving gay men rather than clinics serving the general population. The HCWs participants expressed the desire to receive PN training, saying it would facilitate HIV case identification among MSM. The conclusion is that a collaborative action among the government, HCWs, and the MSM population is critical for Cameroon to control HIV. Furthermore, the amendment of incriminating laws and social barriers may increase access to health care for MSM

Retrospective analysis of the prevalence of and factors associated with condom use among young HIV-infected women in Cameroon

Objectives: Young women are more likely to be infected with HIV globally, in sub-Saharan Africa, and in Cameroon. Despite its clear clinical and public health benefits, condom use among HIV-infected women continues to be low. The objective of this study was to describe the prevalence of inconsistent condom use among HIV-infected women in Cameroon and the factors associated with it. Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional study of HIV-infected young women aged 17–26 years from three semi-urban HIV clinics in the Northwest Region of Cameroon. This study was a subgroup analysis of a previously reported study on inconsistent condom use in HIV-infected and -uninfected youth. Inconsistent condom use was defined as reporting “sometimes” or “never” to questions regarding frequency of condom use. Logistic regression modeling was used to determine factors associated with inconsistent condom use. Results: A total of 84 participants were recruited and submitted completed questionnaires for analysis. Median age was 24 years (interquartile range = 22–25) and the median age at HIV diagnosis was 21 years (interquartile range = 20–23). Fifty percent of the participants reported no prior schooling or only primary school education. Overall, 61/84 (73%) reported inconsistent condom use. After adjusting for potential confounders, education to the secondary school level was protective against inconsistent condom use (odds ratio = 0.19; confidence interval: 0.04–0.95), and having ≥2 pregnancies was associated with inconsistent condom use (odds ratio = 7.52; confidence interval: 1.67–34.00). Conclusion: There is a high prevalence of inconsistent condom use among young HIV-infected women in Cameroon, which appears to be associated with lower levels of educational attainment and higher parity. Further larger studies assessing the factors associated with poor condom use in this population are warranted and may inform public health policy in resource-limited settings with high HIV prevalence

Assessing the accessibility of HIV care packages among tuberculosis patients in the Northwest Region, Cameroon

Background: Tuberculosis (TB) and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) co-infection is a major source of morbidity and mortality globally. The World Health Organization (WHO) has recommended that HIV counselling and testing be offered routinely to TB patients in order to increase access to HIV care packages. We assessed the uptake of provider-initiated testing and counselling (PITC), antiretroviral (ART) and co-trimoxazole preventive therapies (CPT) among TB patients in the Northwest Region, Cameroon. Methods: A retrospective cohort study using TB registers in 4 TB/HIV treatment centres (1 public and 3 faith-based) for patients diagnosed with TB between January 2006 and December 2007 to identify predictors of the outcomes; HIV testing/serostatus, ART and CPT enrolment and factors that influenced their enrolment between public and faith-based hospitals. Results: A total of 2270 TB patients were registered and offered pre-HIV test counselling; 2150 (94.7%) accepted the offer of a test. The rate of acceptance was significantly higher among patients in the public hospital compared to those in the faith-based hospitals (crude OR 1.97; 95% CI 1.33 - 2.92) and (adjusted OR 1.92; 95% CI 1.24 - 2.97). HIV prevalence was 68.5% (1473/2150). Independent predictors of HIV-seropositivity emerged as: females, age groups 15-29, 30-44 and 45-59 years, rural residence, previously treated TB and smear-negative pulmonary TB. ART uptake was 50.3% (614/1220) with 17.2% (253/1473) of missing records. Independent predictors of ART uptake were: previously treated TB and extra pulmonary TB. Finally, CPT uptake was 47.0% (524/1114) with 24% (590/1114) of missing records. Independent predictors of CPT uptake were: faith-based hospitals and female sex. Conclusion: PITC services are apparently well integrated into the TB programme as demonstrated by the high testing rate. The main challenges include improving access to ART and CPT among TB patients and proper reporting and monitoring of programme activities