Prevalence and correlates of HIV testing among adolescents 10-19 years in a post-conflict pastoralist community of Karamoja region, Uganda.

BACKGROUND: Adolescents are a priority group in HIV prevention and treatment. This study sought to determine the prevalence and correlates of HIV testing services (HTS) among adolescents in the pastoralist post-conflict area of Karamoja sub region, Uganda. METHODS: A cross sectional study of 1439 adolescents aged 10-19 years, attending nine public health facilities in five of the seven districts of Karamoja, was conducted between August to September 2016. Adolescents were consecutively selected and interviewed using structured interviewer administered questionnaires. All respondents who had never tested for HIV were offered HTS. The main outcome was ever tested for HIV. Correlates of ever tested were analysed using multivariate logistic regression model. RESULTS: Of the 1439 adolescents, 904 (62.8%) were females, 1203 (83.6%) were aged 15-19 years, 618 (43.0%) had attained primary education and 885 (61.5%) had ever had sex. Overall 1177 (81.8%) had ever tested and received HIV results. Older age (15-19 years) (adj.OR = 2.71, 95% CI: 1.85-3.96), secondary level education or higher (adj.OR = 2.33, 95% CI: 1.33-4.10), and ever had sex (adj.OR = 2.03, 95% CI: 1.42-2.90) were associated with higher odds of HIV testing. Of the 262 who had never tested, 169 (64.5%) accepted testing and 2.4% were HIV positive. Reasons for not accepting the test included fear of being tested and not ready for an HIV test because of perceived suffering HIV positive clients go through. CONCLUSION: Awareness of HIV status and uptake of HTS among adolescents in this hard-to-reach post-conflict region was high and close to the global UNAIDS target of 90%. However, the HIV prevalence of 2.4% among the non-testers who accepted to be tested was high and emphasises the need for targeted testing to reach the undiagnosed HIV infected adolescents in this region.

The relationship between leadership style and health worker motivation, job satisfaction and teamwork in Uganda.

BACKGROUND: Leadership is key to strengthening performance of Health Systems. Leadership styles are important organizational antecedents, especially in influencing employee's motivation, job satisfaction, and teamwork. There is limited research exploring this relationship among health workers in resource-limited settings such as Uganda. The aim of this study was to examine the relationship between transformational, transactional, and laissez-faire leadership styles and motivation, job satisfaction, and teamwork of health workers in Uganda. METHOD: We conducted a cross-sectional study in 3 geographic regions of Uganda in November 2015, using self-administered questionnaires with 564 health workers from 228 health facilities. Data were collected on health workers' perception of leadership styles displayed by their facility leaders, their level of motivation, job satisfaction, and team work. Using Pearson correlation, relationships among variables were identified and associations of the components of leadership styles with motivation, job satisfaction, and teamwork was found using multivariable logistic regression. RESULTS: Health workers in Uganda preferred leaders who were transformational (62%) compared with being transactional (42%) or laissez-faire (14%). Transformational leadership was positively correlated with motivation (r=0.32), job satisfaction (r=0.38), and team work (r=0.48), while transactional leadership was positively correlated with job satisfaction (r=0.21) and teamwork (r=0.18). Motivation was positively associated with leaders who displayed idealized influence-behavior (odds ratio [OR]=3.7; 95% CI, 1.33-10.48) and intellectual stimulation (OR=2.4; 95% CI, 1.13-5.15) but negatively associated with management by exception (OR=0.4; 95% CI, 0.19-0.82). Job satisfaction was positively associated with intellectual stimulation (OR=5.7; 95% CI, 1.83-17.79). Teamwork was positively associated with idealized influence-behavior (OR=1.07-8.57), idealized influence-attributed (OR=3.9; 95% CI, 1.24-12.36), and contingent reward (OR=5.6; 95% CI, 1.87-17.01). CONCLUSION: Transformational styles had a positive impact on stimulating motivation, assuring job satisfaction, and consolidating teamwork among health workers compared with those who demonstrated transactional skills or laissez-faire styles. RECOMMENDATION: Supporting transformational leadership skills development in health facility leaders could encourage health worker motivation, strengthen job satisfaction, and maintain cohesion among health workers for better service delivery.

[Survival, clinical and biological outcomes of HIV-infected children treated by antiretroviral therapy in Africa: systematic review, 2004-2009]. / Survie et évolution clinique et biologique des enfants infectés par le VIH traités par les antiretroviraux en Afrique: revue de littérature, 2004-2009.

BACKGROUND: With 2.1 million HIV-infected children in 2008 in the world, especially in sub-Saharan Africa, the paediatric HIV/AIDS care remains an important public health challenge and is principally based on cotrimoxazole prophylaxis and antiretroviral treatments. This paper aims to review the effectiveness of cotrimoxole prophylaxis and antiretroviral treatment in HIV-infected children in Africa, specifically mortality and treatment outcomes. METHODS: In two times, we searched the online databases PubMed™ and Scopus™ for articles and abstracts published in English and French between January 2004 and November 2009, with the following terms : « HIV ¼ and « Africa ¼ and ["paediatric" or "children" or "child"] and ["mortality" or "survival"] and ["cotrimoxazole" or "prophylaxis"] at the first time, « HIV ¼ and « Africa ¼ and ["paediatric" or "children" or "child"] and ["mortality" or "survival"] and ["antiretroviral"] and ["treatment" or "therapy"] at the second time. Longitudinal studies on HIV-infected children under cotrimoxazole prophylaxis or antiretroviral treatment were selected when survival outcomes were reported. RESULTS: The probability of death was significantly reduced by 43% where children received cotrimoxazole prophylaxis compared to placebo. Compared to the survival without treatment, the benefit of antiretroviral therapy on HIV-infected children survival was evident in all publications but early mortality was observed within the six first months of antiretroviral treatment. Over fifty percent of deaths occurred in this period. Severe malnutrition, anaemia and lower CD4% were identified as mortality predicting factors in both children received cotrimoxazole prophylaxis or treated by antiretroviral therapy. DISCUSSION: Better knowledge of determinants of early mortality for these children are important to optimized their survival and improve their quality of care and life. Finally, the beneficial effect of cotrimoxazole prophylaxis when associated with antiretroviral treatment has not been reported and need to be exploring in detail for more information.