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Volume 2, Number 24
17 June 2002
FAMILY PLANNING / REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH LAW AND POLICY
South
Africa: Test for HIV Before Pregnancy, Says Health
Minister (news article)
South African health minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang
says women need to be encouraged to go for voluntary
HIV counseling and testing before they become pregnant.
Women Await
Pill Judgement (news article)
In London, judgement has been reserved in a test case
of 100 women who claim they were damaged by the third
generation contraceptive pill. After hearing all of
the expert evidence, the justice has indicated that
his judgment will be delivered before the end of July.
South
Africa: Mpumalanga Finally Agrees to Anti-Retrovirals
(news article)
Anti-rape volunteers in Mpumalanga gave health MEC
Sibongile Manana a pat on the back this week for the
first time in two tense years. The MEC announced on
Thursday that the department was finally preparing
to dispense antiretroviral drugs to all of the province's
27 hospitals, and that care rooms would be set aside
for emergency help for rape survivors.
England:
Mothers Sue Over 'Failed Contraceptive' (news article)
A group of 63 women who became pregnant despite using
a controversial hi-tech contraceptive aid are suing
the makers for millons of pounds. The women all used
the Persona device following its launch in the UK
in 1996.
In South Africa, Politics Hinder
AIDS Treatment (news article)
South Africa may block a US$13 million grant for an
AIDS care program in KwaZulu-Natal province, where
30% of adults have HIV infection.
FAMILY PLANNING / REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH RESEARCH
Efficacy
of a New Method of Family Planning: The Standard Days
Method 
(research article)
Related press release: Standard
Days Method A Modern, Effective Method of Family Planning
The Standard Days Method (SDM) is a new modern and
natural method of family planning with an efficacy
rate of better than 95% when used correctly. This
method is based on physiological evidence that women
have a fertile phase during each menstrual cycle when
it is possible for them to get pregnant. Most women
using the SDM find that a simple device, a color-coded
string of beads called CycleBeads, helps them to identify
the days of their cycles when they can get pregnant
and the
days when pregnancy is very unlikely.
Transforming
Family Planning Services in the Latin American and
Caribbean Region (research abstract)
Related news article: Transforming
Family Planning Services in the Latin American and
Caribbean Region
This article uses qualitative data analysis to review
the experience of nine family planning association
projects in the Latin American and Caribbean region
that have made a successful organizational transition
from services focused on family planning to a gender-based
and sexual health approach.
Oral
Contraceptive Use and Association With Glucose, Insulin,
and Diabetes in Young Adult Women (research abstract)
Related news article: Oral
Contraceptives Might Be Protective Against Diabetes
Current use of OCs is associated with lower glucose
levels in young African-American and white women and
may be associated with lower odds of diabetes.
Excess
Capacity and the Cost of Adding Services at Family
Planning Clinics in Zimbabwe (research article)
Reduction of provider downtime (time absent from the
clinic, time spent unoccupied, or time not otherwise
used productively) at family planning clinics in the
developing world could increase capacity to provide
services with a minimal rise in costs. Poorly paid
providers, however, may require financial incentives
to increase their workload.
FAMILY PLANNING / REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH NEWS
Morning-After Blues (news article)
Widespread misconceptions about the efficacy of the
morning-after pill exist in Thailand, resulting in
excessive and incorrect use, as well as unintended
pregnancies. Incorrect use is attributed partly to
the fact that it goes under a variety of colloquial
names; post-coital pill, spermicide, and a "temporary
contraceptive."
Planning
a Family: Why Not? (news article)
"We support family planning. Who says it is un-Islamic?
It is very much Islamic!" said Pakistani president
Musharraf. Yet many stakeholders in Pakistan believe
that it is wrong to control one's fertility.
Study
Finds Viagra Use Linked to Sexual Diseases: San Francisco
Officials Call for Warning Label (news article)
The impotence drug Viagra has been associated with
increased incidence of sexually transmitted diseases
including gonorrhea and HIV, and should carry a warning
label to encourage safe sex.
HIV / AIDS RESEARCH
Disseminated
Infection with Simiae-Avium Group Mycobacteria in
Persons with AIDS --- Thailand and Malawi, 1997
(research article)
Persons with advanced human immunodeficiency virus
(HIV)-1 infection are susceptible to disseminated
mycobacterial infections. In the United States, most
such infections are caused by Mycobacterium avium
or M. intracellulare. In less developed countries,
M. tuberculosis is equally or more prevalent than
MAC in persons with HIV-1 infection. Other mycobacterial
species have been reported to cause disseminated infection
in HIV-infected persons, including Simiae-Avium (SAV)
group mycobacteria. SAV group organisms share characteristics
of M. avium and M. simiae.
Antiretroviral
Therapy during Pregnancy and the Risk of an Adverse
Outcome (research summary)
Related news story: Mom's HIV Drugs
Not Linked to Premature Birth
As compared with no antiretroviral therapy or
monotherapy, combination therapy for HIV-1 infection
in pregnant women is not associated with increased
rates of premature delivery or with low birth weight,
low Apgar scores, or stillbirth in their infants.
The association between combination therapy with protease
inhibitors and an increased risk of very low birth
weight requires confirmation.
"Natural"
Resistance to HIV: Is the Evidence Good Enough to
Design an Effective Vaccine? (research article)
All past and current vaccine efforts are predicated
on the assumption that a protective immune response
to HIV can in fact be generated. No one contests the
need for preventive and, more recently, therapeutic
vaccines. Enormous intellectual, bench research, and
clinical trials investment by industry and academia
have been expended, with future acceleration both
planned and demanded. Despite this, we currently have
nothing available for general preventive use, and
the HIV vaccine research community exhibits cautious
optimism at best.
HIV / AIDS NEWS
UNICEF,
Uganda Expand Mother-To-Child Prevention (news
article)
UNICEF and Uganda are expanding a project under which
pregnant women with HIV receive drugs preventing mother-to-child
transmission of the virus. The project is to become
part of routine prenatal care across Uganda, with
all women attending prenatal clinics receiving counseling,
testing and, if they are found to have HIV, free drug
doses.
Feeding Hungry Seen Key to Fighting
AIDS in Africa (news article)
"If you are able to provide food to people, that
in itself will contribute to prevention of the epidemic.
A person who is not hungry
will not have to sell her body that day to be able
to eat."
Spray Vaccine Protects Monkeys From
HIV-Like Virus (news article)
A spray vaccine containing a weakened form of the
virus that causes SIV, the monkey version of HIV,
has been shown to stimulate a protective immune response
in rhesus monkeys, an international research team
reports.
South
African Study Shows Infection Rate Stabilizing
(news article)
HIV infections in South Africa appear to be leveling
off, according to annual statistics by the country's
Health Ministry. Some experts, however, warned new
infections could still be on the rise.
MATERNAL AND CHILD HEALTH RESEARCH
Female
Circumcision and Obstetric Complications (PubMed
abstract)
Of 1,851 women interviewed in three Nigerian hospitals,
45% were circumcised. Circumcised women had significantly
higher risks of tearing and stillbirths when all pregnancies
were analyzed.
Risk
Factors for Preterm Delivery in Women with Placenta
Previa and Antepartum Hemorrhage: Retrospective Study
(research article)
Among women in an obstetric unit in Hong Kong, preterm
delivery is increased in women with placenta previa
and antepartum hemorrhage who have second trimester
vaginal bleeding or the presence of uterine contractions.
This high-risk group may benefit from close in-patient
monitoring and more aggressive management.
Improving
Child Health: The Role of Research (research article)
Research has resulted in substantial progress in child
health over the past 10 years, but many problems remain
to be tackled. Further progress requires that research
continues to deal with the needs of children affected
by preventable conditions in the developing world.
Strengthening national research capacities to respond
to local health needs is fundamental for the implementation
and sustainability of research findings at a population
level. A dynamic interaction between researchers,
policy makers, advocacy groups, and funding institutions,
within developing and developed nations, is essential
to ensure that priorities in child research are based
on sound evidence and remain at the top of the international
development agenda.
Epidemiologic
Differences Between Cyclosporiasis and Cryptosporidiosis
in Peruvian Children (research article)
Children had an average of 0.20 episodes of cyclosporiasis/year
and 0.22 episodes of cryptosporidiosis/year of follow-up
in a periurban community near Lima, Peru. Likelihood
of diarrhea decreased significantly with each episode
of cyclosporiasis; for cryptosporidiosis, this trend
was not statistically significant. Both infections
were more frequent during the warm season (December
to May) than the cooler season (June to November).
MATERNAL AND CHILD HEALTH NEWS
Zimbabwe:
Government Takes Measures to Improve Children's Lives
(opinion/news article)
The author details the many steps taken by the Zimbabwe
government to improve poverty, education, and child
health.
MEN'S HEALTH RESEARCH
Many Men Exhibit Health Care Avoidance (research article)
Physicians, public health officials look for ways
to increase men's involvement in medical care and
improve health indicators. The sexes are taught to
deal very differently with pain and fear. But the
same learned indifference to pain and fear that helps
men win on the football field or the battlefield doesn't
make for a good interface with the health care field.
Family
History and Prostate Cancer Screening With Prostate-Specific
Antigen (research abstract)
Related news article: Limited PSA
Testing Misses Most Prostate Cancer
Despite some evidence that men with a family history
of prostate cancer are more likely to develop the
disease themselves, limiting screening efforts to
these men will miss many cases of the disease.
MEN'S HEALTH NEWS
Pfizer
Gets Government Go-Ahead To Make Viagra In Egypt
(news article)
Viagra sales in the first year are expected to reach
$ 50 million. Pfizer expects to start delivering Viagra
to pharmacies throughout Egypt within 3 to 4 weeks.
South
Africa: Bold Men Opening HIV/Aids Township Debate
(news article)
The news that young people in the Western Cape are
not practicing safe sex, sending infection rates spiraling
in their age group, is a challenge a group of young
men in Gugulethu are preparing to face head-on. The
group believes their best hope of contributing to
an end to the HIV pandemic is for men to stand together
as examples of how "real men" behave in
a healthy community.
Prostate
Cancer: Three Research Advances (fact sheet)
Scientists have made important progress in understanding
the biology of prostate cancer, and clinicians are
increasingly able to use that information to improve
diagnosis and treatment.
POPULATION RESEARCH
Russia's
Demographic Decline Continues (research report)
Recently released population estimates for Russia
confirm the accelerating population decline that has
been underway since the breakup of the Soviet Union
more than a decade ago. The Russian population stood
at 144 million on January 1, 2002, down 4.3 million
from its peak at the beginning of 1992. The pace of
natural decrease (the surplus of deaths over births)
and slowing migration appears to have intensified
since 1998.
The
End of the Fertility Transition in the Developing
World
(research report)
Fertility declines are now underway in many developing
countries, and the focus of debate about future fertility
trends is shifting from the early to the later phases
of the transition. This study examines the patterns
and determinants of fertility in the developing world
to identify regularities in the past that may provide
clues to future trends.
POPULATION NEWS
Falling
Slovak Birth Rate Sets Family Alarms Ringing (news
article)
Worries about the village's falling birth rate in
2000 prompted municipal officials in southern Slovakia's
Gbelce to offer parents Sk10,000 ($220) for every
newborn child they produced. Demographers say Slovakia
is copying Western population shrinkage trends.
Population
Problem (news article)
Falling birthrates in countries across the Asia-Pacific
region mean decreasing numbers among the younger generation
to continue traditions of supporting older members
of their families, says a report released by the UN
Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific.
UNFPA
To Help LAO PDR Implement Population Policy (news
article)
The Lao People's Democratic Republic will begin to
implement its 1999 national population and development
policy to effectively reduce maternal and infant mortality
and poverty.
Russia
Launches Population Census (news article)
The census is expected to provide valuable information
for Russia's government in a country where the population
has declined rapidly since the Soviet era. However,
there are worries that despite a guarantee of anonymity,
many people will not reveal details such as their
jobs to the census-takers.
WOMEN'S HEALTH RESEARCH
Stressful
Life Experiences and Risk of Relapse of Breast Cancer:
Observational Cohort Study (research article)
Related news story: Stress Not Linked
to Breast Cancer Recurrence--Study
This study found no evidence that women who have a
severely stressful life experience in the year before
being diagnosed with breast cancer, or in the five
years afterwards, are at any increased risk of developing
a recurrence of their disease. In fact, women who
had one or more severely stressful life experiences
after diagnosis had a lower risk of recurrence than
those who did not. These intriguing findings are in
the opposite direction to the outcome hypothesized,
and it is difficult to formulate a rationale to explain
how stressful life experiences might reduce a woman's
chance of experiencing a recurrence of her disease.
WOMEN'S HEALTH NEWS
East:
Domestic Violence -- An Unspoken Problem In Many Postcommunist
Countries (news article) (Part 1)
Uzbekistan:
Domestic Violence -- Saving The Family, But Sacrificing
Women (Part 2)
In many countries in the former Soviet region, governments
have made strong statements about defending women's
rights and have promised to abide by international
conventions protecting women from discrimination and
abuse. But in practice, few states acknowledge that
domestic violence exists or have laws against the
abuse in their criminal codes.
Rare Disorder Leads Team to New Breast
Cancer Genes (news article)
Researchers have found a definitive link between genes
involved in a rare disorder and genes that predispose
people to breast cancer and other forms of cancer.
The finding could one day help doctors identify people
at high risk of developing cancer and do a better
job of treating the disease.
YOUTH RESEARCH
Interventions
to Reduce Unintended Pregnancies Among Adolescents:
Systematic Review of Randomized Controlled Trials
(research article)
This review of studies in developed nations found
that primary prevention strategies did not delay the
initiation of sexual intercourse or improve use of
birth control among young men and women. Meta-analyses
showed no reduction in pregnancies among young women,
but data from five studies, four of which evaluated
abstinence programs and one of which evaluated a school-based
sex education program, show that interventions may
increase pregnancies in partners of male participants.
Risk
of Adverse Pregnancy Outcomes in Young Adolescent
Parturients in an Inner-City Hospital (research
abstract)
Related news article: Teens Face
Higher Pregnancy Complication Rate
Adolescents were more likely than women at least 20
years old to have a preterm delivery, and teens were
also more than twice as likely to develop eclampsia
as older women.
A
Quasi-Experimental Study to Assess the Impact of Four
Adolescent Sexual Health Interventions in Sub-Saharan
Africa (research article)
Interventions targeted at adolescents can be effective
in changing attitudes and sexual behavior if they
include multiple channels of communication, reach
a substantial proportion of young adults, and make
contraceptives widely available. There remains an
urgent need to identify ways to address young men's
sexual health concerns effectively.
Limits
of Teacher Delivered Sex Education: Interim Behavioral
Outcomes From Randomized Trial (research article)
Related news story: Sex-Ed Programs
Not Cutting Risky Behavior
Despite the widespread assumption that sex education
delivered by teachers can reduce sexual risk taking
in young people, there have been few randomized trials
large enough to show this and none in the United Kingdom.
Several quasi-experimental studies have concluded
that sex education is effective, but most randomized
trials suggest it is not. Compared with conventional
sex education, this specially designed intervention
did not reduce sexual risk taking in adolescents.
YOUTH NEWS
A
Brighter Future Ahead (news article)
Millions of South African teenagers appear to be heeding
calls to practice safer sex if statistics released
recently by health authorities are anything to go
by.
PROFILES / SPECIAL REPORTS
Reproductive Health Essentials--Securing the Supply:
Global Strategy for Reproductive Health Commodity
Security
English
| French
| Spanish
| Arabic
Millions of women in developing countries lack access
to contraceptives and other reproductive health commodities,
leaving them vulnerable to unwanted pregnancy, sexually
transmitted infections including HIV/AIDS, and the
risks of childbirth without basic equipment or medical
supplies. A new global strategy seeks to ensure that
essential commodities reach the people who need them.
Case Studies on Communication and Advocacy Strategies: Adolescent
Reproductive and Sexual Health
Part 1: Demographic
profile
Part 2: Advocacy
and IEC Programmes and Strategies
Part 3: Lessons
Learned and Guidelines
A three-part synthesis of 14 national case studies
which document their experiences in formulation, planning
and implementing IEC and advocacy strategies to promote
adolescent reproductive and sexual health messages.
Countries included in these case studies are: Bangladesh,
Cambodia, China, India, Iran, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Maldives,
Mongolia, Nepal, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand,
and Vietnam.
The
Men As Partners Program (program summary)
This program in South Africa is working to improve
men's awareness and support of their partners reproductive
health choices; and to increase their understanding
of gender equity and healthy relationships, among
other objectives.
The United States Agency for International Development (USAID)'s Office
of HIV/AIDS announces the launch of a bimonthly e-newsletter
to disseminate information on HIV/AIDS-related announcements,
events, conferences, publications, and online resources.
The newsletter will cover USAID and cooperating agency
activities in HIV/AIDS in more than 50 developing
countries, in addition to major private sector and
donor initiatives to prevent and mitigate HIV/AIDS.
The newsletter will be available on USAID's
web site. To subscribe, fill out the form.
Guidelines
for Preventing Opportunistic Infections Among HIV-Infected
Persons --- 2002: Recommendations of the U.S. Public
Health Service and the Infectious Diseases Society
of America
This fourth edition of the guidelines is intended
for clinicians and other health-care providers who
care for HIV-infected persons. The goal of these guidelines
is to provide evidence-based guidelines for preventing
opportunistic infections among HIV-infected adults
and adolescents, including pregnant women, and HIV-exposed
or infected children. Nineteen opportunistic infections,
or groups of opportunistic infections, are addressed,
and recommendations are included for preventing exposure
to opportunistic pathogens, preventing first episodes
of disease by chemoprophylaxis or vaccination (primary
prophylaxis), and preventing disease recurrence (secondary
prophylaxis).
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