Browsing by Subject "Public Health and Primary Health Care"

Now showing 1 - 6 of 6
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    Evaluation of an HIV peer education programme in the workplace
    (2001) Sloan, Nicola; Myers, Jonny
    The private sector in South Africa has a keen interest in ensuring that all employees are fully educated on issues related to HIV/AIDS (especially transmission mechanisms) to avoid losing a large proportion of the workforce and incurring a subsequent drop in productivity. In 1977, Woolworths, a South African retail company, implemented an HIV peer education programme for its employees. The broad aim of the programme is to reduce the HIV infection rate among staff by providing educational material on safe sexual practices, discussing various issues connected to HIV such as sexuality and modes of transmission and by providing free condoms to staff. The objective of this study is to provide a thorough and realistic evaluation of the Woolworths HIV/AIDS peer education programme. A formal evaluation is required to understand the current position of the programme and to determine its future direction.
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    Randomized trial comparing bleeding patterns after immediate and conventional oral contraceptive initiation
    (2001) Morroni, Chelsea; Westhoff, Carolyn
    Starting oral contraceptives immediately, under direct observation, increase OC initiation rates and may increase effective use and continuation However, if adverse bleeding pattern occur, then such an approach may paradoxically decrease continuation rates. The purpose of this study is comapare 90-day bleeding patterns following immediate ("Quickstart) versus conventional OC initiation.
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    The reproductive health effects of along term DDT exposure on malaria vector control workers in Northern Province, South Africa
    (2002) Dalvie, Mohamed Aqiel; Myers, Johnny
    Metabolites of DDT (1, 1, 1-trichloro-2,2-bis(p-chlorophenyl)ethane), used in many developing countries including South Africa for the control of malaria vectors, have been shown to be endocrine disruptors in vitro and in vivo. The study hypothesis was that male vector control workers highly exposed to DDT in the past should demonstrate clinically significant exposure-related anti-androgenic and/or estrogenic effects reflected in abnormalities in hormone levels, semen, sexual function and fertility. A cross-sectional study of 60 workers from 3 camps situated near Malaria Control Center (MMC) in Tzaneen was performed.
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    Risk factors for oesophageal cancer in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa
    (2006) Sewram, Vikash; Myers, Jonny; Sitas, F
    A multicenter hospital-based case-control study with incidence density sampling was conducted between November 2001 and February 2003 to assess the impact of social and dietary habits, and the consumption of dietary and medicinal wild plants on the risk of developing oesophageal cancer (OC) among residents of the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa. The study was conducted on 670 incident cases (98/% response rate) and 1188 controls (96/% response rate) attending either of the three major referral hospitals in the Province, i.e Umtata General, Frere and Cecilia Makiwane Hospitals.
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    Risk factors for oesophageal cancer in Uruguay
    (2002) Sewram, Vikash; Boffetta, Paolo; Myers, Johnny
    The objective of this study was to evaluate maté consumption as a risk factor for oesophageal cancer and to further evaluate the role of quantity and temperature in order to assess whether the effect is related to the carcinogenicity of the plant or the high temperature at which maté is consumed. In addition the effect of diet, alcohol drinking and tobacco smoking on oesophageal cancer risk was assessed.
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    Strategies for sexually transmitted infection partner notification
    (2002) Mathews, Catherine; Coetzee, Nicol; Myers, Jonny
    South Africa's HIV epidemic has increased rapidly over the last 10 years, and developing effective strategies to curb it is a priority. The presence of other sexually transmitted infections (STIs) facilitates the sexual transmission of HIV, and the control of STIs has been shown to be an effective way of reducing HIV incidence. One component of the process of STI control is partner notification: a process whereby the sexual partners of patients who have been diagnosed with an STI are informed of their exposure to infection and of the importance of obtaining effective treatment. Partner notification is one of the two strategies to reach and treat asymptomatic and unrecognised STIs, which are highly prevalent in South Africa. Unfortunately, current partner notification strategies are not very effective, and there is a need to improve their effectiveness. This thesis investigates strategies to improve partner notification in South Africa. This aim is achieved through three separate studies. The first is a systematic review of published and unpublished randomized controlled trials (RCTs) conducted around the world, comparing the effects various partner notification strategies, in an attempt to uncover evidence of effective strategies. The review uses methods advocated by the Cochrane Collaboration. Eleven RCTs were found, including 8014 participants, only two of which were conducted in developing countries. The review found moderately strong evidence that either provider referral alone, or the choice between patient and provider referral, or contract referral, when compared with patient referral, improved partner notification. This evidence is of limited value in South Africa, where public health services have not been able to implement provider or contract referral due to the prohibitive staffing costs involved. The review also found that verbal, nurse-given health education together with intense patient-centred counselling by lay workers, when compared with standard care results in small increases in the rate of partners treated. The review concludes that there is a need for evaluations of patient education interventions (including audiovisual presentations), of interventions combining provider training and patient education, and for evaluations to be conducted in developing countries. Further, there is a need to measure potential harmful effects, such as domestic violence, to ensure that partner notification does more good than harm.