Pregnant women's experiences of routine counselling and testing for HIV in Eastern Uganda: a qualitative study.

Background: Routine HIV counselling and testing as part of antenatal care has been institutionalized in Uganda as an entry point for pregnant women into the prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV (PMTCT) programme. Understanding how women experience this mode of HIV testing is important to generate ideas on how to strengthen the PMTCT programme. We explored pregnant HIV positive and negative women's experiences of routine counselling and testing in Mbale District, Eastern Uganda and formulated suggestions for improving service delivery.

"Telling my husband I have HIV is too heavy to come out of my mouth": pregnant women's disclosure experiences and support needs following antenatal HIV testing in eastern Uganda.

Introduction: Disclosure of HIV serostatus by women to their sexual partners is critical for the success of the prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV (PMTCT) programme as an integrated service in antenatal care. We explored pregnant HIV-positive and HIV-negative women's partner disclosure experiences and support needs in eastern Uganda.

Methods: This was a qualitative study conducted at Mbale Regional Referral Hospital in eastern Uganda between January and May 2010.

Listening to health workers: lessons from Eastern Uganda for strengthening the programme for the prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV.

Background: The implementation and utilization of programmes for the prevention of mother-to-child transmission (PMTCT) of HIV in most low income countries has been described as sub-optimal. As planners and service providers, the views of health workers are important in generating priorities to improve the effectiveness of the PMTCT programme in Uganda. We explored the lessons learnt by health workers involved in the provision of PMTCT services in eastern Uganda to better understand what more needs to be done to strengthen the PMTCT programme.

Barriers to adherence to antiretroviral medications among patients living with HIV in southern China: a qualitative study.

Although China's government is rapidly expanding access to antiretroviral therapy, little is known about barriers to adherence among Chinese HIV-infected patients, particularly among injection drug users. To better understand barriers to antiretroviral treatment adherence, we conducted a qualitative research study, using both focus group and key informant methods, among 36 HIV-positive men and women in Dali, in southwestern China. All interviews utilized semi-structured question guides and were conducted in Mandarin, audio-recorded and translated into English for analysis.

Assessment of health services for treatment of sexually transmitted infections among Nigerian adolescents.

Background: The available evidence indicates that Nigerian adolescents use various health practitioners for the treatment of sexually transmitted diseases (STDs). However, the quality of the STD treatment used by adolescents has not been investigated previously.

Goal Of This Study: To investigate the quality of services provided by health practitioners for the treatment and prevention of STDs among adolescents in Benin City, Nigeria.

The relevance of anthropology for tropical public health: a historical perspective.

Despite the fact that tropical diseases have long been linked to human behaviour and local cultures, the written record of anthropologists involved in the study of tropical disease is relatively recent. In this article, the authors review how anthropologists have shifted their focus from the ecological modeling of disease transmission to the more recent cultural-epidemiological and historical approaches. The list of authors reviewed does not pretend to be exhaustive but rather is intended to reveal the co-existence of multiple paradigms in explaining the emergence of tropical disease within cultures.

An anthropological perspective on the acceptability of immunization services.

This review first discusses the relevance of anthropology for Primary Health Care generally and specifically with respect to the acceptability of immunization, and summarizes some of the factors which have been found to be associated with acceptability. It then focuses on the collaboration between anthropologists and bio-medical scientists and on the deployment of anthropological methods for discovering the specific reasons for low acceptability for disparate groups. The review concludes with a cautionary note on the use of social marketing for increasing acceptability.

Cultural components of behavioural epidemiology: implications for primary health care.

In this article we discuss the association of culturally linked behaviour and epidemiology: that patterns of disease are significantly related to cultural sets of normative beliefs and behaviour. The literature on this is vast and includes much of what is written under the headings of Medical Anthropology as well as, for example, Cross-cultural Psychiatry and Medical Geography. A comprehensive review is obviously impossible, but as this is presented primarily as a background paper, basic issues are raised, and related to examples from the literature, to stimulate discussion.

Will primary health care efforts be allowed to succeed?

It is suggested that the consequences of following Primary Health Care (PHC) principles as guidelines for health care development must of necessity lead to socio-economic and political restructuring in most countries. We are well aware that health status is determined more by the social and economic situation of population groups than by curative health services. The holistic approach of primary health care includes a concern with such factors.

Traditional therapies and the treatment of drug dependence in Southeast Asia.

Many countries in Southeast Asia have the experience of traditional treatments of drug dependence, or have healers who are extending traditional methods to meet contemporary needs. Some treatments, for example those used in some Buddhist monasteries in Thailand and clinics in Japan, rely upon the philosophical and religious traditions of the country; others come closer to faith healing and magic in their practices; and many use herbal preparations during detoxification and afterwards, as well as offering spiritual or secular therapy. This paper argues that careful evaluation be made of the methods and outcome of these traditional treatments of drug dependence and summarizes some of the evidence so far published.