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Showing 161 - 180 of 281 Results for "Africa"

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Further interventions providing HIV disclosure support are needed, particularly for women facing abandonment, violence, or other adverse events. [See also %{s:43}, %{c:11} and %{s:67}] Studies found many women faced abuse and abandonment upon disclosing their HIV status.
Meeting the Sexual and Reproductive Health Needs of Women Living With HIV
1 study
Interventions are needed to meet the contraceptive needs of different groups of women who are living with HIV, such as sex workers, migrants, young women, etc. A recent review of studies using experimental or quasi-experimental design to attribute program exposure to observed changes in fertility or family planning outcomes at the individual or population level, with 63 studies from 1995 to 2008, found that studies did not assess the differential impact of interventions across target audiences.
Meeting the Sexual and Reproductive Health Needs of Women Living With HIV
1 study
Women and men need accurate information on vertical transmission, treatment adherence strategies, the importance of their viral load and the low risk of vertical transmission if virally suppressed. Adherence has been challenging for women living with HIV postpartum, even for those initiating ART during pregnancy at CD4 counts under 350, with adequate adherence dropping from 75.7% during pregnancy to 53% postpartum globally (Nachega et al., 2012 cited in Coutsoudis et al., 2013). Knowledge of HIV and vertical transmission has shown to be correlated with increased initiation, adherence and retention for pregnant women living with HIV.
Antenatal Care - Treatment
1 study
More effective and timely translation of new PMTCT policy into standard practice is needed.
Antenatal Care - Treatment
1 study
Further interventions are needed to help female OVCs reduce risky sexual behaviors and protect them from sexual violence. [See also %{s:73}] Studies found that female orphans had higher rates of early sexual debut and were more likely to have had coerced sex.
Mitigating Risk
1 study
Concerted efforts are needed to enable adolescents at risk to test confidentially for HIV and be immediately linked to services, with information on where and how to access services. Access to and update of HIV testing and counseling (HTC) by adolescents is significantly lower than for adults. One study found that adolescents who were tested through provider-initiated testing (the WHO standard) had higher loss to follow up if they tested HIV-positive than adolescents who were tested through voluntary testing and counseling (Lamb et al., 2014). HTC must, according to WHO, include consent, confidentiality, counseling, correct test results and connections to treatment, care and prevention services. A recent report found that no data exists for HTC among ages 10 to 14 (All in to End Adolescent AIDS, 2015c). Access to HTC for adolescents who inject drugs is particularly challenging. HTC clients also need counseling on contraception and referral to services.
Increasing Access to Services
1 study
Additional outreach programs are needed for patients who miss ART clinic visits or fail to initiate treatment. A study showed that issues such as provider to patient ratios; adherence support programs; and needing transport from rural areas were associated with lower CD4 counts at initiation of ART. Other studies showed that patients were lost between initiation and maintenance sites. Another study found that one in five treatment-eligible HIV-positive individuals refused to initiate ART (Katz et al., 2011). Others who dropped out of treatment were using unproven remedies.
Provision and Access
1 study
Scale up of testing is needed with competent staff and labs in order to assess CD4 counts and link those who test HIV-positive to treatment. Studies are finding that in some countries, those who test HIV-positive are presenting with AIDS and that patients do not initiate ART despite eligibility. Those who test HIV-positive yet not eligible to receive antiretroviral therapy according to their national guidelines often did not remain in care until they were eligible for treatment.
Provision and Access
1 study
Women and their sexual partners need access to comprehensive pre-conception care so they can make informed decisions about pregnancy before conception. Studies found that HIV-positive women could not access pre-conception advice on safer pregnancy options, as health providers discouraged pregnancy. Studies found that significant numbers of pregnant women did not know any way to prevent vertical transmission and face dilemmas with balancing the desire for children with fear of risking acquiring HIV or transmitting HIV to their partner or infant. Studies also showed that women did not understand the relationship between high CD4 counts and reducing the risk of HIV transmission.
Pre-Conception
1 study
Additional support for pregnant women living with HIV who face violence is needed, including establishing proper mechanisms for seeking redress, along with more research on mental health and maternal morbidity among women living with HIV.
Antenatal Care - Treatment
1 study
Successful strategies are needed to increase adherence to ART among adolescents and reduce loss to follow up. A study found that adolescents and young adults aged 15 to 24 living with HIV were more likely, following treatment initiation, to have higher viral loads, higher rates of virological failure and greater low to follow up from services. Another study found that adolescents (ages 9 to 19) had poorer virological outcomes compared to young adults (ages 20 to 28). A review found few estimates on viral suppression among ages 10 to 19 (All in End Adolescent AIDS, 2015c). A specialized HIV management program could not retain a substantial proportion of those who tested positive for HIV in care. A review of studies of adherence among adolescents and children in Lower and Middle Income countries found that most studies were cross-sectional with age data ranging from six months to 21, limiting the ability to define which strategies are key to increasing adherence among ages 10 to 19. Cognitive behavioral therapy can be further explored as a strategy to increase adherence in adolescent populations.
Increasing Access to Services
1 study
Laws and practices that obstruct adolescents’ access to services, such as parental consent requirements, age, and marital status requirements, must be aligned with the actual behavior of adolescents. Studies found that legal requirements restricted adolescents from getting tested for HIV even if they were sexually active and at risk for HIV. "There is a strong evidence base that the stigma, discrimination and criminalization affecting adolescent key populations aged 10 to 17 is intensified due to domestic and international legal constructs that rely on law-enforcement based interventions dependent upon arrests, pre-trial detention, incarceration and compulsory ‘rehabilitation’ in institutional placements," particularly among adolescents who sell sex or inject drugs (Conner, 2015: para 1).
Increasing Access to Services
1 study
Barriers such as cost of medications, stigma, long clinic waits, lack of food, and child-care responsibilities, among others, may discourage women living with HIV from accessing antiretroviral therapy. A study found that patients who were living with HIV but did not access antiretroviral therapy were twice as likely as patients on antiretroviral therapy to report not having enough food to take with treatment as a concern, in addition to concerns about cost barriers. Another study found that cost of ARVs, with direct out of pocket payment at point of care delivery decreased access to ARVs. Another study found transport costs and waiting time a barrier to access to treatment. Increased efforts are needed so that those in pre-ART care understand that HIV can be transmitted prior to ART eligibility.
Provision and Access
1 study
Women living with HIV need information and access to services for emergency contraception and post-abortion care (PAC) services. Studies found that women did not have adequate knowledge of emergency contraception, nor access to services for post-abortion care.
Meeting the Sexual and Reproductive Health Needs of Women Living With HIV
1 study
Interventions are needed for male involvement that do not such reinforce harmful gender norms or increase risk for violence, stigma or discrimination. “Evidence for effectiveness of male involvement in PMTCT programs is scant” (Beckham et al., 2015: 67). One study only evaluated male involvement as accompanying their pregnant partner to ANC care with no HIV related outcomes listed and tasking the woman to require her male partner to come to ANC (Nyondo et al., 2015). Most approaches only reach men through their pregnant spouse, with no services for men beyond HIV testing and use men as an instrument solely to increase access to services by women. Men have been denied involvement in antenatal care, birth and delivery even if the couple so chooses.
Antenatal Care - Treatment
1 study
Interventions for pregnant women and their partners to stay HIV-negative or reduce HIV transmission are needed. [See also %{c:11} and %{c:13}] Pregnancy is a time of high risk for HIV acquisition. Home-based partner education for couples with no reports of interpersonal violence may be more effective than clinic based interventions, especially when women can opt-out of disclosing their sero-status. A systematic review found that incident infection (i.e. recently acquired during pregnancy) resulted in up to a 15-fold higher risk of vertical transmission.
Antenatal Care - Treatment
1 study
Women’s right and access to, and control over, an equitable share of marital property and inheritance, including land, needs to be recognized and protected in law and practice.
Advancing Human Rights and Access to Justice for Women and Girls
1 study
Expansion and scaling up of interventions promoting economic opportunities for women are needed to increase their ability to refuse unsafe sex and reduce stigma for women living with HIV. Studies found that lack of income, food and jobs forced women to sell sex to survive, placing them at risk of HIV acquisition.
Promoting Women’s Employment, Income and Livelihood Opportunities
1 study
Provision of ART can reduce stigma, but additional interventions are needed. Studies found that lack of knowledge of ARV treatment increased stigma, but that ARV treatment alone did not eliminate stigma and discrimination.
Reducing Stigma and Discrimination
1 study
Interventions are needed to foster the involvement of HIV-positive women and promote cooperation between people living with HIV and AIDS and health care facilities, government and other agencies creating HIV-related programs and policies. Studies found that little cooperation existed between HIV-positive women and health facilities but that efforts have been underway to educate parliamentarians concerning HIV-positive women’s issues.
Promoting Women’s Leadership
1 study