When the Wages of Sin Is Death: Sexual Stigma and Infant Mortality in Sub-Saharan Africa

Author(s):  
Jennifer Johnson-Hanks
Author(s):  
Matthew Wallace ◽  
Myriam Khlat ◽  
Michel Guillot

Abstract Background Within Europe, France stands out as a major country that lacks recent and reliable evidence on how infant mortality levels vary among the native-born children of immigrants compared with the native-born children of two parents born in France. Methods We used a nationally representative socio-demographic panel consisting of 296 400 births and 980 infant deaths for the period 2008–17. Children of immigrants were defined as being born to at least one parent born abroad and their infant mortality was compared with that of children born to two parents born in France. We first calculated infant mortality rates per 1000 live births. Then, using multi-level logit models, we calculated odds ratios of infant mortality in a series of models adjusting progressively for parental origins (M1), core demographic factors (M2), father's socio-professional category (M3) and area-level urbanicity and deprivation score (M4). Results We documented a substantial amount of excess infant mortality among those children born to at least one parent from Eastern Europe, Northern Africa, Western Africa, Other Sub-Saharan Africa and the Americas, with variation among specific origin countries belonging to these groups. In most of these cases, the excess infant mortality levels persisted after adjusting for all individual-level and area-level factors. Conclusions Our findings, which can directly inform national public health policy, reaffirm the persistence of longstanding inequality in infant mortality according to parental origins in France and add to a growing body of evidence documenting excess infant mortality among the children of immigrants in Europe.


2010 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
pp. 106-109 ◽  
Author(s):  
S T Balogun ◽  
F A Fehintola ◽  
O A Adeyanju ◽  
A A Adedeji

Susceptibility to infection by Plasmodium falciparum is increased in pregnant women. In sub-Saharan Africa, the consequences of maternal malaria include preterm birth, fetal growth restriction and increased infant mortality. Malaria transmission requires the circulation of viable gametocytes that can be ingested by the female mosquito taking a blood meal. This study was conducted to evaluate the presence of asexual and sexual stages of P. falciparum in pregnant women attending antenatal booking clinics in south-western Nigeria, an area hyper-endemic for malaria. Gametocyte carriage was about 13%, similar to that documented for children symptomatic for malaria in our area of study.


2011 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 27 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pablo Viguera Ester ◽  
Alberto Torres ◽  
José M. Freire ◽  
Valentín Hernández ◽  
Ángel Gil

1997 ◽  
Vol 25 (1) ◽  
pp. 50-53
Author(s):  
Richard E. Mshomba

African countries, like many other developing countries, suffer the problems associated with poverty—malnutrition, poor health services, high infant mortality rates, low life expectancy, high illiteracy rates, poor infrastructure, and inadequate technology. These problems are especially severe in Sub-Saharan Africa.


2007 ◽  
Vol 12 (5) ◽  
pp. 687-706 ◽  
Author(s):  
RICHARD S.J. TOL ◽  
KRISTIE L. EBI ◽  
GARY W. YOHE

We study the effects of development and climate change on infectious diseases in Sub-Saharan Africa. Infant mortality and infectious disease are closely related, but there are better data for the former. In an international cross-section, per capita income, literacy, and absolute poverty significantly affect infant mortality. We use scenarios of these three determinants and of climate change to project the future incidence of malaria, assuming it to change proportionally to infant mortality. Malaria deaths will first increase, because of population growth and climate change, but then fall, because of development. This pattern is robust to the choice of scenario, parameters, and starting conditions; and it holds for diarrhoea, schistosomiasis, and dengue fever as well. However, the timing and level of the mortality peak is very sensitive to assumptions. Climate change is important in the medium term, but dominated in the long term by development. As climate can only be changed with a substantial delay, development is the preferred strategy to reduce infectious diseases even if they are exacerbated by climate change. Development can, in particular, support the needed strengthening of disease control programs in the short run and thereby increase the capacity to cope with projected increases in infectious diseases over the medium to long term. This conclusion must, however, be viewed with caution, because development, even of the sort envisioned in the underlying socio-economic scenarios, is by no means certain.


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