Effects of COVID-19 Pandemic on Voluntary Medical Male Circumcision Services for HIV Prevention, Sub-Saharan Africa, 2020.

Beginning in March 2020, to reduce COVID-19 transmission, the US President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief supporting voluntary medical male circumcision (VMMC) services was delayed in 15 sub-Saharan African countries. We reviewed performance indicators to compare the number of VMMCs performed in 2020 with those performed in previous years. In all countries, the annual number of VMMCs performed decreased 32.

Sexual and Gender-Based Violence Attitudes and Experiences among Nine Sub-Saharan African Militaries.

Introduction: While sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) is recognized as an important factor driving the HIV epidemic in sub-Saharan Africa, attitudes toward and prevalence of SGBV within sub-Saharan African military populations are unknown. Data on SGBV were collected from military service members of nine sub-Saharan African militaries. Attitudes related to SGBV and characteristics of those who commit and experience SGBV are reported.

Role of malnutrition and parasite infections in the spatial variation in children's anaemia risk in northern Angola.

Anaemia is known to have an impact on child development and mortality and is a severe public health problem in most countries in sub-Saharan Africa. We investigated the consistency between ecological and individual-level approaches to anaemia mapping by building spatial anaemia models for children aged ≤15 years using different modelling approaches. We aimed to (i) quantify the role of malnutrition, malaria, Schistosoma haematobium and soil-transmitted helminths (STHs) in anaemia endemicity; and (ii) develop a high resolution predictive risk map of anaemia for the municipality of Dande in northern Angola.

Hypertension in Northern Angola: prevalence, associated factors, awareness, treatment and control.

Background: Seventy-five million people are estimated to be hypertensive in sub-Saharan Africa. This translates in high morbidity and mortality, as hypertension is now considered to be the number one single risk factor for death worldwide. Accurate data from countries lacking national disease surveillance is needed to guide future evidence-driven health policies.

Finding malaria hot-spots in northern Angola: the role of individual, household and environmental factors within a meso-endemic area.

Background: Identifying and targeting hyper-endemic communities within meso-endemic areas constitutes an important challenge in malaria control in endemic countries such like Angola. Recent national and global predictive maps of malaria allow the identification and quantification of the population at risk of malaria infection in Angola, but their small-scale accuracy is surrounded by large uncertainties. To observe the need to develop higher resolution malaria endemicity maps a predictive risk map of malaria infection for the municipality of Dande (a malaria endemic area in Northern Angola) was developed and compared to existing national and global maps, the role of individual, household and environmental risk factors for malaria endemicity was quantified and the spatial variation in the number of children at-risk of malaria was estimated.

Epidemiology of malaria, schistosomiasis, geohelminths, anemia and malnutrition in the context of a demographic surveillance system in northern Angola.

Background: Malaria, schistosomiasis and geohelminth infection are linked to maternal and child morbidity and mortality in sub-Saharan Africa. Knowing the prevalence levels of these infections is vital to guide governments towards the implementation of successful and cost-effective disease control initiatives.

Methodology/principal Findings: A cross-sectional study of 1,237 preschool children (0-5 year olds), 1,142 school-aged children (6-15 year olds) and 960 women (>15 year olds) was conducted to understand the distribution of malnutrition, anemia, malaria, schistosomiasis (intestinal and urinary) and geohelminths in a north-western province of Angola.

Effect of a yellow filter on contrast sensitivity and disability glare after laser in situ keratomileusis under mesopic and photopic conditions.

Purpose: To analyze the effect of a yellow filter on contrast sensitivity and disability glare under mesopic and photopic luminance conditions in laser in situ keratomileusis (LASIK) patients and control subjects.

Methods: Contrast sensitivity with and without glare was determined in 27 patients who had undergone LASIK at least 1 year previously and in 30 control subjects. Tests were performed with and without a coated yellow filter (X-482 nm cut-off) using the Mesotest II or Mesoptometer II (Oculus, Wetzlar, Germany) under mesopic conditions, and the Contrast Glaretester 1000 (Takagi, Seiko Co Ltd, Nagano, Japan) under photopic conditions.