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Volume 3, Number 38
22 September 2003
"The Pop Reporter" (R)
Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health/Center for Communication Programs
INFO Project
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Did you know that "The Pop Reporter" can now be customized? If you haven't done so already, visit the modify profile page at http://prds.infoforhealth.org/modify.php to customize your edition of Pop Reporter. Simply type in the e-mail address at which you receive "The Pop Reporter", leave the password field blank, and log on. You'll be signed on and ready to customize your account!FAMILY PLANNING/REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH RESEARCH
Time to Pregnancy: Results of the German Prospective Study and Impact on the Management of Infertility (research abstract)
The aim of this study was to present a non-parametric estimation of cumulative probabilities of conception (CPC) in natural family planning (NFP) users, illustrating an ideal of human fertility potential. A total of 346 women was observed who used NFP methods to conceive from their first cycle onwards; 310 pregnancies occurred. Estimated CPC for the total group (n = 340 women) at one, three, six, and 12 cycle(s) were 38%, 68%, 81%, and 92%, respectively. Most couples conceive within six cycles with timed intercourse. Thereafter, every second couple is probably either subfertile or infertile.
Depot-medroxyprogesterone Acetate Injection (Depo-Provera®): A Highly Effective Contraceptive Option with Proven Long-term Safety (research abstract)
This article reviews the contraceptive efficacy, potential noncontraceptive health benefits, and long-term safety of depot-medroxyprogesterone acetate (Depo-Provera®) with regard to risk of cardiovascular events, breast and gynecologic malignancy and osteopenia.
Islam, Social Traditions and Family Planning (research abstract)
Men's and women's views are summarized in this article which explores the doctrine of Islam and the different theological interpretations of Islam about family planning in Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Iran and Jordan, following the Sunni and Shia traditions.
A Multicenter, Randomized Study of an Extended Cycle Oral Contraceptive (research abstract)
This study reports on the efficacy and safety of Seasonale® 91-day extended cycle oral contraceptive.
Follow-up Visits after IUD-insertion: Sense or Nonsense? A Technology Assessment Study to Analyze the Effectiveness of Follow-up Visits after IUD Insertion (research abstract)
This study evaluated whether regular follow-up after insertion of an IUD protects against the risk and side effects of this contraceptive device. Researchers followed 280 women in two groups -- group A (follow-up after 6 weeks, 3, 6 and 12 months) and group B (follow-up after 6 weeks and annually) -- for pregnancy, expulsion rates, and discontinuation. The number of discontinuations, pregnancies, and expulsions did not differ between groups, but women in group B had their IUD removed earlier (p < 0.01). They concluded that regular follow-up after the insertion of an IUD is not effective.
FAMILY PLANNING/REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH NEWS
Does Size Really Matter? Condomania Answers Age-Old Question With the Introduction of a Revolutionary New Line of They-Fit Condoms That Come in 55 Different Sizes (press release)
After decades of too-loose, too-tight, and not-quite-right condoms, men finally can find the fit they, and their partners, up to now have only dreamed about. Condomania, America's first condom store, brings 55 different sized and tailored fit condoms to the land of latex with the introduction of They-Fit Condoms, a revolutionary new line of condoms available in 55 individual sizes.
Bangladesh: Unification of Health, Family Planning Wings Reversed (news article)
The health ministry has reversed its earlier decision to unify health and family planning wings of the ministry, sparking off a controversy in the health sector. A statutory regulatory order against unification of the health and family planning wings was issued on September 14 and it will come into force from next year. It aims to avoid 'clash of interests' of personnel of the two wings, official sources said.
St. John's Wort, Medications Don't Mix (news article)
A study presented Thursday at a meeting of the Association of Reproductive Health Professionals suggested that St. John's wort may allow women to ovulate even though they're taking birth control pills -- leading to pregnancies.
FAMILY PLANNING/REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH LAW AND POLICY
Viet Nam: Government Decision Outlaws Selection of Unborn Baby's Gender (news article)
A new government decision released last week outlawed using knowledge of an unborn baby's gender and to justify abortion. The decision clarifies an ordinance put into effect last May that prohibits activities that oppose family planning and the sale of fake birth control devices. The decision describes such activities as "a threat to the dignity of people who use birth control devices and encourages women not to deliver only single-gender children".
Mozambique: Sexual Health in Schools (news article)
Mozambique's Education Ministry is to introduce on the new school curriculum for the 2004 academic year sexuality, and matters related with sexual and reproductive health, as one of the ways to bring down the rate of sexually transmitted diseases and unwanted pregnancies in the country's secondary schools.
Partner Notification for the Control of Sexually Transmitted Infections (editorial)
This editorial from the British Medical Journal addresses partner notification programs in resource-poor countries. The author calls for methodologically sound trials to determine what is appropriate and acceptable to individuals in such settings.
Policies for Orphans and Vulnerable Children: A Framework for Moving Ahead 
(report)
(You need Adobe Acrobat Reader to access this document)
This paper presents a summary of the global orphan and vulnerable (OVC) situation and current policy responses; outlines existing policy frameworks for responding to OVC; identifies policy-level gaps in national responses to the growing crisis of OVC; and proposes a country-level “OVC policy package” and recommendations for future policy dialogue and action.
US: Man Indicted for Exposing Lover to HIV (news article)
A former city health commissioner who allegedly lied to an ex-boyfriend about his HIV status is the first person charged under a state law against intentionally exposing another person to the virus.
HIV/AIDS RESEARCH
Forgotten Families: Older People Caring for Orphans and Vulnerable Children Affected by HIV/AIDS (report)
(You need Adobe Acrobat Reader to access this document)
Related news article: Older People and Orphans Overlooked by HIV/AIDS Policymakers
This NGO report says that HIV/AIDS policymakers are not acknowledging senior citizens and orphans in their strategies to combat the pandemic. The report recommends including income support for families to help them to cope; providing accessible health care for all; making schooling flexible for children to allow them to attend; and running awareness programmes targeting older people.
Knowledge, Attitudes, Belief and Practice Related to HIV/AIDS among Young People in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam (letter to the editor)
The authors, before beginning an HIV education program, conducted a knowledge, attitudes, beliefs, and practices (KABP) survey among 902 young vietnamese people in Ho Chi Minh City, Viet Nam. Results showed that overall knowledge about HIV, STDs, and safe sex was good. A minority of (11%) admitted to having sexual activity. Of those who were sexually active, 80% used condoms.
Locked Doors: The Human Rights of People Living with HIV/AIDS in China (report)
Related press release: China: Discrimination Fuels HIV/AIDS Crisis
Widespread discrimination against people with HIV/AIDS is fueling the spread of the epidemic in China, Human Rights Watch charges in a new report. Many people living with HIV/AIDS have no access to health care because hospitals refuse to treat them. Human Rights Watch found that at one hospital, the door to the AIDS clinic was actually padlocked.
Changing Patterns of Knowledge, Reported Behaviour and Sexually Transmitted Infections in a South African Gold Mining Community (research abstract)
Cross-sectional surveys were carried out in 1998 and 2000 among mineworkers, sex workers, and adults in a mining community in Carletonville, South Africa, after a major HIV intervention project, which included community-based peer education, condom distribution, syndromic management of sexually transmitted infections (STI), and presumptive STI treatment for sex workers. The authors write that the prevention program had less impact than expected. There was evidence of positive behaviour change, but this was not substantial or universal. Knowledge of HIV/AIDS and awareness of the epidemic were high, but condom use remained low.
HIV/AIDS NEWS
Kyrgyzstan: UNIFEM Tackling Higher HIV/AIDS Rates among Women (news article)
The United Nations Development Fund for Women is to implement a project on gender and HIV/AIDS in Kyrgyzstan - the first such project for the Central Asia region. Of those that contract HIV/AIDS every year in the Kyrgz republic, 55% are thought to be female. But the majority of those officially registered with the disease are males.
Africa Gets Past Condom Phase (news article)
Experts from across Africa gathered in Nairobi last week to assess the continent's life-or-death struggle against AIDS, characterised by a new phase in which money and medications are at last joining the fight. With luck, the six-day conference, Icasa, may mark the moment when the war began to turn: when campaigners found they were not just limited to dishing out condoms but could start handing out the drugs that have braked the pandemic in rich countries.
Ghana: Women Asked to Report Uncooperative Men in Condom Use (news article)
Women who are subjected to beatings for insisting that their partners use a condom before sex have the right to report to law enforcement agencies, an AIDS counsellor of the Public Health Unit has said.
Lesotho: Culture Undermines Prevention Efforts in Lesotho (news article)
Ignorance about HIV/AIDS in Lesotho has been a major stumbling block for halting the spread of the disease.
Some even believe that condoms are responsible for the spread of the disease. Cultural factors leading to high rates of AIDS include lack of condom use, teenage girls not making their own sexual decisions, men being allowed to have mistresses, the belief that having sex with a virgin will cure the infected person of HIV/AIDS, cutting of hair with a razor shared by all as part of mourning ceremonies, children orphaned by HIV/AIDS being excluded from traditional systems of fostering and adoption, and the prevalence of circumcision schools which use a shared knife to circumcise all the boys.
MATERNAL AND CHILD HEALTH RESEARCH
Maternal Recall of Exclusive Breast Feeding Duration (research abstract)
The aim of this paper was to validate methods of collecting data on the duration of exclusive breast feeding (EBF) in an area of South Africa with a high HIV prevalence rate. A total of 130 mothers were interviewed weekly, postnatally. At every interview a 48 hour and a seven day recall breast feeding history were taken. The authors found that reported breast feeding practices over the previous 48 hours did not reflect EBF practices since birth, and 6-month EBF duration recall was equally poor. They recommend that data on duration of EBF be collected prospectively at intervals of no longer than one week.
Inequity in Child Health as a Global Issue (research abstract)
This article describes a number of the social, political, and environmental factors impacting children in the developing (southern hemisphere) world and how these are affected by actions taken in the developed (northern hemisphere) world.
Women's Autonomy and Child Survival: A Comparison of Muslims and non-Muslims in Four Asian Countries (PubMed abstract)
Using data from 15 pairs of Muslim and non-Muslim communities in India, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Thailand, the author evaluates the hypothesis that higher infant and child mortality among Muslim populations is related to the lower autonomy of Muslim women. He finds that women's autonomy in various spheres is not consistently lower in Muslim than in non-Muslim settings.
MEN\'S HEALTH RESEARCH
Male Subfertility (review article)
This article reviews male subfertility, its causes, clinical assessment, treatment options, sexual dysfunction, and donor insemination.
Recent Research on Vasectomy Techniques (research article)
Vasectomy is a commonly used, highly effective method for the control of fertility in the human male. The number of people relying on vasectomy as a method of contraception varies widely from country to country. Though vasectomy is highly effective, failures may occur due to re-canalization of the vas, surgical error, anatomical variants or failure of contraception during the post-operative waiting period. This review summarizes recent research on vasectomy conducted by Family Health International, USA.
MEN\'S HEALTH NEWS
Ghana: Ex-President Rawlings Challenges "Behavior" of African Men (news article)
Speaking in Washington, DC, former Ghanaian President Jerry Rawlings said a significant part of the fight against HIV/AIDS in Africa required targeting "internal behavior and weakness" by African men. The article outlines interagency efforts to address the social and health needs of African nations through targeted programming on men’s behaviors.
POPULATION NEWS
India: Minister Modi Expresses Serious Concern Over Population Explosion (news article)
The article addresses concerns regarding population control in India, given the sensitive topics of caste and social class in these debates.
Pakistan: Need to Control Population Growth Rate Stressed (news article)
In Pakistan, the population growth rate is becoming alarmingly high in rural areas. Reproductive health clinics, mobile health units, and targeted health campaigns are in place, yet as the article suggests, there remains much to be done in the area of reproductive health more generally.
WOMEN\'S HEALTH NEWS
Chinese Women Changing Attitude Toward Sexual Life: A Survey (news article)
According to a survey conducted among women in Sichuan Province, more than 80% of those surveyed attach an importance to the quality of ones sex life, and the ratio exceeds 95% among those with college-level education and above. The article also examines changes in marriage patterns as well as childbearing patterns related to women’s income.
YOUTH HEALTH RESEARCH
Sexual Behaviors and Opinions on Sexuality of Adolescents in a Slum Community in Bangkok. (PubMed abstract)
This study was a survey of 377 adolescents 12 to 22 years old living in a slum community in Bangkok aiming to investigate sexual behaviors and opinions on sexuality. Results indicated that 18.8% of the adolescents were sexually experienced, with an average age of 15 years old at first intercourse; 63.1% of the adolescents had unprotected sexual intercourse with lovers or friends.
YOUTH HEALTH NEWS
India: Unmarried Youth Forcibly Operated upon for Family Planning (news article)
In an unusal incident, an unmarried youth was allegedly forcibly operated upon for family planning in a camp on September 16 by a nurse and an agent to meet the target number cases. Police have registered a case against the nurse and the agent under sections of the Indian Penal Code.
South Africa: Risky Sex for Material Girls (feature article)
Researchers in South Africa are identifying a trend among young women regarding relationships with men. They do not expect love and fidelty from a man; rather, they want the three C's, that is, cash, clothes, and a cellphone.
UK: Young Men More Likely to Sleep Around (news article)
Men in their early twenties are twice as likely as women to have slept with more than one partner in the past year, according to a new sexual health survey.
BOOKS/BOOK REVIEWS
Infertility Around the Globe: New Thinking on Childlessness, Gender, and Reproductive Technologies (book)
The book compiles a set of papers on the area of reproductive health, which will prove of interest to sociologists, anthropologists, demographers, epidemiologists and public health workers. The book emphasizes the nature of infertility and its social and economic consequences for people around the world.
Coming of Age in South and Southeast Asia: Youth, Courtship and Sexuality (book)
The goal of this volume is to offer new anthropological perspectives on youth and sexuality in South and Southeast Asia, investigating what `coming of age' entails in various cultures in this region.
SPECIAL REPORTS/PROFILES/RESOURCES
ACOG Practice Bulletin. Clinical Management Guidelines for Obstetrician-gynecologists. Number 46, September 2003. (Replaces Technical Bulletin Number 222, April 1996). (PubMed abstract)
Bilateral tubal sterilization and vasectomy are both safe and effective permanent methods of contraception; more than 220 million couples worldwide use them as their contraceptive method of choice. The purpose of this document is to review the evidence for the safety and effectiveness of sterilization in comparison with other forms of contraception.
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