Dipo and the Adolescent Krobo Girl

Author(s):  
Doreen Vivian Kutufam

Contemporary Christian/secular/social trends and beliefs about religion, the rights of women, and the privacy of their bodies have been used to challenge the Dangme people of Ghana's continued adherence to the Dipo puberty rite. Without judging the Dipo rite but focusing on its intended value systems, this research argues that contemporary societal problems can harness the beneficial qualities of various traditional rituals to help solve specific societal issues. This chapter sets out to explore how the value systems of a contested puberty rite like the Dangme people's Dipo can help address sexual health issues prevalent in the Dangme communities. This chapter discusses how repurposing of Dipo's existing educational platform and value systems can contribute to the eradication or reduction of teenage pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) such as the Human Immunodeficiency Virus/Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (HIV/AIDS) epidemic among members of the Dangme tribes.

2008 ◽  
Vol 13 (36) ◽  
Author(s):  
H Cortes Martins ◽  
M T Paixão

Portugal has been the western European country with the highest rate of notified acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) cases since 1999 and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection cases since 2000. Nonetheless, exact information on the magnitude and trends of recently acquired infections is missing. In a cross-sectional study we aimed to determine HIV prevalence, the proportion of recently acquired infections and the incidence among patients attending a Sexually Transmitted Infections (STI) clinic and among HIV positive cases tested at the AIDS Reference Laboratory (ARL), by using the Avidity Index (AI) of antibodies to identify recent HIV-1 seroconversions. Demographic and behavioural data were collected. At the STI clinic 253 patients were enrolled, 16 were found to be HIV infected (14 HIV-1, 2 HIV-2) and a prevalence of 6.3% was obtained. Four recent HIV-1 infections were identified and the HIV-1 incidence was 3.3% per year. At the ARL, 332 newly diagnosed cases of HIV-1 infection were studied, 59 (17.8%) were recent infections and an annual incidence of 4.1% was estimated. These findings support STI clinics as key sentinel sites for recently acquired HIV infections and illustrate the viability of testing for recent HIV infections in these settings and reinforce the value of this method in the surveillance for better monitoring current trends of the HIV/AIDS epidemic in Portugal.


2003 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 125-129 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adesola O. Oyelese

The AIDS epidemic continues and HIV-infected persons continue to suffer stigmatization and discrimination in Nigeria. The results of an open-ended questionnaire administered non-randomly in Ile-Ife and Ilesa in the late 1990s confirm this. Six questions on Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS) were asked; 83 (36.4%) males and 145 (63.6%) females aged between 11 and 60 years responded. The respondents included 101 students, 49 civil servants, 39 artisans and traders. Others included 29 health professionals (doctors and nurses, etc.), 8 teachers, and 2 commercial sex workers. The median of negative responses (rejection) is 42.2%. It is concluded that there still exists a significant but suppressed or subtle stigmatization and discrimination against HIV-infected people, a major constraint in the management and control of HIV/AIDS.


1997 ◽  
Vol 106 (7) ◽  
pp. 563-567 ◽  
Author(s):  
Neil F. Schiff ◽  
Peak Woo ◽  
Donald J. Annino ◽  
Stanley M. Shapshay

Kaposi's sarcoma (KS) is a neoplastic vascular disorder, classically arising in the skin of the lower extremities. As a consequence of the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) epidemic, an increasing number of patients have been found to have KS. In AIDS patients, KS appears to exhibit a more diffuse nature and frequently affects the head and neck. Mucosal lesions are most often seen, commonly involving the oral cavity. Only rare cases of laryngeal involvement have been recorded in the literature. We report 2 cases of KS of the supraglottic larynx. Our first patient, an elderly man of Mediterranean descent, complained of voice change and throat discomfort. Endoscopy with biopsy for diagnosis allowed conservative treatment with chemotherapy. Our second patient was a younger man with AIDS who presented with symptoms of airway obstruction. Management with carbon dioxide laser epiglottectomy was successful in relieving that patient's symptoms. Although rare, KS may present in both healthy and immunocompromised patients, and must be considered in the differential diagnosis of all violaceous lesions of the larynx.


PEDIATRICS ◽  
1992 ◽  
Vol 89 (5) ◽  
pp. 950-956
Author(s):  
Arlene Rubin Stiffman ◽  
Felton Earls ◽  
Peter Dore' ◽  
Renee Cunningham

This paper explores the extent of change in acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) risk level and in the numbers of AIDS-related risk behaviors in 602 inner-city adolescents as they enter young adulthood. Youths' risk level for human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection during adolescence was categorized as high (engaging in prostitution, male homosexual or bisexual activity, or injectable drug use or having ulcerative sexually transmitted diseases), moderate (having six or more sex partners in a 1-year period or nonulcerative sexually transmitted diseases), or low (none of the above). Although a proportion at high or moderate risk during adolescence did move to lower risk levels by young adulthood, the overall risk level stayed fairly stable: 45% were at high or moderate risk levels during adolescence, and 35% were at those levels by young adulthood. Then change in the total number of risk behaviors engaged in by the youths was examined. Knowledge about AIDS or HIV infection and its prevention was not associated with any change in risk behavior, nor were the number of sources of information about the epidemic, acquaintance with those who are infected, estimates of personal risk, or exposure to HIV-test counseling. In fact, youths whose risk behaviors increased the most were more likely to know someone who had died of AIDS and to estimate their own risk as high. Most youths reported that they did not use condoms regularly, disliked them, and had little confidence in their protective ability. Changes in preventive strategies and further research on the causes of behavior change are needed.


PEDIATRICS ◽  
1996 ◽  
Vol 98 (6) ◽  
pp. 1219-1221 ◽  
Author(s):  

Music lyrics have undergone dramatic changes since the introduction of rock music more than 40 years ago. This is an issue of vital interest and concern for parents and pediatricians. During the past four decades, rock music lyrics have become increasingly explicit—particularly with reference to sex, drugs, and violence. Recently, heavy metal and "gangsta rap" music lyrics have elicited the greatest concern. In some cases lyrics communicate potentially harmful health messages. Such lyrics are of special concern in today's environment, which poses unprecedented threats to the health and well-being of adolescents. Pregnancy, drug use, acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (and other sexually transmitted diseases), injuries, homicide, and suicide have all become part of the landscape of everyday life for many American teens. At the same time, music is important to teenagers' identity and helps them define important social and subcultural boundaries. The results of one survey of 2760 14-to 16-year-olds in 10 different southeastern cities showed that that they listened to music an average of 40 hours per week. One Swedish study found that adolescents who developed an early interest in rock music were more likely to be influenced by their peers and less influenced by their parents than older adolescents. To date, no studies have documented a cause-and-effect relationship between sexually explicit or violent lyrics and adverse behavioral effects. A possible explanation for this lack of finding is that teenagers often do not know the lyrics or fully comprehend their meaning. For example, in one study only 30% of teenagers knew the lyrics to their favorite songs, and their comprehension varied greatly.


1990 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 215-224
Author(s):  
Nancy L. Szaflarski

The issue of whether or not the life-sustaining treatments (LST) of critical care is warranted for patients with the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) experiencing acute respiratory failure has been raised. Factors that have contributed to this issue include the AIDS epidemic, the high costs of critical care, limited intensive care resources, high mortality, prolonged suffering, and the effects on caregivers in delivering futile care. This article examines this issue from the ethicality of the decision-making process regarding LST in context with medical futility, patient autonomy, and discussion among patients and caregivers. The allocation of critical care resources for AIDS patients with respiratory failure is analyzed from the viewpoint of distributive justice. The nursing implications of providing critical care to these patients and their families are discussed as well as needed areas of research.


Entropy ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 22 (11) ◽  
pp. 1230 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shuman Sun ◽  
Zhiming Li ◽  
Huiguo Zhang ◽  
Haijun Jiang ◽  
Xijian Hu

Sub-Saharan Africa has been the epicenter of the outbreak since the spread of acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) began to be prevalent. This article proposes several regression models to investigate the relationships between the HIV/AIDS epidemic and socioeconomic factors (the gross domestic product per capita, and population density) in ten countries of Sub-Saharan Africa, for 2011–2016. The maximum likelihood method was used to estimate the unknown parameters of these models along with the Newton–Raphson procedure and Fisher scoring algorithm. Comparing these regression models, there exist significant spatiotemporal non-stationarity and auto-correlations between the HIV/AIDS epidemic and two socioeconomic factors. Based on the empirical results, we suggest that the geographically and temporally weighted Poisson autoregressive (GTWPAR) model is more suitable than other models, and has the better fitting results.


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