International STD Research & Reviews

Background: Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection worsens the well-being of individuals making them vulnerable and compromises their quality of life. Auxiliary to this, considerable stigma and social rejection is associated with HIV infection which also contributes to their anxiety and depression. Research has established the beneficial effects of exercise and yoga on the physical and psychological health across diverse populations. This study was, therefore, conducted to assess their effects on HIV positive individuals in an attempt to improve their quality of life.

Methodology: 60 HIV patients were divided into 3 groups randomly; Group 1 (only medical treatment), Group 2 (medical treatment and aerobic training) and Group 3 (medical treatment and yoga training). These interventions were conducted for 6 weeks after an informed consent and institutional ethical approval. Outcome measures - BMI, Six-minute walk test, Hamilton Anxiety scale, and SF-36 were used. The data was recorded and analysed for statistical significance with ANOVA.

Results: After 6 weeks of treatment, Group 2 and 3 showed significant improvements in the physical functioning (p value 0.02) and mental health scores (p value < 0.01). There was significant reduction in anxiety (p value 0.04) and bodily pain (p value < 0.01) in both groups.

Conclusion: Exercises significantly improve physical and psychological health status, well-being and quality of life in HIV positive individuals. Aerobic training showed superior developments than yoga and can be used as an adjunct to medical line of treatment.

Background: Human Immunodeficiency virus/Acquired Immunodeficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) is a significant source of socioeconomic and disease burden especially among the Sub-Saharan African population. Less than 10% of these people especially the adolescents are aware of their status with an associated risk of increasing the spread of HIV. Therefore, this study was undertaken to determine the effect of peer education and the provision of onsite HIV Counselling and Testing services on uptake of HCT and the factors influencing its up-take among public secondary school students.

Methods: This was a school-based quasi-experimental study conducted from January to June 2016. A multi-stage sampling technique was used to select 932 students attending public secondary schools in Ebonyi State and an intervention comprising peer education, and provision of onsite HCT services was administered in the intervention group. Data were collected using a pre-tested semi structured self-administered questionnaire and were analysed using IBM SPSS version 21. A p-value of ≤ 0.05 was considered significant.

Results: At baseline, 56 (12%) in the intervention group and 61(13.1%) in the control group had ever been screened for HIV. After the 3 months intervention period, uptake of HCT increased significantly in the intervention group by 61.6% and in the control group by 1.5%; P < 0.01. Logistic regression revealed that being female, sexual exposure and condom use were predictors of HCT uptake.

Conclusion and Recommendation: Peer health education and the provision of onsite HCT services significantly improved the uptake of HCT among secondary school students. Therefore, integrating peer health education into school health programmes and improving access to HCT services would be an effective strategy for increasing up-take of HCT among young people.

Background: The prevention of mother to child transmission of HIV regimen called Option B+ requires that all HIV positive pregnant women begin Antiretroviral Therapy (ART) as soon as they are tested. Efforts geared towards achieving an increase in Antiretroviral Therapy uptake among HIV pregnant women still have not produced expected results given that some of these women are reluctant to start treatment following diagnosis. It was then imperative to examine the factors that influence the choice of when these women accept to begin ART, be it early or late.

Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional analytic study in six health facilities in the South West region of Cameroon. Two groups of HIV positive pregnant women were recruited in these facilities; those who accepted early Antiretroviral Therapy initiation within a week of diagnosis and those who accepted Antiretroviral Therapy initiation later than one week from diagnosis. Data were entered into and analysed by Epi info version 7.2.2.6. The Chi-square test was used to test for statistical significance with Alpha set at 0.05. Multivariate analysis was performed to eliminate confounders.

Results: One hundred and eighty HIV positive pregnant women were recruited with a mean age of 28.9years (SD=2.4years). HIV infected pregnant women diagnosed during an antenatal care (ANC) visit were more likely to be initiated on antiretroviral therapy early ((Odd ratio) =21.7, 95% CI 3.2-143.7, p=0.00067). State-run facilities were less likely to initiate clients early (Adjusted odd ratio=0.2, 95% 0.05-0.6, p=0.00018). Antenatal care visit and facility type were significantly associated with early initiation of antiretroviral therapy.

Conclusion: Additional efforts are required to course pregnant women to go for early antenatal care visit while state-run health facilities need assistance to improve on early Antiretroviral therapy initiation for clients in need. These efforts could contribute to reducing paediatric HIV in the Cameroonian population. 

Background: Hepatitis B virus (HBV) is hepatotropic virus whose primary replication occurs in the liver. Hepatitis is an infection of the liver caused by several viruses, the most common of which are hepatitis A, B and C. Hepatitis B virus (HBV) is spread mainly through contaminated blood and blood products, sexual contact and contaminated needles.

Objective: The study assesses the prevalence of hepatitis B virus and identify related risk factors for this viral infection among patients.

Methods: Simple random sampling method applied to this study. Bayesian Logistic Regression Model has been employed to predict the probability of prevalence of hepatitis virus (dependent variable), on the base of a set of predictor variables.

Results: The prevalence of hepatitis B virus was 10.9%. History of sexually transmitted disease, multiple sexual partner,   frequent intake of alcohol, chat/smoking cigarette/ or any other drugs, and abortion had shown statistically significant association with prevalence.

Conclusions: Related risk factors associated with hepatitis B virus are history of sexually transmitted disease, multiple sexual partner, frequent intake of alcohol, chat/smoking cigarette/ or any other drugs, and abortion.

Background: Hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection is a public health problem worldwide with a high burden in Sub-Saharan Africa. This burden is more felt in the paediatric population, mother to child transmission (MTCT) being a major mode of infection. This study sought to determine the prevalence of hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) positivity in pregnant women and to identify the factors associated with HBsAg positivity.

Methods: This was a retrospective study that involved third trimester pregnant women who attended antenatal care (ANC) and those in the post-partum period admitted at the maternity wards from 15^th January to the 15^th April, 2018. Data was collected using a structured questionnaire. HBsAg status was recorded from the participants result sheets of laboratory investigations requested at booking visit and from ANC registers. Data was analysed using SPSS version 23.

Results: Of the 349 women studied, 314 (90.0%) had previously screened during the ongoing pregnancy. The prevalence of HBsAg positivity among the screened women was 8.9% (95% CI: 5.4%- 12.4%). The prevalence was highest among the age group 20 to 25 years (10.7%) and in multiparous women (9.4%). A history of multiple sexual partners was associated with HBsAg positivity (OR: 10.9, CI: 1.5– 80.9, p: 0.04). However, none of the socio-demographic and obstetrical variables used in this study was associated with HBsAg positivity. HBV/HIV co-infection rate was 0.7%.

Conclusion: HBV infection was hyper- endemic in the southwest region of Cameroon. About one in ten pregnant women was infected with HBV infection. The scarcity of risk factors in this group highlights the fact that hepatitis B screening in pregnancy should be made a routine practice and not only based on risk factors.