S Gregson

..Changes in socio-demographic characteristics and reported sexual behaviour are investigated...

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..abstract:..

..However, our findings suggest that promotion of and organisational development and training among community groups could well be an effective HIV control strategy...

..Sexually experienced men and women reported reductions in casual sex of 49 and 22%, respectively, whereas recent cohorts reported delayed sexual debut. Selective AIDS-induced mortality contributed to the decline in HIV prevalence...

..We assessed the contributions of rising mortality, falling HIV incidence and sexual behaviour change to the decline in HIV prevalence...

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..Predicted substantial expanded increases in orphanhood could hamper efforts to slow the acquisition of HIV infection in successive generations of young adults, perpetuating the vicious cycle of poverty and disease...

..Household viability is threatened by sustained crisis-level mortality in widely disseminated HIV epidemics. This article describes the impact of adult deaths on households in small towns, estates, and villages in eastern Zimbabwe...

..GOAL The goal of this report was to describe and evaluate an informal, confidential, low-technology method-Informal Confidential Voting Interviews (ICVIs)-for collecting sexual behavior data in less developed settings...

..AIDS is the main driver of young widowhood in southern Africa...

..The importance of reducing cross-generational sex (young women having sex with older men) and delaying age at first sex on the spread of HIV at the population-level has been presumed but not scientifically investigated and quantified...

..Complicated HIV transmission dynamics make it unclear how to design and interpret results from community-randomized controlled trials (CRCT) of interventions to prevent infection...

..This paper discusses the criteria required to determine whether observed changes in HIV prevalence are the result of changes in behaviour...

..We investigate the consistency of reporting of parental survival status in data from Manicaland, Zimbabwe...

..To determine the extent of self reported symptoms perceived to be related to sexually transmitted infections and the patterns of subsequent treatment seeking behaviour in a predominantly rural population of Zimbabwe...

..To identify reporting biases and to determine the influence of inconsistent reporting on observed trends in the timing of age at first sex and age at marriage...

..HIV Testing and Counselling (TC) programmes are being scaled-up as part of efforts to provide universal access to antiretroviral treatment (ART)...

..Longitudinal data are needed to disentangle the cyclical effects of poverty and HIV as well as to separate historical patterns from contemporary trends of infection...

..These programmes should be under-pinned by further efforts to reduce poverty, increase school attendance and support out-of-school youth...

..To develop projections of the resources required (person-years of drug supply and healthcare worker time) for universal access to antiretroviral treatment (ART) in Zimbabwe...

..Second generation surveillance for HIV aims to improve the validity and utility of routine serial HIV prevalence data. It includes the collection of data on sexual behaviour and sexually transmitted disease prevalence...

..These indicators should provide a useful resource for those involved in planning HIV prevention interventions...

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..One suggested solution has been a proximate determinants framework, in which risk factors are grouped into "underlying", "proximate" and "biological" determinants...

..Here, we analyse the determinants of HIV incidence in this period of decline and estimate the population-level impact of identified risk factors...

..Data collected since the late 1980s show that there was a mismatch between the observed growth in the HIV epidemic and assumptions made about viral transmission...

..To determine whether observed changes in HIV prevalence in countries with generalised HIV epidemics are associated with changes in sexual risk behaviour...

..This finding can be explained by their having a greater lifetime number of sexual partners than those whose first sexual experience occurs later...

..We investigated the latter hypothesis using data from a field study in rural Manicaland, Zimbabwe...

..During this period, adult mortality in men was stable, whereas female mortality increased to levels similar to those of men. We examine the trends in mortality from 2003 to 2005...

..Repeated cross-sectional measures of HIV prevalence are now becoming available for general populations in many countries, and we aim to develop and validate methods that use these data to estimate HIV incidence...

..Despite the 15 million children orphaned by AIDS, and fears of sexual vulnerability, little is known about the link between orphanhood and HIV risk...

..To quantify and describe orphan incidence in Manicaland, eastern Zimbabwe...

..It has recently been argued that unsafe medical injections are a major transmission route of HIV infection in the generalised epidemics of sub-Saharan Africa...

..We measured the psychosocial effect of orphanhood in a sub-Saharan African population and evaluated a new framework for understanding the causes and consequences of psychosocial distress among orphans and other vulnerable children...

..The authors conducted an assessment of the role of beer halls in the HIV epidemic of rural Zimbabwe as part of the ongoing identification of risky places for the targeting of prevention activities...

..To compare alternative methods to vital registration systems for estimating adult mortality, and describe patterns of mortality in Manicaland, Zimbabwe, which has been severely affected by HIV...

..HIV-1 control in sub-Saharan Africa requires cost-effective and sustainable programmes that promote behaviour change and reduce cofactor sexually transmitted infections (STIs) at the population and individual levels...

..This finding, considered alongside the timing and location of HIV prevention activities, will give insight into the decline of HIV prevalence in Zimbabwe...

..This study suggests that, among women, particularly those who are infected, behavioural risk reduction does occur following VCT...

..Verbal autopsy is currently the only option for obtaining cause of death information in most populations with a widespread HIV/AIDS epidemic...

..ANC estimate adjustment procedures that control for contraceptive use and age at first sex are needed...

..To estimate HIV incidence in the general population in countries where there have been two recent household-based HIV prevalence surveys (the Dominican Republic, Mali, Niger, Tanzania, and Zambia)...

..A reliable tool that is independent of HIV status is needed for measuring the frequency of AIDS deaths and ultimately the impact of antiretroviral therapy on mortality...

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..The extent to which these could be attributed to the direct impact of the epidemic on both infected and uninfected women, as opposed to pre-existing differences in their fertility, merits further study...

..We investigated the potential influence of alternative patient management and ART initiation strategies on the impact of ART programmes in sub-Saharan Africa...

..To examine the determinants of uptake of voluntary counselling and testing (VCT) services, to assess changes in sexual risk behaviour following VCT, and to compare HIV incidence amongst testers and non-testers...

..Miscarriage appears to be a less important factor than elsewhere possibly because syphilis is rare...

..Large differences in the spread of HIV have been observed within sub-Saharan Africa...

..CONCLUSION: Rural-urban migration does not appear to be responsible for maintaining the high HIV prevalence in rural Zimbabwe, but rates of HIV infection may be affected by rural-rural migration...

..These findings indicate that programmes should assist maternal orphans and support women's efforts by reinforcing the roles of extended families and local communities, and by facilitating greater self-sufficiency...

..08, 95 % CI 2.95-12.53). Although a causal relationship cannot be assumed, detection and treatment of trichomoniasis may be important in strategies to reduce HIV transmission through sexually transmitted infection control...

..These findings may be related to the mature stage of the HIV epidemic and the social and living conditions of migrants in Zimbabwean cities...