It is widely believed that children who are directly affected by AIDS are greatly disadvantaged at school and that teachers are a high risk group for HIV infection. Research in Botswana, Malawi and Uganda suggests that the situation is much more complex. An international team of researchers surveyed 41 primary and secondary schools across the three countries and interviewed education managers, teachers and other stakeholders. They investigated the effectiveness of HIV prevention programmes and the impact of the AIDS epidemic on pupils and teachers. They found little evidence that education on HIV/AIDS, sexual and reproductive health (SRH) and life skills has a major impact on behaviour. Economic and social pressures that fuel unsafe sexual practices among adolescents remain high. Teachers lack the training and commitment to integrate HIV/AIDS education into carrier subjects. The study identified an urgent need for full-time SRH/life skills teachers in both primary and secondary schools giving regular timetabled lessons.
Human Resources
What does it mean to be a young orphan? Why and how are numbers burgeoning? Why are orphans socially excluded and how might education support their inclusion? This study investigates the lives of orphans in an area of Malawi, suggests why the numbers of orphans are exploding and indicates how the social unrest that may follow could be avoided. This small project conceives of education in the broadest possible sense to include what the orphans need to know to survive in the short term, to fruitfully participate in their surroundings in the medium term, and to prosper in the long term. It attempts to build a picture of their lives and aspirations, the particular perceptions of female orphans and also of their carers, organised in state registered, community level Orphan Care Groups (OCGs).
An expanding body of evidence challenges the conventional hypothesis that sexual transmission is responsible for more than 90% of adult HIV infections in Africa. Differences in epidemic trajectories across Africa do not correspond to differences in sexual behaviour. Studies among African couples find low rates of heterosexual transmission, as in developed countries. Many studies report HIV infections in African adults with no sexual exposure to HIV and in children with HIV-negative mothers. Unexplained high rates of HIV incidence have been observed in African women during antenatal and postpartum periods. Many studies show 20%-40% of HIV infections in African adults associated with injections (though direction of causation is unknown). These and other findings that challenge the conventional hypothesis point to the possibility that HIV transmission through unsafe medical care may be an important factor in Africa's HIV epidemic. More research is warranted to clarify risks for HIV transmission through health care.
High rates of TB and HIV infection in sub-Saharan Africa increase the risk of healthworkers of catching TB from their patients. In mid-1998, Malawi’s National Tuberculosis Control Programme produced guidelines for hospitals on TB control. Are hospitals sticking to the guidelines? Are they having any effect?
Do African adolescents know enough about AIDS to protect themselves against infection? What is the best way to educate them about the risks of HIV? A report from Population Services International evaluates a peer-led HIV prevention programme in a secondary school in Zambia.
A group of American researchers now suggest that the community in which one lives is as important as an individual's behavior in determining the risk of HIV infection. "The risk of individual behavior is enhanced or lessened by the type of place in which it takes place," said study lead author Dr. Shelah S. Bloom of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Bloom and her colleagues reported their findings in Sexually Transmitted Infections (2002;78:261-266). The researchers analyzed data from surveys conducted in a rural northern Tanzanian region with about 20,000 inhabitants between 1994 and 1997.
AT least 30 percent of all school teachers countrywide are HIV-positive, according to Mr Saul Murimba of the Southern Africa Consortium for Monitoring Educational Quality. He told participants at a two-day workshop on management of HIV/Aids at the education district level that the teachers would eventually succumb to the pandemic.
Produced by the WHO Transforming Health Systems is a training resource for health trainers to use with health managers, policy-makers and others with responsibilities in reproductive health. It offers a training curriculum designed to equip participants with the analytical tools and skills to integrate the promotion of gender equity and reproductive rights into their reproductive health policies, planning and programmes.
In many developing countries, the outpatient departments of national referral hospitals are swamped by patients from the local urban population. Do these people bypass primary health centres and go straight to outpatient departments when seeking care? Are perceptions of limited and poor quality primary level health services to blame?
Hygiene education for women is a standard component of water supply projects. However, evaluations frequently reveal little change in hygiene and sanitation behaviour and so water-borne illnesses persist. Why is it so hard to convey water-related health messages? Researchers from UK University of Bradford tackle this issue in an assessment of Ghana’s Upper Region Water Supply Project (URWSP). They argue for a more rigorous analysis of the cultural and gender-related factors that influence women's acceptance and understanding of these messages.