Antiretroviral treatment and the problem of political will in South Africa

South African AIDS policy has long been characterised by suspicion on the part of President Mbeki and his Health Ministers towards antiretroviral therapy.1,2 The Minister of Health, Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, resisted the introduction of antiretrovirals for mother-to-child transmission prevention (MTCTP) until forced to do by a Constitutional Court ruling – and she resisted the introduction of highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) for AIDS-sick people until a cabinet revolt in late 2003 forced her to back down on this too. Since then, the public sector rollout of HAART has gained momentum, but it has been uneven across the provinces and continues to be constrained by a marked absence of political will at high levels. Southern African Journal of HIV Medicine Vol. 7 (2) 2006: pp. 29-3

Parental presence within households and the impact of antiretroviral therapy in Khayelitsha, Cape Town

Background. While household support is an important component of effective care and treatment in HIV/AIDS, there are few insights from Southern Africa into how household support arrangements change over time for patients starting antiretroviral therapy (ART).Objective. We hypothesised that patients initiating ART are more likely to be living with family, especially their mothers, compared with the general population, but that over time these differences disappear.Methods. A panel survey of ART patients was matched by age, gender and education to a comparison sample drawn from adults in Khayelitsha, Cape Town.Results. The results show that there is a substantial potential burden of care on the families of patients starting ART, particularly mothers, and that the use of ART appears to reduce this burden over time. But, even after their health is restored, ART patients are significantly less likely to have a resident sexual partner and more likely to be living in single-person households than their counterparts in the general population

Energy and system dependence of high-pTp_T triggered two-particle near-side correlations

Previous studies have indicated that the near-side peak of high-$p_T$ triggered correlations can be decomposed into two parts, the \textit{Jet} and the \textit{Ridge}. We present data on the yield per trigger of the \textit{Jet} and the \textit{Ridge} from $d+Au$, $Cu+Cu$ and $Au+Au$ collisions at $\sqrt{s_{NN}}$ = 62.4 GeV and 200 GeV and compare data on the \textit{Jet} to PYTHIA 8.1 simulations for $p+p$. PYTHIA describes the \textit{Jet} component up to a scaling factor, meaning that PYTHIA can provide a better understanding of the \textit{Ridge} by giving insight into the effects of the kinematic cuts. We present collision energy and system dependence of the \textit{Ridge} yield, which should help distinguish models for the production mechanism of the \textit{Ridge}.Comment: 4 pages, 6 figures, proceedings for Hot Quarks in Estes Park, Colorad

Evaluation of fatty acid metabolism and innate immunity interactions between commercial broiler, F1 layer × broiler cross and commercial layer strains selected for different growth potentials

Background: The broiler industry has undergone intense genetic selection over the past 50 yr. resulting in improvements for growth and feed efficiency, however, significant variation remains for performance and growth traits. Production improvements have been coupled with unfavourable metabolic consequences, including immunological trade-offs for growth, and excess fat deposition. To determine whether interactions between fatty acid (FA) metabolism and innate immunity may be associated with performance variations commonly seen within commercial broiler flocks, total carcass lipid %, carcass and blood FA composition, as well as genes involved with FA metabolism, immunity and cellular stress were investigated in male birds of a broiler strain, layer strain and F1 layer × broiler cross at d 14 post hatch. Heterophil: lymphocyte ratios, relative organ weights and bodyweight data were also compared. Results: Broiler bodyweight (n = 12) was four times that of layers (n = 12) by d 14 and had significantly higher carcass fat percentage compared to the cross (n = 6; P = 0.002) and layers (P = 0.017) which were not significantly different from each other (P = 0.523). The carcass and whole blood FA analysis revealed differences in the FA composition between the three groups indicating altered FA metabolism, despite all being raised on the same diet. Genes associated with FA synthesis and β-oxidation were upregulated in the broilers compared to the layers indicating a net overall increase in FA metabolism, which may be driven by the larger relative liver size as a percentage of bodyweight in the broilers. Genes involved in innate immunity such as TLR2 and TLR4, as well as organelle stress indicators ERN1 and XBP1 were found to be non-significant, with the exception of high expression levels of XBP1 in layers compared to the cross and broilers. Additionally there was no difference in heterophil: lymphocytes between any of the birds. Conclusions: The results provide evidence that genetic selection may be associated with altered metabolic processes between broilers, layers and their F1 cross. Whilst there is no evidence of interactions between FA metabolism, innate immunity or cellular stress, further investigations at later time points as growth and fat deposition increase would provide useful information as to the effects of divergent selection on key metabolic and immunological processes.Nicky-Lee Willson, Rebecca E.A. Forder, Rick G. Tearle, Greg S. Nattrass, Robert J. Hughes, and Philip I. Hyn

Youth unemployment in South Africa revisited

One of the most pressing socio-economic problems of the South African economy is high youth unemployment. Recent studies only briefly examined how the youths fared since the transition by comparing the 1995 October Household Survey (OHS) with a Labour Force Survey (LFS), and hardly investigated whether the discouraged workseekers are different from the unemployed. Moreover, a new labour market status derivation methodology has been adopted since the inception of Quarterly Labour Force Survey (QLFS) in 2008. Although the unemployed in QLFSs are derived similarly as in OHSs and LFSs, the discouraged workseekers are distinguished very differently. This paper applies the QLFS methodology with minor revisions on all LFSs to derive comparable youth labour market trends since 2000, before re-examining the extent of youth unemployment. The characteristics of discouraged workseekers and narrow unemployed are then compared, before investigating whether different policies are needed to boost youth employment in each group.International Bibliography for Social Science

Postreproductive killer whale grandmothers improve the survival of their grandoffspring

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Differences in antiretroviral scale up in three South African provinces: the role of implementation management

BACKGROUND: South Africa's antiretroviral programme is governed by defined national plans, establishing treatment targets and providing funding through ring-fenced conditional grants. However, in terms of the country's quasi-federal constitution, provincial governments bear the main responsibility for provision of health care, and have a certain amount of autonomy and therefore choice in the way their HIV/AIDS programmes are implemented. METHODS: The paper is a comparative case study of the early management of ART scale up in three South African provincial governments--Western Cape, Gauteng and Free State--focusing on both operational and strategic dimensions. Drawing on surveys of models of ART care and analyses of the policy process conducted in the three provinces between 2005 and 2007, as well as a considerable body of grey and indexed literature on ART scale up in South Africa, it draws links between implementation processes and variations in provincial ART coverage (low, medium and high) achieved in the three provinces. RESULTS: While they adopted similar chronic disease care approaches, the provinces differed with respect to political and managerial leadership of the programme, programme design, the balance between central standardisation and local flexibility, the effectiveness of monitoring and evaluation systems, and the nature and extent of external support and programme partnerships. CONCLUSIONS: This case study points to the importance of sub-national programme processes and the influence of factors other than financing or human resource capacity, in understanding intervention scale up