Tracking the Trauma Epidemic in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa.

Background: Trauma remains an important cause of morbidity and mortality in South Africa, but attempts to track the epidemic are often based on mortality data, or derived from individual health facilities. This project is based on the routine collection of trauma data from all public health facilities in the province of KwaZulu-Natal (KZN), between 2012 and 2022.

Methods: Hospital level data on trauma over the past ten years was drawn from the district health information system (DHIS).

Barriers and facilitators of rendering HIV services by community health workers in sub-Saharan Africa: a meta-synthesis.

Objectives: To synthesise qualitative studies that address the barriers to and facilitators of providing HIV services by community health workers (CHWs) in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA).

Design: This meta-synthesis was guided by Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses. We included studies that were published between 2009 and 2019.

Incentives and enablers to improve adherence in tuberculosis.

Background: Patient adherence to medications, particularly for conditions requiring prolonged treatment such as tuberculosis (TB), is frequently less than ideal and can result in poor treatment outcomes. Material incentives to reward good behaviour and enablers to remove economic barriers to accessing care are sometimes given in the form of cash, vouchers, or food to improve adherence.

Objectives: To evaluate the effects of material incentives and enablers in patients undergoing diagnostic testing, or receiving prophylactic or curative therapy, for TB.

The medical use of cannabis for reducing morbidity and mortality in patients with HIV/AIDS.

Background: The use of cannabis (marijuana) or of its psychoactive ingredient delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) as a medicine has been highly contested in many settings.There have been claims that smoked or ingested cannabis, either in its natural form or artificial form (pharmaceutically manufactured drug such as dronabinol), improves the appetites of people with AIDS, results in weight gain and lifts mood, thus improving the quality of life.

Objectives: The objectives of this review were to assess whether cannabis (in its natural or artificially produced form), either smoked or ingested, decreases the morbidity or mortality of patients infected with HIV.

Material incentives and enablers in the management of tuberculosis.

Background: Patient adherence to medications, particularly for conditions requiring prolonged treatment such as tuberculosis, is frequently less than ideal, and can result in poor treatment outcomes. Material incentives (given as cash, vouchers and tokens), have been used to improve adherence.

Objectives: To assess the effects of material incentives in people undergoing diagnostic testing, or receiving prophylactic or curative therapy, for tuberculosis.