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Policy and programming towards addressing treatment gaps in adolescents living with HIV: A content analysis of policy and programme documents in Namibia
(SAGE Publications Inc., 2024) Munyayi, Farai Kevin; van Wyk, Brian E.
Adolescents living with HIV (ALHIV) face unique challenges resulting in persistent treatment gaps, particularly viral non-suppression. Country programs adopt policies, guidelines, and innovations, based on WHO recommendations and best practices from elsewhere. However, it is unclear to what extent these tools address the management of adolescents with viral non-suppression. We report on a review of guidelines for the provision of HIV services to ALHIV in Namibia. We conducted a systematic document review using Content Analysis and Thematic Analysis methodology, and the READ approach. We identified seven relevant policy documents, four of which somewhat addressed viral non-suppression (treatment gap) in ALHIV and outlined interventions to improve treatment outcomes in adolescents considering their lived experience and unique challenges. The persistent treatment gap may reflect policy implementation gaps in specifically addressing viral non-suppression. It may be worthwhile to leverage existing documents to develop specific operational guidance for ALHIV with unsuppressed viral loads.
Disposable diaper usage, disposal practices and quantity estimation in rural areas
(Elsevier, 2024) Nell, Charlotte M.; Schenck, Catherina J.; Chitaka, Takunda Y.
This study aimed to describe the disposable diaper usage, disposal practices and quantity estimation in a specified rural setting within a developing, sub-Saharan country, South Africa. Quantitative and qualitative data collection methods were used to collect primary data, which included survey research, focus group discussions, participatory thematic mapping, illegal dumping mapping and member checking. Most diapers end up within the natural receiving environment due to a lack of formalised waste management service provision. Dumping hot spots are water courses and streams. On average, each infant generates 4.47 diapers per day, while an average of 158,154 and 34,493 total diapers are generated daily within Bushbuckridge and Maruleng, respectively. High unemployment and grant-dependency rates characterise the study area, and households often spend the majority of child support grants to purchase diapers. Residents were willing to use a diaper disposal point and are not opposed to incineration. This study forms a comprehensive baseline to determine the feasibility of disposable diaper beneficiation options in rural areas.
Effect of green synthesized metal nanoparticles on gene expression in an in-vitro model of non-alcoholic steatohepatitis
(University of the Western Cape, 2024) Nendouvhada, Livhuwani Portia
Metabolic dysfunction-associated liver disease (MASLD) occurs due to an excessive accumulation of fat in the liver (steatosis), independent of secondary causes such as excessive alcohol consumption, viral hepatitis, or certain medications. MASLD is a common chronic liver disease that can lead to end-stage liver disease eventually requiring a liver transplant. It is associated with metabolic syndrome (MetS), especially obesity, diabetes, hyperlipidemia, and hypertriglyceridemia. MASLD can advance to metabolic dysfunction-associated steatohepatitis (MASH), which causes inflammation and damage leading to scarring of the liver (cirrhosis). Only 43-44% of patients with steatosis progress to MASH, with 7-30% of MASH patients progressing to cirrhosis. To date, the mechanism of MASLD and its progression is not well understood, and there are no therapeutic strategies that are specifically tailored for MASLD/ MASH. The anti-obesity and anti-diabetic pharmacological approaches currently used were shown to reduce the MASLD progression, although they remain ineffective to completely treat or reverse its progression.
Strengthening family connectedness in families with children with behavioural problems: key experts’ and practitioners’ experiences in the implementation of parenting programmes
(University of Stellenbosch, 2024) Danhouse, Merle Heather; Erasmus, Charlene J.
Parenting enhancement contributes to the development of positive child behaviour and strengthening of family connectedness. This qualitative study explores the experiences of 10 experts (social workers, child and youth care workers, and researchers) in the field of parenting through semi-structured interviews to strengthen family connectedness in families with children with behavioural problems (FCBPs). Using Tesch's qualitative analysis, three main themes emerged: (a) barriers to family connectedness, (b) parenting styles, and (c) parenting programmes in strengthening family connectedness. The findings of the study highlight the barriers experienced by experts and the lack of evidence-based parenting programmes in the strengthening of family connectedness in FCBPs in rural areas in South Africa. The study therefore recommends that practitioners in the field of parenting should receive specialised parenting training on how to strengthen family connectedness in FCBPs.
Inhabiting the ruins of the city of Tshwane
(North-West Unversity, 2024) de Villiers, Isolde
In the inner city of Tshwane stand the skeletons of four high-rise buildings – the remains of Schubart Park. While there are no more people inside the ruins of these buildings, they contain the stories of the relations between a city and its inhabitants. In 2012 Justice Froneman wrote the judgment that ordered that the inhabitants of Schubart Park should be reinstated in their former homes, after they were evicted by the City of Tshwane in 2011. More than ten years after his judgment, there is (again) a plan to move the former residents back. From a spatial justice perspective and through Ann Stoler's work on ruination, Chris Butler's call for inhabiting the ruins and Ivan Vladislavić's short story We Came to the Monument, I reflect on how court judgments stand between the possible and the impossible. I call for a re-imagination of the ways in which the municipality can relate to the inhabitants of the City and argue that Justice Froneman enables this re-imagination through his judgment in Schubart Park.