UNICEF, UNAIDS and USAID developed a global strategic framework to guide responses to care and protect orphans and other vulnerable children in the context of HIV/AIDS. In the developing world, about 132 million peopl...UNICEF, UNAIDS and USAID developed a global strategic framework to guide responses to care and protect orphans and other vulnerable children in the context of HIV/AIDS. In the developing world, about 132 million people have lost one or both parents due to the AIDS pandemic and 25 million children have been orphaned by HIV/AIDS in 2010. The HIV prevalence in Cameroon is estimated at 5.1%. As of 2010, there were 304,000 deaths due to AIDS in Cameroon. Out of 1,200,000 orphans and vulnerable children in Cameroon in 2010, 300,000 were AIDS orphans. The HIV/AIDS burden impacts child survival, growth and development in the traditional African setting. With so many orphans in the population, along with many vulnerable children, strategies must be developed to respond more effectively to their critical needs. This study provides a model for OVC care and support in Cameroon. The model was developed out of extensive work using a participatory approach involving traditional, administrative and health stakeholders on OVC in Yaounde I and Yaounde VI Councils, Nanga Eboko Health District, Isangelle, Ekondo Titi, and Bafaka-Balue communities in Cameroon. Consultancy services with PLAN Cameroon, the Pan African Institute for Development-West Africa coupled with facilitation of many training workshops on OVC with Save the orphans Foundation, the Ministry of Social Affairs, and the Ministry of Public Health and working with the National AIDS Control Committee. The essential components of a holistic framework for the care of OVC have been identified. A public health model for the care of OVC and a mechanism for their identification and a referral system for testing OVC for HIV are proposed. Through this model, a mechanism for the effective holistic care of OVC and collaboration is enhanced.展开更多
The data on any aspect of public health, including that on infant mortality, has inbuilt hierarchical structure. Using traditional regression approach in data analysis, i.e., ignoring hierarchical structure, either at...The data on any aspect of public health, including that on infant mortality, has inbuilt hierarchical structure. Using traditional regression approach in data analysis, i.e., ignoring hierarchical structure, either at micro (individual) or at macro (community) level will be avoiding desired assumption related to independence of records. Accordingly, this may result into distortion in the results due to probable underestimation of standard error of the regression coefficients. To be more specific, an irrelevant co-variate may emerge as an important covariate leading to inappropriate public health implications. To overcome this problem, the objective of the present work was to deal with multilevel analysis of the data on infant mortality available under second round of National family Health Survey and notify changes in results under traditional regression analysis that ignores hierarchical structure of data. This method provides more accurate results leading to meaningful public health implications. In addition, estimation of variability at different levels and their covariance are also obtained. The results indicate that the community (e.g., state) level characteristics still have major role regarding infant mortality in India. Further, if computational facilities are available, multilevel analysis may be preferred in dealing with data involving hierarchical structure leading to accurate results having meaningful public health implications.展开更多
Objectives: Sexually Transmitted Infections (STIs) have a great public health impact globally. STIs are one of the most critical health problems in the United States of America (USA). Here, we present a mathematical m...Objectives: Sexually Transmitted Infections (STIs) have a great public health impact globally. STIs are one of the most critical health problems in the United States of America (USA). Here, we present a mathematical model for testing several interventions that are designed for various communities in order to control the Chlamydia epidemic. Study Design: Based on a community sexual behavior survey, we constructed and parameterized a mathematical disease transmission model to estimate the spread dynamics of Chlamydia in young adults in the northern part of Omaha, Nebraska. Methods: A differential equations based continuous time simulation model is run for various scenarios. The model considers only one age group i.e., 19 - 25 ages, which is considered as the highest risk group for this sexually transmitted disease. Our model assumes homogeneous mixing within this age group and use published estimates to model mixing rates between individuals. Results: The presented model quantified the potential value of screening and treatment programs for Chlamydia in reducing the burden of disease in this specific community. By increasing the screening and treatment rates from 35% to 85%, great public health benefit can be achieved in two years, i.e., total cases reduction around 9% just in this considered age group. Conclusions: Computational results show that behavioral change based interventions on prevention have some effect on reducing the prevalence in the targeted age group;however, more benefit can be obtained with frequent screening and treatment programs.展开更多
文摘UNICEF, UNAIDS and USAID developed a global strategic framework to guide responses to care and protect orphans and other vulnerable children in the context of HIV/AIDS. In the developing world, about 132 million people have lost one or both parents due to the AIDS pandemic and 25 million children have been orphaned by HIV/AIDS in 2010. The HIV prevalence in Cameroon is estimated at 5.1%. As of 2010, there were 304,000 deaths due to AIDS in Cameroon. Out of 1,200,000 orphans and vulnerable children in Cameroon in 2010, 300,000 were AIDS orphans. The HIV/AIDS burden impacts child survival, growth and development in the traditional African setting. With so many orphans in the population, along with many vulnerable children, strategies must be developed to respond more effectively to their critical needs. This study provides a model for OVC care and support in Cameroon. The model was developed out of extensive work using a participatory approach involving traditional, administrative and health stakeholders on OVC in Yaounde I and Yaounde VI Councils, Nanga Eboko Health District, Isangelle, Ekondo Titi, and Bafaka-Balue communities in Cameroon. Consultancy services with PLAN Cameroon, the Pan African Institute for Development-West Africa coupled with facilitation of many training workshops on OVC with Save the orphans Foundation, the Ministry of Social Affairs, and the Ministry of Public Health and working with the National AIDS Control Committee. The essential components of a holistic framework for the care of OVC have been identified. A public health model for the care of OVC and a mechanism for their identification and a referral system for testing OVC for HIV are proposed. Through this model, a mechanism for the effective holistic care of OVC and collaboration is enhanced.
文摘The data on any aspect of public health, including that on infant mortality, has inbuilt hierarchical structure. Using traditional regression approach in data analysis, i.e., ignoring hierarchical structure, either at micro (individual) or at macro (community) level will be avoiding desired assumption related to independence of records. Accordingly, this may result into distortion in the results due to probable underestimation of standard error of the regression coefficients. To be more specific, an irrelevant co-variate may emerge as an important covariate leading to inappropriate public health implications. To overcome this problem, the objective of the present work was to deal with multilevel analysis of the data on infant mortality available under second round of National family Health Survey and notify changes in results under traditional regression analysis that ignores hierarchical structure of data. This method provides more accurate results leading to meaningful public health implications. In addition, estimation of variability at different levels and their covariance are also obtained. The results indicate that the community (e.g., state) level characteristics still have major role regarding infant mortality in India. Further, if computational facilities are available, multilevel analysis may be preferred in dealing with data involving hierarchical structure leading to accurate results having meaningful public health implications.
文摘Objectives: Sexually Transmitted Infections (STIs) have a great public health impact globally. STIs are one of the most critical health problems in the United States of America (USA). Here, we present a mathematical model for testing several interventions that are designed for various communities in order to control the Chlamydia epidemic. Study Design: Based on a community sexual behavior survey, we constructed and parameterized a mathematical disease transmission model to estimate the spread dynamics of Chlamydia in young adults in the northern part of Omaha, Nebraska. Methods: A differential equations based continuous time simulation model is run for various scenarios. The model considers only one age group i.e., 19 - 25 ages, which is considered as the highest risk group for this sexually transmitted disease. Our model assumes homogeneous mixing within this age group and use published estimates to model mixing rates between individuals. Results: The presented model quantified the potential value of screening and treatment programs for Chlamydia in reducing the burden of disease in this specific community. By increasing the screening and treatment rates from 35% to 85%, great public health benefit can be achieved in two years, i.e., total cases reduction around 9% just in this considered age group. Conclusions: Computational results show that behavioral change based interventions on prevention have some effect on reducing the prevalence in the targeted age group;however, more benefit can be obtained with frequent screening and treatment programs.
