Understanding resilience of female adolescents towards teenage pregnancy: a cross-sectional survey in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania

Abstract Background In Tanzania, teenage pregnancy rates are still high despite the efforts being made to reduce them. Not enough is known about how adolescents experience and cope with sexuality and teenage pregnancy. Over the past few decades, most studies have focused on vulnerability and risk among youth. The concept of ‘reproductive resilience’ is a new way of looking at teenage pregnancy. It shifts the perspective from a deficit-based to a strength-based approach. The study presented here aimed to identify factors that could contribute to strengthening the reproductive resilience of girls in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Methods Using a cross-sectional cluster sampling approach, 750 female adolescents aged 15–19 years were interviewed about how they mobilize resources to avoid or deal with teenage pregnancy. The main focus of the study was to examine how social capital (relations with significant others), economic capital (command over economic resources), cultural capital (personal dispositions and habits), and symbolic capital (recognition and prestige) contribute to the development of adolescent competencies for avoiding or dealing with teenage pregnancy and childbirth. Results A cumulative competence scale was developed to assess reproductive resilience. The cumulative score was computed based on 10 competence indicators that refer to the re- and pro-active mobilization of resources. About half of the women who had never been pregnant fell into the category, ‘high competence’ (50.9%), meaning they could get the information and support needed to avoid pregnancies. Among pregnant women and young mothers, most were categorized as ‘high competence’ (70.5%) and stated that they know how to avoid or deal with health problems that might affect them or their babies, and could get the information and support required to do so. Cultural capital, in particular, contributed to the competence of never-pregnant girls [OR = 1.80, 95% CI = 1.06 to 3.07, p = 0.029], pregnant adolescents and young mothers [OR = 3.33, 95% CI = 1.15 to 9.60, p = 0.026]. Conclusions The reproductive resilience framework provides new insights into the reproductive health realities of adolescent girls from a strength-based perspective. While acknowledging that teenage pregnancy has serious negative implications for many female adolescents, the findings presented here highlight the importance of considering girls’ capacities to prevent or deal with teenage pregnancy

Systematic restaining of sputum smears for quality control is useful in Burundi

SETTING: Routine tuberculosis control services in Burundi. OBJECTIVE: To determine whether systematic restaining of sputum smears for acid-fast bacilli (AFB) prior to rechecking quality assessment is necessary. DESIGN: Blinded rechecking of peripheral routine smears, including a second control of discordants, before and after restaining. RESULTS: Without restaining, 10/825 (1.2%) negative, and 59/189 (31.2%) positive results were declared false. After restaining, there were 34 (4.1%) false negatives and 13 (6.9%) false positives, both highly significant changes. Before restaining, quantification of positive smears was usually considered too high, while after restaining 41 out of 42 positives were found to have too low readings. CONCLUSIONS: Despite mild climatic conditions in Burundi, restaining all slides before rechecking revealed an unrecognised, widespread problem of false negatives, rather than false positives. This indicated the need for critical re-appraisal of the standard procedure using cold staining, rather than re-training, as would have been inferred from results without restaining. Systematic restaining of all slides prior to rechecking may be more widely needed in National Tuberculosis Programmes to cover all possible serious causes of error. Cold staining should be avoided in field programmes since its performance is easily affected by frequently encountered adverse factors

Design and implementation of IoT sensors for nonvisual symptoms detection on maize inoculated with Exserohilum turcicum

Diseases on maize crops are highly caused by chronic and emerging pathogens that results in stagnant growth in the plant system. Several initiatives have been adopted to manage disease on crops which include new cultivation practices, genetic engineering, plant breeding and chemical control which have only proven to perform better on laboratory-based approaches. Meanwhile, small holder farmers can hardly afford such intervention mechanisms because they are costly and require highly skilled labor. With the advancement of technologies in Internet of Things (IoT) and different artificial intelligence models, non-visual signs of disease are being explored and experimented in this work for nonvisual early disease detection purposes. Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs), Ultrasound, Nitrogen, Phosphorous, Potassium (NPK) fertilizer are profiled on control maize and inoculated maize with Exserohilum turcicum fungus to generate time series data. Dataset generated are preprocessed, analyzed, and visualized using pandas and matplotlib python tools. Machine Learning algorithms have been inferenced on the dataset; Statsmodel for trends and seasonality detection and Pruned Exact Linear Time (PELT) for change point detection. Analysis of data on the implemented Internet of Things technology in this experiment has achieved nonvisual detection of Northern Leaf Blight (NLB) disease on maize within four days post inoculation from monitored Volatile Organic Compounds and ultrasound emission

Rifampicin mono-resistant Mycobacterium tuberculosis in Bujumbura, Burundi; results of a drug resistance survey

SETTING: Bujumbura, Burundi. OBJECTIVES: To determine resistance levels of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (TB) to the main anti-tuberculosis drugs after 11 years of a DOTS programme using a WHO-recommended partially intermittent 6-month rifampicin (RMP) first-line regimen and fixed-dose drug combinations (FDCs). DESIGN: Drug susceptibility testing of systematic samples of M. tuberculosis isolated from newly registered sputum smear-positive cases in the capital during a 15-month period (2002-2003). RESULTS: Of 496 strains from new cases, 16.1% showed resistance to any drug, 6.3% to isoniazid (INH), 2.0% to RMP (1.4% multidrug-resistant TB [MDR-TB]), 13.3% to streptomycin and 1.6% to ethambutol. Among 69 strains from previously treated cases, the prevalence of resistance was 30%, 19%, 15% (12% MDR-TB strains), 25% and 6%, respectively. CONCLUSION: Levels of drug resistance in Bujumbura are higher than average for Africa, despite long-term use of the DOTS strategy with FDCs and a ban on sales of TB drugs. Most worrying is the appearance of MDR-TB and RMP-resistant, INH-susceptible strains in new cases. Although a survey cannot prove that high HIV prevalence, elevated levels of resistance to some other drugs and irregular intake allowed acquisition of drug resistance, the effectiveness and safety of 6-month regimens with (partially) intermittent RMP throughout under such conditions should be investigated