Is quality affordable for community health systems? Costs of integrating quality improvement into close-to-community health programmes in five low-income and middle-income countries.

Introduction: Countries aspiring to universal health coverage view close-to-community (CTC) providers as a low-cost means of increasing coverage. However, due to lack of coordination and unreliable funding, the quality of large-scale CTC healthcare provision is highly variable and routine data about service quality are not trustworthy. Quality improvement (QI) approaches are a means of addressing these issues, yet neither the costs nor the budget impact of integrating QI approaches into CTC programme costs have been assessed.

Women's beliefs about male circumcision, HIV prevention, and sexual behaviors in Kisumu, Kenya.

It is important to understand how women's sexual practices may be influenced by male circumcision (MC) as an HIV prevention effort. Women's beliefs about MC and sexual behaviour will likely influence the scale-up and uptake of medical MC. We conducted qualitative interviews with 30 sexually active women in Kisumu, Kenya.

"When I was circumcised I was taught certain things": risk compensation and protective sexual behavior among circumcised men in Kisumu, Kenya.

Background: Male circumcision has been shown to reduce the transmission of HIV from women to men through vaginal sex by approximately 60%. There is concern that men may engage in risk compensation after becoming circumcised, diminishing the benefits of male circumcision.

Methods And Findings: We conducted qualitative interviews with 30 sexually active circumcised men in Kisumu, Kenya from March to November 2008.