Suchergebnisse

Response to a lecture about the Paraguayan war given at the geographic session of the Scientific Congress of Norwich by Thomas Joséph Hutchinson, 21 August 1868, in which Hutchinson announced the publication of his new book, 'Le Parana, avec les incidents de la guerre du Paraguay, et Souvenirs de l'Amérique du Sud, de 1860 à 1868'. Possibly published 1868

Two hundred thirty‐four 19‐ to 21‐year‐old women completed interviews that assessed parent‐adolescent relations, sexual communication, and selected sexual risk behaviors and outcomes. Overall, Hispanic–Latina respondents reported less parent‐adolescent sexual communication than others. Early parent‐adolescent sexual communication was associated with later age of sexual initiation, consistent condom use and, indirectly, less likelihood of sexually transmitted diseases. Mother‐daughter communication about condoms was associated with consistent condom use. Recommendations for family‐based HIV–STD prevention are presented.

Although mothers are widely acknowledged as the primary in-home sexual educators of children, fathers also play an important role in sexual socialization. Paternal involvement is linked to positive social and psychological outcomes; an increased father—daughter communication can delay sexual debut and decrease frequency of engagement in intercourse. This study examined late-adolescent females' reports of their fathers' contributions to their sexual socialization. Four open-ended questions were included in a larger study examining family influences of adolescent sexual risk. Daughters described how their fathers prepared them for sexuality and dating and how they could have done better. A thematic content analysis was conducted. Most daughters reported receiving little sexual information from their fathers but identified unique contributions that their fathers made or could have made to their sexual socialization. Future interventions should assist fathers to increase their comfort with sexual communication, to identify barriers, and to provide skill-building practice to promote abstinence and safer sex behaviors among their daughters.

Field trials in West Africa have shown the value of the estimation of serum immunoglobulin M (IgM) levels as a screening test in endemic trypanosomiasis areas. A further field trial carried out in the Democratic Republic of the Congo is described. The technique used, based on double diffusion on an agar plate, gave consistent results in skilled hands, but the standard required is probably too high for the wide application of the method under normal field conditions. The diameter of the precipitation zones for 200 sera from new patients from a survey population of nearly 10 000 was generally between 8.3 mm and 9.7 mm, while the mean diameter for 210 sera from healthy persons was 6.2 mm. The results for 115 sera from previously treated patients were generally intermediate between these two levels.

Family relationships influence children's beliefs and behaviors. This work examined qualities associated with communication about alcohol among 176 mothers and the influence of this communication on daughters' alcohol use. Path analyses by maternal HIV status indicated significant differences. Relationship satisfaction was associated with self-efficacy for both HIV-positive (β = 0.545, p < .001) and HIV-negative (β = 0.557, p < .001) mothers. Maternal self-efficacy was associated with communication for both HIV-positive (β = 0.364, p < .01) and HIV-negative (β = 0.310, p < .05) mothers; maternal attitudes toward alcohol use were associated with communication among HIV-negative mothers (β = 0.20, p < .05). Relationship satisfaction was indirectly related to daughter's alcohol use in HIV-positive dyads (β = 0.153, p < .05). In families with interfamilial and environmental stressors, investing in the mother–daughter relationship, in part by discussing issues related to alcohol use, is protective in nature.

Italy was the first European country to experience sustained local transmission of COVID-19. As of 1st May 2020, the Italian health authorities reported 28; 238 deaths nationally. To control the epidemic, the Italian government implemented a suite of non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs), including school and university closures, social distancing and full lockdown involving banning of public gatherings and non essential movement. In this report, we model the effect of NPIs on transmission using data on average mobility. We estimate that the average reproduction number (a measure of transmission intensity) is currently below one for all Italian regions, and significantly so for the majority of the regions. Despite the large number of deaths, the proportion of population that has been infected by SARS-CoV-2 (the attack rate) is far from the herd immunity threshold in all Italian regions, with the highest attack rate observed in Lombardy (13.18% [10.66%-16.70%]). Italy is set to relax the currently implemented NPIs from 4th May 2020. Given the control achieved by NPIs, we consider three scenarios for the next 8 weeks: a scenario in which mobility remains the same as during the lockdown, a scenario in which mobility returns to pre-lockdown levels by 20%, and a scenario in which mobility returns to pre-lockdown levels by 40%. The scenarios explored assume that mobility is scaled evenly across all dimensions, that behaviour stays the same as before NPIs were implemented, that no pharmaceutical interventions are introduced, and it does not include transmission reduction from contact tracing, testing and the isolation of confirmed or suspected cases. We find that, in the absence of additional interventions, even a 20% return to pre-lockdown mobility could lead to a resurgence in the number of deaths far greater than experienced in the current wave in several regions. Future increases in the number of deaths will lag behind the increase in transmission intensity and so a second wave will not be immediately apparent from just monitoring of the daily number of deaths. Our results suggest that SARS-CoV-2 transmission as well as mobility should be closely monitored in the next weeks and months. To compensate for the increase in mobility that will occur due to the relaxation of the currently implemented NPIs, enhanced community surveillance including swab testing, contact tracing and the early isolation of infections are of paramount importance to reduce the risk of resurgence in transmission.