COVID-19 impact on gender-based violence among women in South Africa during lockdown: a narrative review

COVID-19, first detected in Wuhan, China, in December 2019, was declared a global pandemic by the WHO following the rapid spread of cases worldwide. The pandemic resulted in governments enforcing nationwide lockdowns, halting economic activities except for essential services. This review aims to explore the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on gender-based violence (GBV) among women in South Africa. The literature search for this review was limited to African peer-reviewed articles and studies published in English between March 2020 and July 2021. EBSCOhost (PubMed, EBSCOhost, APA PsycArticles, APA PsychINFO, Academic Search Ultimate, Africa-Wide Information, Sociology Source Ultimate, CAB Abstracts, CINAHL with full text, and MEDLINE) electronic database platforms and the Google Scholar search engine and bibliographies of identified sources were used to identify studies that are included in the review. 82 studies were identified for this review and 18 were included in the synthesis. Multiple factors contributed to the surge in GBV cases in South Africa, including alcohol availability and consumption, job losses, financial dependence, psychological distress, and emotional imbalances. Effective intervention strategies are proposed, calling for more research to better understand women's experiences of GBV during the COVID-19 pandemic. (Afr J Reprod Health 2022; 26[7]: 59-71).

From malaria control to elimination in South Africa: the researchers' perspectives

Background: Global decline in malaria episodes over the past decade gave rise to a debate to target malaria elimination in eligible countries. However; investigation regarding researchers' perspectives on barriers and facilitating factors to effective implementation of a malaria elimination policy in South Africa (SA) is lacking. Aim: The aim of this study was to investigate the malaria researchers' knowledge, understandings, perceived roles, and their perspectives on the factors influencing implementation of a malaria elimination policy in SA. Setting: Participants were drawn from the researchers who fulfilled the eligibility criteria as per the protocol, and the criteria were not setting-specific. Methods: The study was a descriptive cross-sectional survey conducted through an emailed self-administered semi-structured questionnaire amongst malaria researchers who met the set selection criteria and signed informed consent. Results: Most (92.3%) participants knew about SA's malaria elimination policy; but only 45.8% had fully read it. The majority held a strong view that SA's 2018 elimination target was not realistic; citing that the policy had neither been properly adapted to the country's operational setting nor sufficiently disseminated to all relevant healthcare workers. Key concerns raised were lack of new tools; resources; and capacity to fight malaria; poor cross-border collaborations; overreliance on partners to implement; poor community involvement; and poor surveillance.Conclusion: Malaria elimination is a noble idea; with sharp divisions. However; there is a general agreement that elimination requires: (a) strong cross-border initiatives; (b) deployment of adequate resources; (c) sustainable multistakeholder support and collaboration; (d) good surveillance systems; and (e) availability and use of all effective intervention tools

Pattern and Practice of Psychoactive Substance Abuse and Risky Behaviours among Street Children in Cameroon

Background. Cameroon is among other developing countries reported to be facing an increasing problem of street children involved in drug abuse and other harmful behaviours. Although there are some government efforts to intervene; little is known about the extent of psychoactive substance abuse and the related behaviours among street children in Cameroon. The information is critical to support policy formulation and the implementation of interventions to tackle this problem.Objective. To document the pattern and practice of psychoactive substance abuse and the related risky behaviours among street children in three cities in Cameroon.Methods. This study was an analytical cross-sectional survey conducted by the administration of questionnaires to 399 street children who had been homeless for at least a month in three cities of Cameroon during 2015.Results. All 399 participants reported that they were using some psychoactive substance at the time of the survey. The preferred substances were alcohol (45.9%); tobacco (28.8%); volatiles (11.5%) and cannabis (10.3%). Girls were more predisposed to sex work for survival than boys (p0.000); with the majority of the participants reporting to have had unprotected sex after using any drug or consuming alcohol (93.98%). In most cases; the pattern and practice of psychoactive substance abuse were higher in the cities of Douala and Yaounde than in Bamenda. The participants reported that the substances were readily available from street vendors.Conclusion. The results revealed that the level of psychoactive substance abuse is very high among street children; especially boys; in all three cities. Efforts to prevent and rehabilitate street children from abusing psychoactive substances are required. The government; roleplayers; decision-makers; the ministry of trade and industry and all stakeholders

Factors associated with the uptake of intermittent preventive treatment of malaria in pregnancy in the Bamenda health districts, Cameroon

Introduction: the World Health Organization (WHO) recommends that in malaria endemic areas with moderate to high transmission rates, pregnant women presenting for antenatal clinic (ANC) should receive at least three doses of intermittent preventive treatment in pregnancy (IPTp) for malaria between the 16th and 36th weeks of pregnancy at intervals of 4 weeks between doses. Several challenges remain in effective implementation of IPTp policy making the targeted coverage (80%) of the third doses of IPTp far from being achieved. The main objective of this study was to assess factors associated with the uptake of IPTp among pregnant women attending ANCs in the Bamenda Health District. Methods: to reach our objectives, we carried out a cross-sectional study following informed consent with thirty-nine (39) healthcare workers (HCW) and four hundred (400) pregnant women who were either in the third trimester of pregnancy or had recently given birth in any of thirty-six (36) health facilities (HF) within the Bamenda Health District (BHD) from May to August 2014. All sites within the BHD were included. The participants were selected by simple random sampling. The principal research instrument was a structured and pre-tested questionnaire that was designed to capture socio-demographic data and data related to stage of pregnancy and knowledge about IPTp. Data was entered using Ms Excel and analysed using SPSS v20.0. Descriptive statistics (frequencies and percentages) was used to report findings. We used Chi-Square test to compare the categorical variables (Fischer's exact test was used in cases were conditions for Chi-Square test were not met). Results: uptake for at least one dose of IPTp was 95.3% (381/400) and 54.9% (209/400) had received all three doses, 15.5% (59/400) received only one dose and 4.8% (19/400) did not receive any of the doses of IPTp. Knowledge about IPTp was associated with an increase uptake of IPTp (P<0.001). All health care providers were knowledgeable about the importance and use of IPTp. However, 35.9% reported not receiving any training on IPTp. Among the health providers, 28.2% did not know when to start IPTp and 43.59% did not know when to stop IPTp. Out of all the health care providers, 30.77% complained of medication (sulfadoxine-Pyrimethamine) stock out and 84.62% practiced the policy of direct observed therapy. Conclusion: the uptake of the third dose of IPTp is poor in the Bamenda Health District and this may be attributed to medication stock out and inadequacy of routine trainings for the health providers. The good practice observed was that of direct observed therapy by HCWs. Patient knowledge about IPTp in our study was associated with better uptake of IPTp. Encouraging education of pregnant women on the importance of IPTp, providing routine training to HCWs and promoting direct observation of therapy may improve on IPTp uptake during pregnancy