The male versus female perspective on family planning: kinshasa, zaire.

Males have often been neglected in both family planning programmes and in surveys used to design and evaluate such programmes. A 1988 study on fertility, family planning and AIDS in Kinshasa, Zaire, provides comparable data on 3140 men and 3485 women of reproductive age which served as the basis for analysing male/female differences. The study indicated a fair degree of similarity in the attitudes, beliefs, knowledge levels and practices of men and women regarding fertility and family planning.

Impact of selective primary care on childhood mortality in a rural health zone of Zaire.

Following the introduction of intensified child survival activities, use of health services for children increased markedly: measles vaccination reached 74% of children aged 12-23 months, and the use of oral rehydration therapy for the treatment of diarrhoea had increased. During the same period, childhood mortality declined by 33% for children aged 1-4 years. Data on cases of measles in the local hospital reveals that the pattern of measles epidemics characteristic of the years preceding programme implementation was altered in the years following programme implementation.

Changes in use of health services in a rural health zone in Zaire.

As part of the Combatting Childhood Communicable Diseases (CCCD) project funded by the US Agency for International Development (USAID), the Zairian CCCD programme conducted surveys in the rural health zones of Kingandu and Pai-Kongila, Zaire, in 1984-1985 and 1988-1989 to determine whether a strategy of selective primary health care would affect childhood mortality. This paper describes the changes in the medical care infrastructure and the increasing coverage of selected services. The strategies evaluated were vaccination, oral rehydration therapy, and treatment of febrile episodes with antimalarial drugs for children; and tetanus vaccination and malaria prophylaxis for pregnant women.

AIDS-related knowledge, sexual behavior, and condom use among men and women in Kinshasa, Zaire.

This study was conducted in 1988 among a random sample of 6,625 men and women of reproductive age in all 24 administrative zones of Kinshasa, the capital city of Zaire, to determine existing levels of knowledge regarding AIDS (acquired immunodeficiency syndrome), sexual behavior, knowledge and use of condoms in marital and extramarital relations; perceived risk of AIDS, and attitudes toward testing for the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). Awareness of AIDS is almost universal, and the vast majority know the four main modes of transmission. Almost half believed in transmission by mosquitoes and in a vaccine or cure for AIDS.