Articles: disease.
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J Natl Black Nurses Assoc · Jan 1999
AIDS: risk behaviors and situations as perceived by adolescents in Gaborone, Botswana.
While AIDS continues to escalate in Botswana, no systematic investigation has been done of the contextual (behavioral and situational) variables important to the tailoring of AIDS educational prevention program for adolescents. A cross-sectional descriptive study identified the specific behaviors and situations placing adolescents at risk for AIDS as perceived by a convenience sample of 48 adolescents. Adolescents attended gender-specific focus groups and completed a demographic questionnaire. ⋯ For younger adolescents AIDS-related behaviors involved sex and intravenous drug use; for older adolescents AIDS-related behaviors involved multiple sexual partners and sexual relationships between older men and adolescent girls. Though a consensus existed regarding the situational variables, gender and age influenced the situation that was most challenging to these adolescents. The data support that AIDS educational prevention programs must be tailored to the adolescents' gender and age.
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Major public health resources are devoted to the prevention of sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) through public STD clinics. However, little is known about where people actually receive treatment for STDs. ⋯ The health care utilization patterns for STD treatment in the United States are complex. Specific disease diagnosis, gender, race and income status all affect where people will seek treatment. These factors need to be taken into account when STD prevention strategies are being developed.
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J. Acquir. Immune Defic. Syndr. Hum. Retrovirol. · Dec 1998
A prospective study of community-acquired bloodstream infections among febrile adults admitted to Mulago Hospital in Kampala, Uganda.
Septicemia is a frequent cause of death in HIV-infected adults in developing countries. Additional prospective studies are needed to determine the etiology of bloodstream infections (BSI) in febrile HIV-infected adults and guide initial evaluation and treatment in this setting. We assessed the prevalence and etiology of community-acquired BSI among 299 consecutive febrile adult medical admissions to Mulago Hospital, Kampala, Uganda, over a 4-month period in 1997. ⋯ Bacteremia and disseminated tuberculosis are frequent causes of morbidity in febrile HIV-infected Ugandan adults. Initial empiric antibiotic coverage in this setting should be targeted toward the pneumococcus and gram-negative enteric bacilli, especially nontyphi Salmonella species. All patients presenting with chronic cough should be evaluated for tuberculosis.
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Comparative Study
Cohort study on circumcision of newborn boys and subsequent risk of urinary-tract infection.
A decrease in risk of urinary-tract infection is one of the most commonly given reasons for circumcision of newborn boys. Previous studies have reported rates of UTI to be 10-20 times higher in uncircumcised than in circumcised boys. This population-based cohort study followed neonates in Ontario, Canada, prospectively to study the relation between circumcision and subsequent UTI risk. ⋯ Although our findings support the notion that circumcision may protect boys from UTI, the magnitude of this effect may be less than previously estimated.