Prevalence of HIV/AIDS in Africa: An Annotated Bibliography Example

Introduction

Research is an integral part of the treatment and management of a disease. This essay is an annotated bibliography of various research work done in Africa concerning the prevalence of HIV and AIDS disease on the Continent.

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Annotations

Hoffman, R. M., Brummel, S. S., Britto, P., Pilotto, J. H., Masheto, G., Aurpibul, L. ... & Coletti, A. (2019). Adverse pregnancy outcomes among women who conceive on antiretroviral therapy. Clinical Infectious Diseases, 68(2), 273-279.

A lot of research work is underway to ensure there is a significant reduction of mother to child transmission during the period of pregnancy. The goal of minimizing mother to child transmission gets achieved through the use of antiretroviral therapy. According to Hoffman et al., (2019), women who usually conceive while on an ART program usually, end have to experience adverse pregnancy results. However, there is no conclusive data to support the analogy since available data shows conflicting results. Hoffman et al. used a Fisher exact test method to research randomized women with CD4+ higher than 400, who started on ART during pregnancy but had already given birth (2019). This research recommends some of the when to continue ART, whereas the rest of the group to discontinue ART.

After giving birth, those who discontinue the ART could be subjected to an as-treated approach to resume the program. On the other hand, those who will continue with ART for the rest of their life gets subjected CART. The result of the two randomized groups of women is somewhat surprising. According to Hoffman et al., those women who continued with the ART after birth were 23.6% to give birth to stillbirth or go through an abortion. On the other hand, those women who discontinued ART after giving birth were 11.9% likely to experience spontaneous abortion or stillbirth.

Surprisingly, there is no definite correlation to the observed results. Therefore, this research opens doors for the future conclusive study that will give more insight into the observation. All in all, medical practitioners must make a definitive decision before deciding to discontinue a patient from ART, which ought to be swallowed for a lifetime.

Stringer, E. M., Kendall, M. A., Lockman, S., Campbell, T. B., Nielsen-Saines, K., Sawe, F. ... & Currier, J. S. (2018). Pregnancy outcomes among HIV-infected women who conceived on antiretroviral therapy. PloS one, 13(7), e0199555.

The spread of HIV and AIDS prompted the World Health Organization and UNICEF to recommend the admission of all pregnant women into the antiretroviral therapy program (Stringer et al., 2018). This action resulted in a credible reduction in the number of new HIV and AIDS infections. However, the adverse effects of antiretroviral therapy usage among pregnant women are unprecedented. Stringer et al., sort to understand the harmful effects of antiretroviral therapy, ART on pregnant women (2018). Unfortunately, there is very little data about women on ART in resource-limited settings like the African Continent. However, the few available data show that pregnant women on ART usually experience preterm birth, abortion, and stillbirth.

According to Stringer et al., data from the research shows that 63% of pregnant women on ART program experienced live births (2018). Furthermore, the research shows that 53% of live births happened before the completion of 37 weeks. Another evident result of the study shows that those women with a higher CD4+ cell count of over 451cells/mm3 experience live births, whereas the women with a CD4+ cell count of 399 cells/mm3 had non-live births. Surprisingly, the Cox Proportional regression analysis shows no specific reasons women on ART gave birth to preterm babies. The only obvious thing is that women who enrolled on ART after conception experienced more abortion rates than those who conceived while on ART already. Also, biological and physiological factors such as BMI did not contribute to the adverse pregnancy.

Therefore, this research sheds light on future studies that might seek to establish a connection between adverse pregnancy effects and antiretroviral therapy. Probably, ART usage has elements that cause complications during the pregnancy period. Unfortunately, that is just a matter of speculation. Therefore, thorough research is needed to establish the relationship between the adverse pregnancy problem and ART program.

Mokgetse, M., & Ramukumba, M. M. (2018). Female condom acceptability and use amongst young women in Botswana. Curationis, 41(1), 1-6.

The prevalence of HIV and AIDS continue to be among the leading pandemic that continues affecting millions of people globally. What is more worrying is that the sub-Saharan accounts for more than half of the number of new infections. Botswana is among the leading country that has the highest number of HIV and AIDS prevalence (Mokgetse & Ramukumba, 2018). Moreover, the number of infections continue being high in this country. Numerous research has come up with effective methods to curb the rate of new HIV infections. Some of the preventive mechanism of reducing the rate of HIV infection is the use of male and female condoms (Mokgetse & Ramukumba, 2018). However, the percentage of usage of female condoms in the sub-Saharan continues being low even though these methods are more effective than a male contraceptive. The female condoms offer protection against sexually transmitted infections and unplanned pregnancy.

Research conducted on women between the ages of 15 and 34 in Jwaneng, Botswana, shows that almost 90% of them have heard of female condoms through mass media, promotions, or schools (Mokgetse & Ramukumba, 2018). However, most of them hold the view the usage of the female condom is low because it needs cooperation between partners, and also they have some difficulty during insertion (Mokgetse & Ramukumba, 2018). However, research conducted on the usage of condoms in Botswana shows that 96.84% fear to wear them because of their length. On the other hand, 20% felt that information on female condoms was not readily available (Mokgetse & Ramukumba, 2018). Only a small population of 4.21% believed the usage of female condoms could reduce enjoyment during intercourse. However, results from the research show that there is absolutely no direct correlation between the general views on contraception and female condom usage.

This research is useful since it provides valuable insights into why the use of female contraception is deficient. Thus, governments and stakeholders in the health sector must do more sensitization on the need to use female condoms. Furthermore, female condoms also need to be made available since most ladies complained of their limited numbers.

Faimau, G., Maunganidze, L., Tapera, R., Mosomane, L. C., & Apau, S. (2016). Knowledge of HIV/AIDS, attitudes towards sexual risk behavior, and perceived behavioral control among college students in Botswana. Cogent Social Sciences, 2(1), 1164932

Botswana is among the countries with the highest level of HIV and AIDS prevalence in the sub-Saharan region. Thus, a study seeks to establish the awareness of how HIV and AIDS are transmitted and the modes of preventing the spread of infection among the students in tertiary institutions within Botswana (Faimau et al., 2016). The other specific things that the study focused on include religious affiliations and how it influences risky sexual behavior that can lead to new HIV infection. Furthermore, the study seeks to understand aspects like the perceived myths about HIV infection and whether partners talk about the issues concerning the spread of HIV and AIDS.

The results of the study were rather astounding. The interviews conducted on students established that nearly all students in tertiary institutions in Botswana knew how HIV and AIDS spread (Faimau et al., 2016). Surprisingly, few students believe that HIV and AIDS emanate from witchcraft, whereas others thought it was only homosexuals who could get it. When asked about religious issues, results showed that spirituality strictly forbids sex before marriage (Faimau et al., 2016). However, most of the young men argue that they cannot stay without having sex. Additionally, most young people talk about sex and negotiate the use of protection before the act (Faimau et al., 2016). Surprisingly, there are those young people who still engage in risky sexual behavior hence exacerbate the spread of HIV and AIDS.

This research is essential because it gives public health officials crucial data on why the HIV pandemic keeps on spreading among young people despite extensive sensitization. Therefore, there is a need to change the mode of sensitizing youths to minimize risky behavior. Additionally, society also needs to be educated on false beliefs about HIV and AIDS. All in all, public awareness campaigns and sensitization has significantly enabled the reduction of the spread of HIV and AIDS.

Makhema, J., Wirth, K. E., Pretorius Holme, M., Gaolathe, T., Mmalane, M., Kadima, E. ... & Mbikiwa, A. M. (2019). Universal testing, expanded treatment, and incidence of HIV infection in Botswana. New England Journal of Medicine, 381(3), 230-242.

Therefore, this research aims at testing people at random to compare results between the intervention and standard care - on the HIV treatment plan. The investigation picked an arbitrary number of households among the 15 villages, amounting to a total of 12610 (Makhema et al., 2019). This figure amounts to roughly 20% of the entire sampled population. The sample results showed that the majority of the household knew about their HIV and AIDS status. The data from the sample number of enrollees show that 29% of people are HIV positive (Makhema et al., 2019). Makhema et al. note that 95% of the people with negative results got tested again (2019). As a result, 57 people who had been negative initially had now contracted HIV and AIDS disease.

Consequently, the tested people received counseling and then placed under the ART care even though some had a very high CD4+ cell count while under the standard care (Makhema et al., 2019). A comparative analysis of the pair-matched trial showed that those people put under randomized trial care ended up having a meager count of HIV than those individuals still on the standard care (Makhema et al., 2019). The increase in the suppression of the viral load led to a decrease in the spread of the disease. Therefore as such, linkage ART, coverage ought to be considered in areas with high HIV prevalence rather than relying on the stand care.

This research is vital in formulating policy that will help suppress the viral load among the victims hence reducing the number of infections. Thus, there is a need to continue doing more research on the modalities of reducing the prevalence of HIV and AIDS among the community. However, there is no ultimate weapon that can fight AIDS more than protection and abstinence.

Conclusion

All in all, significant research is underway on Africa’s face, aiming to reduce the number of HIV and AIDS prevalence among the people. Also, the research focus on modalities of ensuring there are very few cases of new infections, particularly among the young generation. However, more work needs to be put on research that focuses on the effect of ART on pregnancy within limited-resource settings.