- Mogadishu Street Action Dated Added: Sun Dec 24 2006 Submitted by: Helping The Hobbyist Community
US Naval Medical Research Unit No. 3, Cairo, Egypt.
A group of 89 prostitutes and 45 patients attending sexually transmitted disease clinics in Mogadishu, Somalia were examined for evidence of HIV infection. Both groups reported more than 1 sexual partner routinely and had sexual contacts with prostitutes. There was a significant amount of sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) in these two groups, with 11.2% and 6.7% respectively being culture positive for N. gonorrhoea. Among the prostitutes, 28.1% were positive for antibodies to T. pallidum while only 4.4% of the STD patients were positive. One isolate of N. gonorrhoea was resistant to penicillin. All study participants were negative for antibodies to HIV suggesting an extremely low prevalence of HIV in high risk behaviour groups in the capital city of Somalia.
PIP: 89 prostitutes and 45 men attending the sexually transmitted disease (STD) clinic in Mogadishu, Somalia, were tested for HIV (human immunodeficiency virus) with the Abbott ELISA (enzyme-linked immuno-sorbent assay) test, cultured for gonorrhea, and screened for syphilis. There were no sera positive for HIV. 11% of the prostitutes and 7% of the men had positive gonorrhea cultures; 28% of the prostitutes and 4% of the men were positive for syphilis; 1 of the men had penicillin-resistant N. gonorrhoea with a beta-lactamase test. An epidemiological questionnaire was administered to the subjects. Most were aged 20-29; 67% were married; 80% of the men and 22.5% of the women were soldiers. 40% of the men reported use of prostitutes. Stated numbers of sexual contacts were 1.87/week for the prostitutes, and 1.51/week for the men. Data were also reported on occupations, recent injections, immunizations, intravenous drug use, surgery, blood transfusions and scarification.
(Review # 16735)
- Street Action Dated Added: Sun Dec 24 2006 Submitted by: Helping The Hobbyist Community
Somalia: UN warns HIV/AIDS could become major problem without fast action
Aug. 16 2005
Press Release - U.N. News Center
The United Nations today reported that HIV/AIDS will soon become a major health problem in war-wracked Somalia without concerted efforts to contain the factors fuelling the epidemic such as low rates of education, transfusion of unsafe blood, and prostitution.
A UN inter-agency report on the overall humanitarian situation in Somalia, which has had no functioning government for 14 years following the collapse in 1991 of the government of Muhammad Siad Barre, highlights among its findings the sobering results of the country’s first-ever nationwide HIV/AIDS Sero-prevalence study.
The survey covered multiple groups, including pregnant women attending antenatal clinics, and tuberculosis patients with sexually transmitted diseases, among others. Along with factors such as poor education and commercial sex, the report notes that high mobility, long distance truckers and transporters and negative cultural practice, such as female genital mutilation also contribute to the spread of the disease.
But the agencies report that political commitment to fighting HIV/AIDS is growing. An antiretroviral treatment programme was recently launched in the northern town of Hargeisa, and plans are already underway to bolster it with nutritional, “Voluntary Counseling and Testing,” and “Prevention of Mother to Children Transmission” components – with the help of the UN World Food Programme (WFP), the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the UN World Health Organization (WHO).
While I may perform the actual popping of the Somalia cherry in the "public forum" of this website, credit for this information goes to Radiate76. (Review # 16734)
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