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Acquired immunodeficiency syndrome is a disease with profound effects on the global society, as it affects individual lives, communities, societies, and even nations. As governments try to gear up on the war against this pandemic, an issue of importance pertains to the use of information systems. The systems are used to collect data on the prevalence of the disease, and analyze and transmit the data from the lower levels of the health administration where the testing is done to the higher levels of national policy making where different kinds of interventions are designed. In this article, we argue that the manner in which the representation of the disease is constructed is an important area of concern as it shapes the picture of the disease prevalence and influences how these statistics then get used for the planning of interventions such as supplying drugs and pro-health campaigns. Drawing from the domain of Science and Technology Studies (STS), with a focus on Bruno Latour's (1999) ideas of “circulating reference” we first develop the theoretical notion of representation, and then apply it to an empirical analysis of the reporting systems, both paper- and computer-based, of HIV/AIDS in Mozambique. The successive movements of information about HIV/AIDS prevalence across the various administrative levels are seen as translations that are being constructed through the communication and work practices of the health care workers at different levels, and are shaped by the political interests of the different stakeholders involved, including international agencies and national health authorities. Latour's notion of circulating reference is drawn upon to analyze the question of what is lost, what is gained, and what remains invariant through the successive stages of translation in the construction and use of the representation. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In sub-Saharan Africa, HIV/AIDS has proven to be the most challenging health and development issue of modern times. Its spread is related to poverty, power relationships between men and women, the availability and accessibility of basic services, sexual customs, and the evolution of traditional practices in modern society. Currently, most HIV/AIDS communication strategies are based on health education or behavior change models such as those designed to improve immunization coverage or eradicate polio. In UNICEF's human rights approach to programming, communication is explicitly recognized as both a right and a means to claiming other rights. UNICEF is developing the concept and practice of communication from a human rights perspective as it responds to the HIV/AIDS pandemic in Eastern and Southern Africa. As it does so, it is refining its experience from other program areas, so that currently it is using a range of communication techniques. Hence, communication from a human rights perspective examines the context in which change occurs, broadening the responsibility for creating change from the individual to the community.

Presents a commentary on the studies which examined cases of psychoanalytic psychotherapy with people with HIV and AIDS by Ubaldo Leli and Robert Weinstein. Literature which confronted questions of working with people living with HIV/AIDS; Influence of the analyst's theoretical point of view on how matters concerning HIV/AIDS are handled.

This paper analyzes the implications of illness and queerness for the identity Gil de Biedma constructs through his personal diary of 1985. This is a unique case of a Spanish author providing a complex picture of the effect of HIV/AIDS on his own life and work. In addition, the author's diaries are a rare example of Spanish autobiographical writing on illness. Gil de Biedma kept several diaries throughout his life. The last diary, titled "Diario de 1985", is an account of his stay at a French hospital while undergoing treatment for Kaposi's sarcoma. This short diary offers crude yet insightful material on human illness, suffering and the stigma of HIV/AIDS in Spain during the 1980s. By close reading a selection of fragments of the author's diary, utilizing an approach that combines psychoanalysis and social history, this paper exposes the connections between illness, sexuality and identity in Gil de Biedma's autobiographical writing. This paper claims that Gil de Biedma (un)consciously represses naming the illness in his diaries while being very descriptive about the physical symptoms of AIDS and its treatment. This evidences the brutal social and familial pressure to conform to a certain identity, ultimately giving way to a very particular symbiosis between the author's literary persona and his bourgeois self. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper critically examines the role of transnational AIDS networks and resources in the consolidation of one of the earliest identity categories, meti, used within an emerging Nepali LGBT movement in the early 2000s. It argues that political identity formation in resource-poor contexts with limited domestic support for queer organising has been a cumulative effect of transnational exchanges between activists and resource networks. Beyond this, the paper traces the emergence and changing meanings of meti to show how a seemingly Indigenous category is more closely linked to modern configurations of male same-sex sexuality in response to opportunities available for political mobilisation. The paper is based on secondary research and interviews with 71 participants and participant observation conducted during seven months of fieldwork in Nepal, and interviews conducted outside the country between 2016 and 2019. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article considers the Bayes analysis of generalized gamma accelerated failure time model and its two components Weibull and gamma when the given observations are left truncated and right censored. In order to perform the analysis, the paper proposes the use of an improved version of the Metropolis-Hastings algorithm, namely, the Metropolis-adjusted Langevin algorithm. Besides, the paper also checks the model compatibility and compares the considered models with its components using the Bayes factor computed on the basis of a recent methodology. A numerical illustration is provided based on a simulated as well as a real dataset. The real dataset consists of individuals infected with human immunodeficiency virus who are at the risk of acquired immunodeficiency syndrome and subsequent deaths. The numerical illustration is further extended to check the effect of different therapies including the highly active antiretroviral therapy on the lifetime of individuals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

HIV/AIDS-COVID-19 co-infection is a major public health concern especially in developing countries of the world. This paper presents HIV/AIDS-COVID-19 co-infection to investigate the impact of interventions on its transmission using ordinary differential equation. In the analysis of the model, the solutions are shown to be non-negative and bounded, using next-generation matrix approach the basic reproduction numbers are computed, sufficient conditions for stabilities of equilibrium points are established. The sensitivity analysis showed that transmission rates are the most sensitive parameters that have direct impact on the basic reproduction numbers and protection and treatment rates are more sensitive and have indirect impact to the basic reproduction numbers. Numerical simulations shown that some parameter effects on the transmission of single infections as well as co-infection, and applying the protection rates and treatment rates have effective roles to minimize and also to eradicate the HIV/AIDS-COVID-19 co-infection spreading in the community. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In sub-Saharan Africa over 52 million children are living with the death of one or both parents. Drivers of this parental mortality include afflictions at levels endemic to the region, including: HIV; malaria and other parasites; lower respiratory infections; diarrhoeal illnesses; and road accidents, among others. This paper examines the impact of orphanhood on learning outcomes among girls and boys in sub-Saharan Africa, conditional on school enrolment. By analysing test scores for approximately 60,000 pupils in 12 countries, we estimate the effect on student test scores by comparing paternal, maternal, and double orphans to non-orphans in the sample, specifically for the subjects of reading, mathematics, and HIV-AIDS knowledge. No previous study has analysed how orphanhood might influence learning by using student test score data, making this paper's approach unique in the literature. This study employs two estimation techniques: Coarsened exact matching calculates the sample average treatment effect on the treated, while matching on students' family structure, household wealth, school resources, and geographic location; and double lasso (DL) regression applies applying machine-learning for variable selection with high-dimensional controls for regional and school identifiers, school location, and student age. Our results show both CEM and DL consistently report a significant negative impact of orphanhood on test scores among specific countries, especially those which faltered in addressing the HIV-AIDS crisis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to analyze the U.S. writer and teacher Tom Spanbauer's novel In the City of Shy Hunters by means of theoretical perspectives that embrace both queer and communitarian epistemologies. The novel, set mainly in New York City in the mid-1980s, is narrated in first person by the protagonist and shows how HIV/AIDS, and the elevated social stigma surrounding it, affects different classes and ethnicities, as well as gender, sexual and corporal diversities. It experiments with a particular writing style and teaching method that Spanbauer calls dangerous writing; that is, how to expose our inner life and secrets, which are often related to social taboos. The main objective of this paper is to demonstrate the connection between dangerous writing, queer studies (Judith Butler, Annamarie Jagose) and community theory (Jean-Luc Nancy, Maurice Blanchot and Roberto Esposito) by adopting a multidisciplinary approach to literary critical analysis. The main result of this study demonstrates that the singularities represented in the novel, who are mostly queer and affected by HIV/AIDS, can create inoperative communities and communities of lovers, open to otherness as well as being spontaneous, antisocial and momentary, with a recognition and acceptance of mortality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper draws on anthropological research exploring women's changing sexuality within an urban context of Tanzania. The women involved were participating in an HIV prevention trial and worked in bars, restaurants, hotels and nightclubs, or sold local beer or food in Mwanza city. In ethnographic fieldwork and interviews and group discussions with women, narratives about sexuality focused on gendered and moral discourses of sexuality, the commodification of sexuality, and emotions and intimacy in relationships. This paper discusses how women's sexual subjectivies are shaped by a city where social, structural and economic changes over an era of neoliberalism and AIDS has created both disciplinary and liberalising spaces in which gendered and moral discourses of sexuality have emerged. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Emerging infectious diseases draw critical attention to the human–animal interface for understanding and explaining global health crises. These include zoonoses that directly affect human health, as well as epizootic events in livestock and wildlife rendering economic and societal systems vulnerable. This paper traces the overlaps between three viral trajectories – that of African Swine Fever (ASF), AIDS, and COVID-19 – to show how technoscientific ways of knowing and responding to disease outbreaks frame certain forms of human–animal contact as risky and dangerous. We mobilize the notion of a reservoir, understood both as (surplus) bodies harboring infectious disease, and an epistemic pool of associations and response protocols accompanying health crises. Our point of departure is a short-lived hypothesis from the 1980s on the connection between AIDS and ASF, which marshalled racialized fears over undesirable interspecies contact. From there we inspect the tension between the epistemic and affective modes of causality in current and historical narratives, which seek the blame for disease in transgressions against nature. By focusing on how disease narratives spill over to social categories of race and class, our analysis questions the depictions of these transgressions from the standpoint of universal humanity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the growing number of older people living with HIV, "What is the most effective geriatric care and the research trend of existing literature?" is a compelling question after 30 years since the first paper related to aging and HIV/AIDS published. Our study aims to apply quantitative and qualitative analysis to explore the knowledge gaps and describes the research interest of gerontology research in the field of HIV. A bibliometric analysis was conducted based on the databased of the Web of Science from 1991 to 2019. The major domains of research areas were visualized by using VOSviewer software. Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) was applied to classify the dataset into topics. There was a rising number of publications about this topic over time. Our findings indicated that antiretroviral treatment and evaluating quality of life and harm reduction were the major domains regarding care for OPLWH. In addition, the finding highlights the role of social competence in treatment outcomes. Further research needs to tailor multi-disciplinary programs and flexible interventions to reduce the burden and the mortality rate of HIV/AIDS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses Gilbert Cole's book, "Infecting the Treatment: Being an HIV-Positive Analyst." The author provides some personal reflections on the outbreak of AIDS and the impact it had upon his work as a psychotherapist. The paper addresses the importance of the cognitive schemata Cole provides to psychotherapists working with seropositive patients. This paper then addresses a powerful technique, a therapist's self disclosure to a patient, upon which Cole's work focuses. Using the example of psychoanalytic strictures regarding self-disclosure, the author argues that self-disclosure is more likely to be adhered to in theory than it is in practice. The author agrees with Cole that non-disclosure is often a technique used by analysts to hide, rather than provide a therapeutic field of action. The specific case of therapists hiding their antihomosexuality when working with lesbians and gay men is used to illustrate the author's perspective. A specific case presented by Cole in his book is then used to both compare and contrast Cole and this paper's author's use of self-disclosure. The paper commends Cole's study for opening a debate on how to use countertransference and self-disclosure as tools which widen and enrich the therapeutic relationship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

After their successful review of the local bathhouses, Helquist and Osmon conducted another investigation, this time of other sex businesses in San Francisco, including sex clubs. Once again, these investigators approached their work systematically. Their article provides a thorough description of what was happening in the sex clubs and other sex businesses at that point in the AIDS epidemic. The original paper was published in the September 1984 edition of Coming Up! (pp. 19-24). As with all the reprinted papers in this volume, no editorial changes were made to the paper and only minor typographical errors were corrected. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This review examines the nexus of poverty, malnutrition and diseases in Africa, the challenges, implications and their mitigation. The paper takes a critical look at available literatures on the primary causes, modes, implications and solutions to the problems of poverty, malnutrition and diseases in Africa continent. Poverty and malnutrition are outcomes of uncontrolled rapid population growth, inefficient agricultural and industrial practices, high debt profile of many African countries due to poor governance and corruption, diseases such as AIDS epidemic, malaria, Ebola virus and COVID-19 pandemic, poor and inadequate health infrastructure and armed conflicts. African poverty scenario entails non-availability of basic human needs which makes many Africans to be very poor. Despite abundance of natural resources, the gross domestic product per capita of many African countries is among the lowest of list of nations of the world. According United Nation in 2009, 22 of 24 nations among the "Low Human Development" nations of the world on the UN's Human Development Index were found in sub-Saharan Africa. Out of the 50 countries on the United Nation list of least developed countries, 34 of them were in Africa. According to FAO data over 200 million people in sub-Saharan Africa were undernourished in 2014-2016. The prevalence of undernourishment in sub-Saharan Africa rose from 181 million in 2010 to 222 million in 2016. In 2016, Africa had the highest prevalence of undernourishment in the world and estimated to be 20% of the population. While this was alarming in Eastern Africa where one-third of the population is suspected to be undernourished. In a similar data, World Bank also found that sub-Saharan Africa Poverty and Equity Data was 47% with over 500 million people in abject poverty in 2012. Poverty is the major cause of hunger and malnutrition in Africa while hunger and malnutrition escalated the problem of diseases in African continent. Poverty has continued to torment Africa as a result of poor and harmful economic policies, conflict and war, environmental factors like drought and climate change and population growth, poor leadership and greed. With the advent of COVID-19, the problem of poverty, malnutrition and diseases has been escalated and in many African countries people find it difficult to make ends meet. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

HIV is a virus that weakens a person's immune system. HIV has three stages, and AIDS is the most severe stage of HIV (Stage 3). People with HIV should take medicine (called ART) recommended by WHO as soon as possible to reduce the amount of virus in the body. In this paper, we formulate a mathematical model for HIV/AIDS with a new approach by focusing on two groups of infectious individuals, HIV and AIDS. We also introduce a controlled class (treated patients and being monitored), and people in this class can spread the disease. We further investigate the essential dynamics of the model through an equilibrium analysis. Optimal control theory is applied to explore effective treatment strategies by combining two control measures: standard antiretroviral therapy and AIDS treatments. Numerical simulation results show the effects of the two time-dependent controls, and they can be used as guidelines for public health interventions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Building on postcolonial feminist scholars and critical anthropological work, this paper analyses the frequent deployment of the notion of 'culture' by decision-makers, educators, international agency staff and young people in the design, delivery and uptake of sexuality and HIV prevention education in Mozambique. The paper presents qualitative data gathered in Maputo, Mozambique to highlight the essentialising nature of culturalist assumptions underpinning in-school sexuality education. I argue that conceptions of 'traditional' and 'modern' culture are deployed to explain the epidemic, both of which spectacularise and decontextualise phenomena and practices, and perpetuate the western trope of the Third World Woman. The paper concludes by arguing that a singular emphasis on 'culture' – in its various guises – diverts attention from structural causes of young Mozambican women and men's vulnerability to HIV and AIDS, and crucially, rather than problematise gender relationships, reifies and solidifies these. Thus, while sexuality and HIV prevention education cannot be understood or delivered independently of the cultural context in which it is situated, a more nuanced conception of culture is required – that is, one that is attentive to questions of power and specifically, who is in a position to make meanings 'stick'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a list of books and articles related to AIDS. Some of the books and articles are "Perspectives on AIDS in Africa: Strategies for Prevention and Control," by Collins O. Airhihenbuwa, "Acquired Immunity Deficiency Syndrome: The Victim and the Press," by Edward Albert, "AIDS in the Public Sphere: How a Broadcasting System in Crisis Dealt With an Epidemic," Keith Alcorn, "AIDS: The Politicization of an Epidemic," by Dennis Altman, "The Social Impact of AIDS in the U.S.," edited by Richard A. Berk, "Surveillance for AIDS in Uganda," by Seth Berkeley, Samuel Okware and Warren Naamara, "The Plague Years: A Chronicle of AIDS," by David Black, "Determinants of the Public's Priorities for Allocating Funds Spent on AIDS," by Sandra H. Berry, D. F. Kanouse, F. M. Gorman and E. Yano, "AIDS and Ads: Behavior Change Among Gay Men in Response to the AIDS Epidemic," by Ralph Bolton and so on.

As an interface between health and education, comprehensive sexuality education (CSE) offers a potent tool among other interventions to accelerate healthy transition of adolescents into adulthood. With increasing interest in in-school CSE provision/delivery, young people in out-of-school contexts may be left behind. This study forms part of implementation research to understand if the activities used to train and support the facilitators are feasible, appropriate, acceptable, and effective in enabling them to engage a defined group of young people, deliver CSE to them in the out-of-school context, and assist them in obtaining relevant services. This paper presents findings of mapping of out-of-school CSE interventions in Ghana, ongoing or completed between 2015 and 2020, and then discusses a needs assessment of two purposively selected groups of vulnerable out-of-school youth: young people living with HIV and AIDS (YPLHIV) and those living in detention (YPiD). We conducted 10 interviews with YPLHIV and three focus group discussions with YPiD in November 2020. Qualitative data were analysed thematically using both deductive and inductive approaches. The mapping yielded 29 interventions (18/62% were ongoing) focused extensively on the delivery of CSE-related knowledge and information; none were aimed at building facilitators' capacity and most targeted the northern regions. Among YPLHIV, living positively after diagnosis, disclosure skills and use of HIV/AIDS health services were critical. YpID sought clarification on personal hygiene, consent in sexual relationships, medium/channel to deliver CSE, and issues around same-sex sexual intercourse. Both groups sought skills in dealing with stigmatisation and discrimination. Implications of the findings for our own and other interventions are highlighted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses papers within the January 2013 issue of the "Journal of Gay & Lesbian Mental Health," including a paper on the history of HIV/AIDS, a paper on the impact of HIV/AIDS on people of color and youth, and a study on the relationship among depressive symptoms, drug use and risk-taking behavior among minority youths.

This paper draws on ethnographic data to explore children's aspirations through education within the context of poverty and vulnerability in Siaya Kenya. Since several children reported eating onge (nothing) for breakfast, they hoped that education would enable them to eat and enjoy a good future. I demonstrate that aspirations as orientations towards desired futures have affective dimensions [Huijsmans, Ansell, and Froerer. 2021. "Introduction: Development, Young People, and the Social Production of Aspirations." The European Journal of Development Research 33: 1–15]. Consequently, in drawing from Deleuze [1988. Spinoza: Practical Philosophy. San Francisco, CA: City Lights] that affect is a capacity to affect and to be affected, I argue that children's aspirations in Siaya are an assemblage of personal, relational and non-human factors of poverty, orphanhood, HIV/AIDS and other forms of marginalisation. This assemblage fuels a desire for alternative futures, and/or modifies their aspirations in complex ways. While children's desired futures might look impossible, their aspirations are also affective becomings [Salazar. 2017. "Speculative Fabulation: Researching Worlds to Come in Antarctica." In Anthropologies and Futures: Researching Emerging and Uncertain Worlds, edited by Juan Salazar, Sarah Pink, Andrew Irving, and Johannes Sjöberg, 158. London: Bloomsbury], and schooling and education are sites for alternative futures, in Siaya's continuing present. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Children are particularly vulnerable to the consequences of HIV/AIDS. This paper reports on the challenges faced by children due to their or their parents' HIV/AIDS status and the role of HIV-sensitive social protection in mitigating these challenges. We conducted 32 semi-structured in-depth interviews – 15 with children affected by HIV/AIDS (aged 13–18 years) and 17 with parents of children aged 10–12 years. We found children face significant challenges associated with poverty, gender norms, stigma, and lack of social support which affect their rights to education, shelter, treatment, and food. HIV-sensitive social protection packages such as conditional cash transfer, counselling, and community sensitization help continuation of education, facilitate access to treatment and social protection services, reduce stigma in the community and improve wellbeing of children. Children's accessibility to these services was limited due to distance, transport expenses, poor health conditions of the parents, gender issues, and stigma. HIV-sensitive social protection is effective in improving children's wellbeing. Continuation and expansion of HIV-sensitive social protection packages including conditional cash transfer, psychosocial counselling, and community sensitization and life skills training to facilitate HIV/AIDS affected children's wellbeing and inclusion is recommended. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In late 1970s Paris, San Francisco Nights and Far West, popular institutions in the city's new queer nightlife, helped fashion new sexual norms. They were part of a constellation of California-inspired places that stimulated new imaginings of how queerness could be expressed and embodied. Indeed, large Californian cities, San Francisco in particular, provided a profit model based on queer consumption that participated in the creation of a new queer Paris. As the decade came to an end, the mobilisation of a gay vote in California also fed Parisian activists with the inspiration to organise a queer voting bloc in Paris to influence national elections and lobby for an end to discriminatory, anti-gay sections of the penal code. These re-imaginings of politics and urban economy challenged cherished French universalist ideals. As such, opposition accompanied the embrace of California-inspired visions of queer life. Both support and resistance attested to the growing global power of California, and of the United States. Drawing upon archival research, this paper explores California as a cultural reference, commercial brand, and political aspiration in the construction of a new queer Paris at the end of the 1970s and the dawn of the 1980s. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the decline of the AIDS Programme in Brazil, the Latin American country most affected by the epidemic, with emphasis in the second decade of the twenty-first century. For many years, Brazil served as a model in Global Health due to a comprehensive preventive policy, a partnership between the government and health activists and the support of life-saving drugs as public goods rather than commodities. The regression of AIDS policies in Brazil interacted with developments in the United States as well as with multilateral agencies like UNAIDS that emphasised biomedicalisation in the response to the disease where broad human-rights programmes and alliance with activists were not priorities. International programmes like the 'Ending AIDS' campaign indirectly undermined the exceptional status AIDS enjoyed since the late 1980s. The backlash in Brazilian policies to fight AIDS was a result of the fragmentation of the left and the empowerment of radical conservative authoritarian and religious forces. The result was the breakdown of the long-held belief that successful anti-AIDS disease programmes could simultaneously help control the disease and build better healthcare systems and ultimately prompted the end of the special place AIDS' policy had in Brazil. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses the lived experiences of people living with HIV in South Africa through the use of body mapping as a visual research method, by focusing on the physical and symbolic use of the body within the broader context of anthropology and medical anthropology. The study consists of an empirical analysis of the body maps themselves and the accompanied narratives of seven participants, six female and one male participant living with HIV in South Africa. Drawing upon theories and literature on theorising the body in medical anthropology and visual research, this study explores the significance of this practice as a visual research method in understanding the nuanced lived experiences of people living with HIV by highlighting the individuality of the body and emotions; embodied experiences: a bio-cultural approach; and the body politic: social injustice. The results of this study illustrate that body mapping is a unique visual research method, that explores the body as the vehicle in which we exist within the world, while containing a vast amount of layered interpretive and cultural meanings, which are key to understanding the lived experience of people from marginalised groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents empirical material drawn from an intentionally local AIDS quilting project in a disadvantaged inner-city district of Dublin, Ireland. The paper aims to address two key gaps in human geography. Firstly, by examining the AIDS quilts through their primary functions of therapy, activism, and commemoration, this paper finds an emphasis on place, rather than names that foregrounds the geographical, as opposed to merely rhetorical dimensions of the AIDS quilt. In doing so, it questions the forms of political community that have been claimed through the more well-studied NAMES Memorial Quilt. Secondly, by conceptualising AIDS quilts through the lens of humanistic geography, it reflects upon the act of quilting as producing what Yi-Fu Tuan described as a "field of care," a place that may be more attentive to the structural AIDS vulnerability visited upon affected communities. It concludes with implications for the study of AIDS interventions amid wounded cities. As these damaged communities seek ways to repair themselves, the quilts act as paradigmatic cases of care for others, through care for place. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An introduction is presented in which the editor discusses articles in the issue on the topics including papers from 14th AIDSImpact conference with broad range of global considerations; and psychological ramifications of the epidemic need as much understanding as the virological challenge.

The aim of this meta-analysis is to summarize the available evidence on the social and demographic determinants of health-related quality of life (QoL) for HIV-infected populations in order to provide a direction to policy makers, planners, and program developers on how best to use their resources to improve the QoL of HIV-infected people. PubMed, Science Direct, Web of Science, and Cochrane electronic databases were searched (up to February 2017) to identify the relevant studies. A meta-analysis was conducted with procreate polled odds ratios (ORs and β) and the confidence intervals of 95% on determining factors of QoL in social and demographic terms. Random effect model was applied to calculate pooled estimation, due to varied sampling methods of researches. In total, 5607 papers were identified from 4 databases and additional search in reference lists. Of these, 2107 articles were selected for full-text review. We included 19 studies that met the eligibility criteria. The pooled effect size shows a relative positive impact of social support for QoL among HIV/AIDS patients and its lower boundary is about 0.61 and the higher about 1.49. The pooled effect size has a considerable negative impact stigma on people who live with HIV/AIDS (PWLHs') QoL ranges from −0.34 to −0.32. Low socioeconomic status (poverty situation) was found to have a degenerative impact with PWLHs' QoL. Our finding indicates an association between younger 35 and QoL is negative with a relatively wide range, the minimum level of education has a weak association with PWLHs' QoL (ES: 0.14–0.2). There are several sociodemographic determinants of QoL among PWLHs and in this study, we found that stigma, low level of socioeconomic status, and being younger than 35 years old have a negative association with QoL, while the social support showed a positive association and a minimum level of education did not show a rigorous negative or positive association. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since reports of the first incidence of the HIV virus in Zimbabwe in 1985, the epidemic has negatively impacted on every facet of human security. Rural areas, by virtue of being the periphery and constrained in terms of resources and health care provision, bear the brunt of the epidemic. In light of the above background, this paper examined how the establishment of Ruvheneko Programme by the people of Chirumhanzu helped in mitigating on the impact of HIV and AIDS in the rural sphere. The paper analyses how the community of Chirumhanzu successfully engaged each other to the extent of coming up with such a vibrant programme. This is raised against the backdrop of failure usually associated with HIV and AIDS engagement projects. The study made use of field interviews and focus group discussions as data collection instruments. Participants were purposively selected on the basis of their knowledge and participation in the establishment and activities of Ruvheneko Programme. Selected were 5 St Theresa's Hospital Staff, 10 Roman Catholic Church members of which, 5 were from the St Anna's woman prayer group and 5 men from St Joseph's men prayer group, 1 village head and 2 elders from the same nearby village constituted key informants. Complementing the use of interviews and focus group discussions was the analysis of secondary data sources on HIV and AIDS in Zimbabwe as well as the Ruvheneko Programme. To understand the collective role of various sectors of the community in establishing Ruvheneko Programme, the paper derives insights from the perspective of social capital theory and its notion of commonality to strengthen communities. Findings from the study show that, unlike other HIV and AIDS programmes that are exported from the urban to the rural areas, Ruvheneko Programme demonstrates a grassroots-level response to HIV and AIDS. Again, social cohesion fostered by aspects such as religiosity, cultural ethos of Ubuntu, and a consultative approach played a key role in unifying people towards fighting HIV and AIDS in Rural Chirumhanzu. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Growth curve models are often used to describe a developmental course of a longitudinal response. This paper extends such models to assess multiphasic patterns of developmental trajectories for multivariate response variables. The multiphasic patterns are identified using a bivariate bent-cable model in the context of multivariate growth models. The approach allows for the simultaneous estimation of parameters of multiphasic changes in each response, and also takes into account the correlations among outcomes and random effects for repeated observations over time. The proposed methods are demonstrated using real data from an AIDS clinical study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The war in Ukraine has posed significant challenges to the healthcare system. This paper draws upon expert consultations, held between December 2022 and February 2023, focused on HIV/AIDS, addiction, and mental health service delivery during the first year of this war, and following the Global Mental Health Humanitarian Coalition panel discussion in May 2022. Objectives: This commentary presents the experiences of frontline healthcare workers in Ukraine, challenges, and local adaptations to meet the increased mental health needs of healthcare providers. We aimed to document the adaptations made in the addiction healthcare system and to acknowledge the changes in vulnerabilities and lessons learned. Results: Burnout among healthcare providers delivering addiction, HIV/AIDS and mental health services became more visible after the second half of 2022. Challenges included increased workload, contextual threats, lack of job relocation strategies, and money-follow-the-patient policies. Recommendations: The lessons from the first year of war in Ukraine hold significant generalizability to other contexts. These include enabling bottom-up approaches to tailoring services and allowing healthcare providers to respond to the dynamics of war in an effective and active manner. Other recommendations include departmental-specific resources and strategies, particularly as vulnerable groups and challenges are unstable in humanitarian contexts. Conclusions: Globally and in Ukraine, healthcare workers need more than applause. Along with monetary incentives, other strategies to prevent burnout, ensure sustainable capacity building, job relocation opportunities, and bespoke adaptations are imperative to protect healthcare providers' wellbeing and overall public health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper expands the scope of inquiry into HIV and aging through an ethnographic exploration of a small group of older, long-term (20 or more years) HIV+ gay white men in Toronto who meet fortnightly to discuss and reflect on everyday challenges of living with HIV but do not want to be affiliated with existing HIV/AIDS support organizations. Their discussions reveal a critique of professionalization and biomedical bias in contemporary mainstream Canadian HIV/AIDS discourses and support services, reflecting their shared experiences and memories of the HIV/AIDS epidemic in Canada over many decades. I argue that their frustration with and disengagement from contemporary mainstream HIV/AIDS discourses and support services, based on shared experiences and memories, produces a particular form of "queer viral time," developed through the intersectional dynamics of epidemiological time, gender, age, race and sexual orientation. Queer viral time draws attention to the temporal dimensions of socio-sexual subject formations, social inequalities, and health governance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Compares the essays produced by Robert Gallo and Jean Montagnier research teams during the acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) hunt in order to discern the fine line between rhetorical aggression that may convince as well as offend and rhetorical passivity that may actually conceal important implications. Participants in the AIDS virus hunt; Reference made to the book `King Lear,' by William Shakespeare.

This essay explores the imbrications between queer precarity and social reproduction from the perspective of homonormative division of labour. Contextualizing the emergence of China's HIV/AIDS economy and its reliance on queer intimate labour, it argues that the homonormative division of labour are part and parcel to maintain and nurture the economic, political structures of LGBT liberalism. Instead of providing 'local case' of homonormativity, this paper connects the normalizing power on sexuality and bodies to the larger geography of transnational labour division and conditions of labour precarity, providing an analysis of South-focused political economy of homonormativity. Arguing against viewing precarity as an overarching global phenomenon, this essay centres on lived experiences of the queer 'precariat' and highlights the contradiction and interplay of agency and conformity. Reclaiming the Chinese queer lexicon tongzhi (comrades), not only as a sexual identity, but as queer sociality where desires and work converge, this essay cautions against narrowly defined but broadly circulated concepts such as 'oppression', 'resistance', 'social movement' and 'community' that are predominantly derived from Western centric political imagination and activist space. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pentecostalism is the fastest growing form of Christianity in developing countries. Paralleling Pentecostalism's growth has been the HIV/AIDS pandemic. This paper examines how post-apartheid South Africans are responding to the conflicts born of the HIV/AIDS crisis. Fieldwork conducted in 2005 shows that Pentecostals who were not involved in efforts to address HIV/AIDS saw the church's mission as almost exclusively spiritual in nature. Pentecostals who were engaged in HIV/AIDS-related work were more likely to have an integrated worldview and to see the church's mission as relevant to the physical world. Beliefs about removing racism from the church and sin as structural as well as individual were also associated with this integrated worldview. These insights lay the foundation for constructing a Pentecostal social ethic for addressing HIV/AIDS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper emerges out of a larger qualitative study that aimed at mapping barriers to basic education experienced by children and adults in the context of the HIV and AIDS pandemic. The study was undertaken in Richmond district and involved a range of centres of learning (formal and informal) including three high schools, five primary schools, two adult basic education centres, a school for the deaf, two early childhood centres and their communities. The participants in the study were child and adult learners, parents and caregivers, school governing bodies, organizations working in the district, officials from the Departments of Health, Education and Social Welfare and members of a support group for people living with HIV or AIDS. The study attempted to capture the voices of participants and to obtain rich qualitative data through individual interviews and focus group interviews. In addition, various participatory research techniques such as transect walks, vulnerability matrices, ranking exercises, photo-voice and social mapping were used in the focus group interviews. This paper provides an understanding of a theme - that of oppression - that emerged from the data. The findings suggest that oppressions are systematically produced and reproduced in the processes of the everyday lives of learners, their families, teachers and the wider school community in this particular context. The paper juxtaposes Young's (1990) five categories of oppression: exploitation, marginalization, powerlessness, cultural imperialism and violence, with three post-structural constructs: discourse, hegemony and resistance to highlight the complex workings of oppression. These constructs are applied to the data from the study. The paper will provide examples of the forms of oppression and multiple ways in which oppression is played out in different situated spaces. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The HIV and AIDS epidemic feeds on, and worsens, unacceptable situations of poverty, gender inequity, social insecurity, limited access to healthcare and education, war, debt and macroeconomic and social instability. The number of people living with HIV and AIDS continues to increase in several regions, most markedly in sub-Saharan Africa, the Pacific, Eastern Europe and Central Asia. The persistent nature of the epidemic and its increasing incidence in less powerful, more economically marginalised communities signals a need for a critical review of past policy and practice, particularly where this has left unchanged or worsened the risk environments that lead to new infection. Available evidence suggests that the caring and consumption burdens of AIDS have largely been met by households, limiting the capacities for future caring and mitigation of impact. Social cohesion or the collective networking, action, trust and solidarity of society, plays a positive role in reducing risk and dealing with vulnerability but is itself negatively affected by AIDS. This paper introduces the programme of work reported in this supplement of AIDS Care with an analysis of background evidence of community responses to HIV and AIDS. It explores how interventions from state institutions and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) support and interact with these household, family and community responses. How far is risk prevention reliant on individuals' limited resources and power to act, while risk environments are left unchanged? How far are the impacts of AIDS borne by households and extended families, with weak solidarity support? Where are the examples of wider social responses that challenge the conditions that influence risk and that support household recovery? Through review of literature, this background paper sets out the questions that the studies reported in this supplement have, in various settings, sought to explore more deeply. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper situates the findings of the diverse studies reported in this journal supplement in a global context that both fuels the epidemic through inequality and poverty and also provides new opportunities for global commitments, solidarity and resources. The studies in this issue signal that, while information and awareness about HIV and AIDS is now high, there is still poor access to services for people to know their own risk and a deeper need to address the asymmetries of power and access to resources that influence the control people have over their sexual relationships and lives. The studies in this supplement describe, in very different contexts, responses to the impact of AIDS that are grounded within the actions of individuals, households and extended families, against a background of existing disadvantage in assets, endowments and access to state and private sector resources. Community networks reduce social isolation and provide solidarity to households struggling to respond to AIDS. The extra work involved is often done by women, particularly where the weakening of the state has left communities disadvantaged. The paper argues that connections across communities to support survival need vertical links to national and global resources, services and markets to support, sustain and transform lives. The studies demonstrate the positive effect of this through primary healthcare systems, non-government organisation support and the social movements of people living with HIV and AIDS. If the first wave of the global response to AIDS built awareness and an emergency response to prevention, treatment and care, there is now need for a 'second wave' that provides strong measures to connect communities to social, national and global resources. Elements of this 'second wave' include people's - especially women and young people's - access to services to know their individual risk, measures that enhance their autonomy and the need for a massive increase in investment in and access to decent work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The HIV/AIDS epidemic in sub-Saharan Africa has already orphaned a generation of children, and it is projected that by 2010, 18 million African children under the age of 18 are likely to be orphans from this single cause (UNICEF, 2005, The state of the Worlds Children: Childhood under threat . New York: UNICEF). Results from a Kellogg funded OVC project (Skinner et al., 2004, Definition of orphaned and vulnerable children . Cape Town: HSRC) supported the construct that the loss of either or both parents would indicate a situation of likely vulnerability of children. A key problem in the literature on the impact of orphanhood on the well-being of children, families and communities, is that the focus of assertions and predictions is often on the negative impact on ‘AIDS orphans’, or households. There are hardly any studies that compare the experiences of orphans with non-orphans. This paper thus attempts to fill that gap. It uses epidemiological data to explore the epidemiology of health and vulnerability of children within the context of AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa. Because of data limitations, only the following aspects are examined: (i) orphan status; (ii) household structure (in particular, grandparent headedness and female-headedness); (iii) illness of parents; (iv) poverty; and (v) access to services, especially schooling, health, social services. While recognizing the limitations of the analysis, data presented in this paper indicates that orphans in sub-Saharan Africa are more vulnerable than non-orphans. The authors conclude with some suggestions for policy makers and programme implementers, highlighting the importance of focusing on interventions that will have maximum impact on the health and well-being of children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper discusses a psychologist's experience of being diagnosed with prostate cancer and recounts what it is like for a gay man negotiating the heterosexually assumptive medical world. The paper goes on to relate the author's transition from self-help group participant to facilitator of a gay men's prostate cancer support group. The dynamics and concerns of gay men with prostate cancer within the context of a self-help group are described. Among the topics covered in such groups are gay identities, sexual behaviors and attitudes, feelings of helplessness, anger and loss, HIV/AIDS considerations, partner issues and adaptation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presents an editorial regarding articles found in the December 2004 issue of "Critical Public Health" on the topic of harm reduction. Statement that early harm reduction efforts in the field of HIV centered primarily on the provision of needle and syringe programs for injecting drug users; Discussion of the variation and penetration of the harm-reduction construct in public health practice; Statement that the articles address HIV, Hepatitis C, drugs and injection drugs, and alcohol and sexual risk; Reference to an article on policies and practices to address HIV/AIDS in prison settings; Article that deals with sexual health and risk management among gay and bisexual men; Limitations of purely educational interventions.

This paper articulates and assesses the intergenerational impact of the AIDS pandemic in Nigeria based on literature reviews and mailed surveys. The findings reveal that, with the advent of colonialism in the 19th century, the wave of modernization, and the new idea of nuclear family system, intergenerational bonds and relationships were weakened to an extent. But the arrival of the AIDS epidemic in the 1980s and its steady increase worsened the situation. Intergenerational relationships have been affected to the extent that bonds between generations are collapsing. The AIDS pandemic creates social isolation and stigmatization of the infected and affected population. Since the middle generation is mostly infected, the older and younger generations who depend on them suffer most of the consequences. Some efforts have been made by the government and non-governmental organizations to address the increasing rate of infection. But little has been done to mitigate the impact of the pandemic especially on intergenerational relationships. As a possible solution, this paper suggests some intergenerational programming and policy approaches to address the problem, and achieve better intergenerational relationships in Nigeria at this time of crisis. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Using crip theory, specifically Barounis' formulation of antiprophylactic citizenship, Piepzna-Samarasinha's conceptualisation of care work, and Shotwell's calls against purity, this paper analyses the making of the film HIV in the Rust Belt during the COVID-19 crisis. HIV in the Rust Belt (directed by Holly Hey) documents some of the experiences of local HIV survivors. During the course of filming, however, a story emerged about the importance of an AIDS facility, David's House Compassion, which had served as a hospice and a resource centre between 1988 to 2003. When COVID-19 arrived in the USA, we were mid-way through filming. Doing this work during the COVID-19 pandemic opened up a host of questions about the porousness of bodies as well as the slippage of time and stigma between the two pandemics. As we continued filming, we were made more aware that the story of David's House Compassion could be just as much as story of COVID-19, representative of antiprophylactic citizenship, an idea of belonging that comes from an openness and vulnerability that only sickness can offer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we explore the relationship between "viral load" as a virological, immunological, epidemiological and social category and how it links the four decades-long global HIV pandemic to the ongoing response to COVID-19. We argue, metaphorically, that the response to SARS-CoV-2 contains 'genetic' material from HIV, which has (as a result of the digital age which reproduces error-filled data at incredible speed) mutated and is being transmitted into the social and political body. Using sexual health and substance use as focal points, we turn to Deleuzoguattarian theoretical insights about the assemblage of desire, affect and material factors that produce epidemics. Contrasting historical and contemporary scenes and issues, we explore the complex assemblage created by viral loads, medical and public health protocols, conceptions of risk, responsibility and fear that connect both pandemics. Finally, we consider the goal of viral eradication and related militaristic metaphors, alongside the increasing convergence of medicine, public health, the law and corporate interests, and contrast this with community responses that engage with what it means to be living and dying in viral times. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Big Events are periods during which abnormal large-scale events like war, economic collapse, revolts, or pandemics disrupt daily life and expectations about the future. They can lead to rapid change in health-related norms, beliefs, social networks and behavioural practices. The world is undergoing such Big Events through the interaction of COVID-19, a large economic downturn, massive social unrest in many countries, and ever-worsening effects of global climate change. Previous research, mainly on HIV/AIDS, suggests that the health effects of Big Events can be profound, but are contingent: Sometimes Big Events led to enormous outbreaks of HIV and associated diseases and conditions such as injection drug use, sex trading, and tuberculosis, but in other circumstances, Big Events did not do so. This paper discusses and presents hypotheses about pathways through which the current Big Events might lead to better or worse short and long term outcomes for various health conditions and diseases; considers how pre-existing societal conditions and changing 'pathway' variables can influence the impact of Big Events; discusses how to measure these pathways; and suggests ways in which research and surveillance might be conducted to improve human capacity to prevent or mitigate the effects of Big Events on human health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, the author explores the entanglements between time and HIV/AIDS activists' biographies in Poland. More specifically, the aim is to analyse how people living with HIV, activists, professionals, therapists – all of them engaged in constructing and shaping HIV/AIDS policy worlds – experienced the first years of responding to the epidemic and how they frame these past experiences from the present perspective. By looking at different biographies and trajectories of engagement in the HIV/AIDS field, the author examines how various actors conceptualize and reflect upon the 'thick times'. The intersection of the first responses to the epidemic with transitional changes taking place in Poland in the early 1990s is crucial for understanding the notion of 'thick times', its ambivalences and ways in which activists frame their experience from that period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines two autobiographical responses to the HIV/AIDS epidemic in South Africa from the perspective of responsibility and rights. The analysis draws on interdisciplinary studies of the epidemic and its effects on South African communities. Memoirs by Edwin Cameron and Sister Abegail Ntleko address challenges in South Africa with regard to attitudes toward and treatment of HIV-infected people. Both writers use their texts to advocate for social and political responsibility and for the rights of those infected. Rian Malan's essays function as a counterpoint, bringing into focus controversial questions about the role of funding and reliable statistics for the epidemic. The topic is relevant in a South African context where antiretroviral treatment was met with skepticism in official political discourse. Representations of responsibilities and rights as well as official responses to the HIV/AIDS epidemic have been additionally reexamined in relation to the COVID-19 pandemic, giving the epidemic renewed relevance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In longitudinal data studies, a conjunct feature of the multitudinous statistical methods is to depict the conditional mean of outcome variable. However, the conditional mean is not the best measure of centrality which may be affected by outliers. As an available alterative, composite quantile regression (CQR) can result in robust estimation results even for non-normal error distributions in regression analysis instead of the least square estimation (LSE). In this paper, we develop a weighted CQR of longitudinal mixed model from a likelihood framework based on the composite asymmetric Laplace distribution (CALD). Using the mixture representation of the CALD, we establish the joint hierarchical likelihood of the model and achieve the iterative weighted least square estimators of unknown parameters via the MCEM (Monte Carlo Expectation Maximization) algorithm. Finally, the developed procedures are illustrated by Monte Carlo simulations and an AIDS (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome) data analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since access to HIV testing, counselling, and drug therapy has improved so dramatically, scholars have investigated ways this ‘scale-up’ has interacted with HIV/AIDS-related stigma in sub-Saharan Africa. Drawing on data collected during ethnographic research in a trading centre in western Kenya, this paper critically analyses two violent and localised case studies of panic over the ill health of particular community residents as a nuanced lens through which to explore the dynamic interplay of gender politics and processes of HIV/AIDS-related stigma in the aftershocks of the AIDS crisis. Gaining theoretical momentum from literatures focusing on stigma, gender, witchcraft, gossip, and accusation, we argue that the cases highlight collective anxieties, as well as local critiques of shifting gender roles and the strain of globalisation and legacies of uneven development on myriad forms of relationships. We further contend that these heightened moments of panic and accusation were deployments of power that ultimately sharpened local gender politics and conflicts on the ground in ways that complicated the social solidarity necessary to tackle social and health inequalities. The paper highlights one community’s challenge to eradicate the stigma associated with HIV/AIDS during a period of increased access to HIV services. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]