Does a history of sexual and physical childhood abuse contribute to HIV infection risk in adulthood? A study among post-natal women in Harare, Zimbabwe.

Background: Sexual and physical abuse in childhood creates a great health burden including on mental and reproductive health. A possible link between child abuse and HIV infection has increasingly attracted attention. This paper investigated whether a history of child physical and sexual abuse is associated with HIV infection among adult women.

"Girls need to behave like girls you know": the complexities of applying a gender justice goal within sexuality education in South African schools.

Sexuality education, as a component within the Life Orientation (LO) programme in South African schools, is intended to provide young people with knowledge and skills to make informed choices about their sexuality, their own health and that of others. Key to the programme are outcomes relating to power, power relations and gender. In this paper, we apply a critical gender lens to explore the ways in which the teaching of sexuality education engages with larger goals of gender justice.

Masculinity, sexuality and vulnerability in 'working' with young men in South African contexts: 'you feel like a fool and an idiot … a loser'.

South Africa has seen a rapid increase in scholarship and programmatic interventions focusing on gender and sexuality, and more recently on boys, men and masculinities. In this paper, we argue that a deterministic discourse on men's sexuality and masculinity in general is inherent in many current understandings of adolescent male sexuality, which tend to assume that young women are vulnerable and powerless and young men are sexually powerful and inevitably also the perpetrators of sexual violence. Framed within a feminist, social constructionist the oretical perspective, the current research looked at how the masculinity and sexuality of South African young men is constructed, challenged or maintained.

Resisting the binarism of victim and agent: Critical reflections on 20 years of scholarship on young women and heterosexual practices in South African contexts.

The last 20 years have seen a proliferation of research, spurred by the imperatives of the HIV epidemic and reportedly high rates of gender-based violence, on heterosexual practices in the South African context. Research has focused on how poverty, age and gender within specific cultural contexts shape sexual agency and provide a context for unequal, coercive and violent practices for young women. This paper takes stock of what we currently 'know' about heterosex and critically reflects on the political and ideological effects of such research, specifically in the light of young women's agency.

Intimate partner violence after disclosure of HIV test results among pregnant women in Harare, Zimbabwe.

Background: HIV status disclosure is a central strategy in HIV prevention and treatment but in high prevalence settings women test disproportionately and most often during pregnancy. This study reports intimate partner violence (IPV) following disclosure of HIV test results by pregnant women.

Methods: In this cross sectional study we interviewed 1951 postnatal women who tested positive and negative for HIV about IPV experiences following HIV test disclosure, using an adapted WHO questionnaire.

Policy commitments vs. lived realities of young pregnant women and mothers in school, Western Cape, South Africa.

Reproductive rights in South Africa continue to be undermined for young women who fall pregnant and become mothers while still at school. Before 1994, exclusionary practices were common and the majority of those who fell pregnant failed to resume their education. With the adoption of new policies in 2007, young pregnant women and mothers are supposed to be supported to complete school successfully.

Intimate partner violence during pregnancy in Zimbabwe: a cross-sectional study of prevalence, predictors and associations with HIV.

Objective: To describe the occurrence, dynamics and predictors of intimate partner violence (IPV) during pregnancy, including links with HIV, in urban Zimbabwe.

Methods: A cross-sectional survey of 2042 post-natal women aged 15-49 years was conducted in six public primary healthcare clinics in low-income urban Zimbabwe. An adapted WHO questionnaire was used to measure IPV.

Taxi 'sugar daddies' and taxi queens: male taxi driver attitudes regarding transactional relationships in the Western Cape, South Africa.

Media reports are emerging on the phenomenon of young girls who travel with older mini-bus taxi drivers, and who are thought to have sex with the drivers in exchange for gifts and money. The extent to which such relationships might facilitate unsafe sexual practices and increased risks for both the men and the young women, often referred to as taxi queens, remains an important question in the light of the current challenges of HIV/AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa. However, very little research has been undertaken on this issue, especially regarding the perceptions and experiences of taxi drivers.

"That pregnancy can bring noise into the family": exploring intimate partner sexual violence during pregnancy in the context of HIV in Zimbabwe.

Background: Globally, studies report a high prevalence of intimate partner sexual violence (IPSV) and an association with HIV infection. Despite the criminalisation of IPSV and deliberate sexual HIV infection in Zimbabwe, IPSV remains common. This study explored women's and health workers' perspectives and experiences of sexuality and sexual violence in pregnancy, including in relation to HIV testing.

[Early resorptive effects of highly toxic alkylating substances].

In the next few hours after exposure of mustards in harmful doses the injured suffer a complex of neurological deficits-headache, asthenia and emetic syndrome, and in case of lethal dosage-adynamia, tremor and convulsions. In case of percutaneous exposure of sulfur mustard, these disorders limit the terms of the conservation capacity of injured and determine the nature of the medical care they need at the pre-hospital stage. Perspective areas of drug prevention and treatment of early manifestations of acute resorptive action of mustards are the use of antiemetics, analgesics, and the removal of endogenous toxemia caused by inflammatory mediators, and biologically active substances in the gastro-intestinal origin.

AIDS fatigue and university students' talk about HIV risk.

Drawing on a qualitative study that included 20 focus group discussions with male and female students at an urban-based university in South Africa, this article reports on perceptions, attitudes and reported behaviour with respect to HIV and AIDS and safer sex in the campus setting, with an aim to better understand how young people are responding to the challenges of HIV and AIDS in contemporary South Africa. The findings demonstrate the gap between reported HIV-prevention knowledge and safer-sex practices among a group of young and educated South Africans. Although the participants reported that students were knowledgeable about HIV and had easy access to condoms on campus, a range of factors mediated their capacity to apply this knowledge to safer-sex practices.

Narratives of transactional sex on a university campus.

Given the imperatives of HIV and gender equality, South African researchers have foregrounded transactional sex as a common practice that contributes to unsafe and inequitable sexual practices. This paper presents findings from a qualitative study with a group of students at a South African university, drawing on narratives that speak to the dynamics of reportedly widespread transactional sex on campus. Since many of these relationships are inscribed within unequal power dynamics across the urban-rural and local-'foreigner' divides, and across differences of wealth, age and status that intersect with gender in multiple, complex ways, it is argued that these may be exacerbating unsafe and coercive sexual practices among this group of young people.

Research capacity building: a US-South African partnership.

Research capacity building engenders assets that allow communities (and, in this case, student fellows) to respond adequately to health issues and problems that are contextual, cultural and historical in nature. In this paper, we present a US-South African partnership that led to research training for 30 postgraduate students at two South African universities. We begin by exploring the nature of research capacity building in a partnership research project designed to promote HIV and AIDS-related stigma reduction.

[Redistribution of gastrointestinal ammonia into blood in alcohol coma rat: the role in lethal outcome].

At 3 h after the intragastral administration of ethanol (446 mmol/kg) the blood ammonia concentration in v. portae increased 1.4 times, in v.

South African teachers' responses to teenage pregnancy and teenage mothers in schools.

South African law forbids excluding pregnant teenagers from school and permits young parents to continue with their schooling. However, the existence of progressive policy and law does not by itself ensure that pregnant teenagers and young parents remain in school or experience as little disruption to their studies as possible. Two of the factors influencing the experiences that pregnant girls and young parents have are the attitudes and practices of teachers.

Stigma, Culture, and HIV and AIDS in the Western Cape, South Africa: An Application of the PEN-3 Cultural Model for Community-Based Research.

HIV- and AIDS-related stigma has been reported to be a major factor contributing to the spread of HIV. In this study, the authors explore the meaning of stigma and its impact on HIV and AIDS in South African families and health care centers. They conducted focus group and key informant interviews among African and Colored populations in Khayelitsha, Gugulethu, and Mitchell's Plain in the Western Cape province.

Integrated gender-based violence and HIV Risk reduction intervention for South African men: results of a quasi-experimental field trial.

South Africa is in the midst of one of the world's most devastating HIV/AIDS epidemics and there is a well-documented association between violence against women and HIV transmission. Interventions that target men and integrate HIV prevention with gender-based violence prevention may demonstrate synergistic effects. A quasi-experimental field intervention trial was conducted with two communities randomly assigned to receive either: (a) a five session integrated intervention designed to simultaneously reduce gender-based violence (GBV) and HIV risk behaviors (N = 242) or (b) a single 3-hour alcohol and HIV risk reduction session (N = 233).

Gender attitudes, sexual power, HIV risk: a model for understanding HIV risk behavior of South African men.

The Gender Attitudes-Power-Risk (GAPR) model of HIV risk behavior was tested using survey data collected from among 309 men who were attending STI services in a primary health care clinic in Cape Town, South Africa. Results showed that negative attitudes towards women were significantly positively associated with a high level of HIV risk behavior, and that endorsement of traditional male roles was negatively associated with HIV risk behavior. Endorsement of traditional male gender roles was also inversely related to relationship control but positively to a high degree of decision-making dominance in one's relationship.

Hyperammoniemia in rats with barbiturate coma.

Sodium thiopental in the comatogenic (but not soporogenic) dose caused hyperammoniemia in rats. Blood ammonium level increased 3-fold within 3 h and 5-fold within 18 h. Blood urea level increased by one-third within 18 h against the background of unchanged creatinine level and hematocrit.

Social constructions of gender roles, gender-based violence and HIV/AIDS in two communities of the Western Cape, South Africa.

The links between gender roles, gender-based violence and HIV/AIDS risk are complex and culturally specific. In this qualitative study we investigated how women and men in two black communities in the Western Cape, South Africa, constructed their gender identities and roles, how they understood gender-based violence, and what they believed about the links between gender relations and HIV risk. First we conducted 16 key informant interviews with members of relevant stakeholder organisations.

The evaluation of immediate behavioural outcomes of the syndromic case management approach for the treatment of patients with sexually transmitted infections at PHC centres in South Africa: knowledge, attitudes, beliefs and sexual behaviour.

This study aimed to determine the immediate behavioural outcomes of the WHO syndromic case management model for STIs in the public health sector in South Africa, on the levels of knowledge, attitudes and beliefs, and behavioural practices (KABPs) concerning STIs. An outcomes evaluation was conducted using KABP methodology. Exit interviews were conducted with 126 STI and non-STI patients at 24 primary health care (PHC) centres in four provinces.

Synergism of isothermal regimen and sodium succinate in experimental therapy of barbiturate coma.

In rats with experimental thiopental coma rectal temperature decreased by 9.4 degrees C, oxygen consumption 5-fold, and arteriovenous Po(2)gradient decreased 2-fold within 3 h; CO(2)accumulated in the blood and mixed type acidosis developed. Administration of sodium succinate under these conditions increased arteriovenous Po(2)gradient and reduced manifestations of metabolic acidosis.

Metabolic correction of gas exchange disturbances in rats with barbiturate coma.

Krebs cycle intermediates normalized gas exchange and decreased the mortality rate in rats with barbiturate coma. Treatment with other substrates including glucose and products of glycolysis was ineffective. Oxygen inhalation had no effect on oxygen consumption and indexes of external respiration.

Effect of sodium succinate on gas exchange in rats with barbiturate-induced coma.

Injection of sodium succinate in doses of 5 or 10 mmol/kg (but not 1 mmol/kg) intensified oxygen consumption in rats with sodium thiopental-induced coma. Injection of SDH inhibitor (sodium malonate) inhibited gas exchange and abolished the effect of sodium succinate. The effect of succinate on rat survival was positive, while that of malonate was negative, but manifested only as a trend.

The social construction of sexually transmitted infections (STIs) in South African communities.

Since the medical link between sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and HIV/AIDS was established, there has been an increased focus on the spread of STIs in South Africa. The aim of this study was to provide an in-depth picture of the dynamics involved in sexuality and the spread of STIs and HIV/AIDS. The authors present the findings of a focus group study, which was a part of a larger, national project addressing the broad question of health-care seeking behavior for STIs.