Male partner involvement in prevention of mother to child transmission of HIV in Sub-Saharan Africa: Successes, challenges and way forward

Sub-Saharan Africa has the highest number of mother to child transmissions of HIV. PMTCT programme plays a big role in reducing the MTCT nevertheless its effectiveness in Sub-Saharan Africa depends on involvement of male partners considering the fact that men are decision makers in African families. They make important decisions that have big impact on women’s health. Male partner involvement has been seen to increase uptake of PMTCT services and their involvement underscores their importance in reducing HIV infection in children. Recently many sub-Saharan countries adopted male partner involvement in PMTCT programme with an aim of increasing the uptake of PMTCT services. The programme has made some progress in improving the effectiveness of PMTCT services. On the other hand the strategy is facing a lot of challenges, the biggest being low male partner involvement. This article therefore seeks to review the successes and challenges faced by male involvement in Sub-Saharan Africa. It also proposes the way forward in order to improve its effectiveness. We used peer reviewed articles of research studies conducted in Sub-Saharan Africa and other related reliable sources of data to write the paper.

Exploring Work-Related Stress and Coping Strategies among Omani Nurses Working in Tertiary Governmental Hospitals at Muscat: A Cross-Sectional Study

Introduction: Work-related stress has become a global issue in the nursing workplace, with about 9.20% - 68.0% of nurses globally experiencing stress. Conversely, work-related stress ranges between 20% and 40% in nursing. Other researchers noted that 35.1% of nurses globally experienced elevated stress levels. Stress can damage well-being and lead to coping, which can, directly and indirectly, improve well-being through a perceived state. Nurses need coping mechanisms to manage their stress levels and maintain stability. Coping mechanisms can vary greatly depending on a nurse’s culture and background. Numerous findings indicate that managing stress is more critical than the cause of stress and that the more successful a stress-management approach, the less damage stress brings. Objective: In response to this, it is necessary to explore Omani nurses’ stress level and their coping strategies working in tertiary governmental hospitals in Muscat. Methods: The sample size for this study was 383 Omani nurses, with a 100% response rate. This study used a descriptive cross-sectional design from 15 October 2020 to 30 November 2020. Samples were selected through proportionate population sampling (PPS) from the five selected tertiary hospitals. Data were collected by self-administered questionnaires using a perceived stress scale and Ways of Coping. A simple random sample within a stratum (each hospital admitting ward) was done to identify the study participants. The sample size for this study was 383 Omani nurses, with a 100% response rate. Results: About 83.3% of participants had a moderate perceived level of stress with an overall mean perceived stress level of 18.46 ± 4.52. The most common sources of perceived stress are feeling nervous and “stressed” in the last month (2.30 ± 0.95). According to the ways of coping strategies, nurses seemed to be resorting to more “planful problem” (mean = 11.04) and least was seeking social support (mean = 9.67). Conclusion: This study highlighted the work-related stress level of staff nurses, explored their ways of coping and determined the relationship between work-related stress levels and methods of coping. The key finding of this study was that the frequency of stress reported by nurses was high enough to suggest that their stress levels were significant, given the demanding nature of their profession that requires maximum attention. Additionally, nurses seemed to resort to more planful problem-solving mechanisms to deal with their stressful situations than other coping strategies.

Receiving antenatal care via mobile clinic: Lived experiences of Jordanian mothers

Objective To understand the perceptions of pregnant Jordanian women who received antenatal care via mobile clinic,and to contribute new insights into the experiences of these mothers and how they evaluated the services that were available.Methods Ten Jordanian mothers who had received antenatal care at a mobile clinic discussed their experiences in semi-structured,audiotaped interviews in a study that adopted a qualitative research design.The analysis was done using interpretative phenomenological analysis.Results Three main themes were identified:Being informed about the medical campaign or missing the opportunity of being informed;The experience of receiving antenatal care was wonderful,although there was only one thing lacking;and they safeguard our life and take any opportunity to educate us.Conclusion Data indicate that the mothers were largely satisfied with most facets of the antenatal care services they had received at the mobile clinics.However,while services are generally well received,there are clear opportunities for ameliorating the quality of services provided.For mothers living in remote,deprived areas,outreach is not just an‘optional extra’but rather an essential service.

Plasma small-extracellular vesicles enriched in miR-122-5p promote disease aggressiveness in pediatric anaplastic large-cell lymphoma

Dear Editor,Anaplastic lymphoma kinase-positive(ALK+)anaplastic large cell lymphoma(ALCL)is an aggressive peripheral Tcell lymphoma representing 10%-15%of pediatric lymphoid neoplasms.The constitutively activated nucleophosmin-ALK(NPM-ALK)fusion protein is the main driver of ALK+ALCL oncogenesis[1].Current clinical protocols can achieve high cure rates,with 75%event-free survival(EFS)at 5 years[2],but the patients’outcome with relapsed/refractory disease still remains poor[3].Liquid biopsy is widely applied for the prognostic and therapeutic stratification of onco-hematological patients.As a non-invasive procedure,it can be used to identify several biomarkers,such as small extracellular vesicles(S-EVs)[4].S-EVs are stable carriers of molecules that mediate genetic exchange between distant cells,alter the microenvironment,facilitate cancer cell progression and promote drug resistance[5].

The surprising‘Coeliac Chinese box’from Italy

Background Coeliac disease(CD)-an autoimmune systemic disorder elicited by gluten in genetically predisposed individuals-can be considered a major public-health issue.Its prevalence is increasing in areas such as Asian countries.The global seroprevalence of CD is 1.4%,the highest being in Europe and Oceania,and very low in Southern America;however,few data are available for Asian countries,especially for China[1].