Prevalence of asymptomatic SARS-CoV-2 Infection in couples seeking in vitro fertilization treatment in Riyadh, July–November, 2020

Background: After the start of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, assisted reproductive services were suspended and restarted in in vitro fertilization (IVF) clinics worldwide. In our center we implemented screening of all couples for COVID-19 the day before starting the ovulation cycle and before the ovum pick-up (OPU) procedure. Objectives: Assess the prevalence of asymptomatic COVID-19 among couples undergoing in vitro fertilization (IVF). Design: Cross-sectional and retrospective cohort study. Setting: An IVF unit in Riyadh from July to November 2020. Patients and methods: Patients and their partners were tested for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection 24-48 hours before their initial visit to initiate the fertility cycle and again prior to the ovum pick-up visit. Main outcome measures: Prevalence of asymptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infection. Sample size: 508 couples. Results: A total of 508 couples were tested. Of the 508 cycles of therapy, 24 (4.7%) were cancelled, 16 (3.14%) before the start of the cycle, and 8 (1.66%) before ovum pick-up, because one or both partners in the couple tested SARS-CoV-2 positive. Before the start of the cycle, 3 patients and their partners both tested positive; 7 patients tested positive and their partners tested negative; and 6 partners tested positive and the patient testing negative. In addition, on retesting 481 couples before OPU 3 patients and their partners both tested positive; 3 patients tested positive, and their partners tested negative; and 2 partners tested positive and the patients tested negative. Conclusion: The prevalence of asymptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infection in couples seeking IVF was higher than that in the general population. Implementing a policy of screening couples for SARS-CoV-2 prior to IVF treatment, minimized the possibility of transmission of SARS-CoV-2 from patients to healthcare workers.

Multiple realities around sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) among adolescents in Ghana

The multiple realities around the sexual and reproductive health of Ghanaian adolescents are explored in this paper. Female and male adolescents (aged 10–19 years, N=298) participated in 40 focus group discussions in 20 communities. A comparative inductive approach has been used to present, analyse and document the sexual and reproductive realities of adolescents in their communities. The findings reveal commonalities as well as differences in the realities among participants. Common realities, regardless of age and sex, were teenage pregnancy and abortion, sexual violence (defilement, rape and coercive sex) and parental neglect. These aside, there were divergent realities for older adolescent girls in particular, e.g. lack of access to contraceptives and understanding of the fertility cycle, and the influences and pressures of social media and varied notions about sexual harassment between female and male adolescents. The findings, overall, underscore the complexity and nuanced lives of adolescents in traversing the sexual and reproductive maturation processes. These events unfold in communities where adolescents are ‘required’ to be silent and ‘play’ innocent regardless of their daily struggles, compounded by limited opportunities to learn and unlearn embedded norms about sexual and reproductive functioning. Some implications for sexual health promotion programmes are outlined.

Sustaining Virtuous Forms

The introduction analyzes the different forms, values, and virtues that are embedded in an industrial economy and contrasts them with those that characterize a sustainable economy. Berry’s vision critiques the industrial grammar of specialization, competition, and capital that underlies our contemporary way of life, shaping areas as disparate as agriculture, medicine, education, science, architecture, aesthetics, and energy. Though such an approach has proven remarkably effective in some ways, particularly in its ability to solve isolated problems, Berry argues that these industrial forms of life contribute to disease, are vulnerable to disruption, and cause lasting damage to their environments. Instead, Berry challenges us to imagine more harmonious, formally complex solutions to our problems, and his standard for lasting, sustainable solutions is health. Through its formal order, health accounts for the one fundamental reality that an industrial logic seeks to ignore or conquer—death. Sustainable economies practice virtues of renewal and return, cultivating death so that it serves life in ways that are analogous to the organic fertility cycle. In this way, such economies enable their members to practice resurrection.