Sexual Behaviors Associated with HIV Transmission Among Transgender and Gender Diverse Young Adults: The Intersectional Role of Racism and Transphobia

AIDS and Behavior - HIV prevalence and engagement in sexual behaviors associated with HIV transmission are high among transgender people of color. Per intersectionality, this disproportionate...     

Complex molecular epidemiology of methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus isolates from children with cystic fibrosis in the era of epidemic community-associated methicillin-resistant S aureus

BACKGROUND: Limited data exist about the molecular types of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) strains found in children with cystic fibrosis (CF). We sought to characterize MRSA strains from these patients and compare them with MRSA strains from non-CF pediatric patients. METHODS: All MRSA isolates were collected prospectively at Children's Medical Center in Dallas, TX, and the University of Chicago Comer Children's Hospital in 2004 to 2005. All CF MRSA isolates underwent susceptibility testing, multilocus sequence typing, Panton-Valentine leukocidin gene detection (pvl+), and staphylococcal chromosome cassette mec (SCCmec) typing. RESULTS: A total of 22 of 34 MRSA isolates (64.7%) from patients with CF belonged to clonal complex (CC) 5 and contained SCCmec II, so-called health-care associated MRSA (HA-MRSA) strains. Nine of 34 MRSA strains (26.5%) were CC 8, and contained SCCmec IV, so-called community-associated MRSA (CA-MRSA) strains. The CA-MRSA strains tended to be isolated from newly colonized CF patients. In contrast, CC8 isolates predominated among the non-CF patients (294 of 331 patients; 88.8%). MRSA isolates from children with CF were more likely to be resistant to clindamycin (65% vs 19%, respectively) and ciprofloxacin (62% vs 17%, respectively) compared with strains from non-CF patients (p < 0.001). There was no difference in the rate of pvl+ isolate recovery from children with CF undergoing a surveillance culture (7 of 23 children) compared with those with pulmonary exacerbation (3 of 11 children; p = 1.0). CONCLUSIONS: Both CA-MRSA (CC8) isolates and HA-MRSA (CC5) isolates populate the respiratory tracts of children with CF. HA-MRSA isolates predominated, but CA-MRSA strains predominated among CF patients with newly acquired MRSA strains and among the non-CF patients. The presence of CA-MRSA strains in children with CF was not associated with exacerbation or necrotizing pneumonia.     

Gender effect on eating habits of Nigerian school children

It is important to investigate children''s eating habits based on different eating behaviors such as satiety responsiveness (SR), slowness in eating (SE), food fussiness (FF), food responsiveness (FR), enjoyment of food (EF), desire to drink (DD), emotional under-eating (EUE), and emotional over-eating (EOE). The main objective of this research was to investigate whether gender affects the eating habits of Nigerian school children.A cross-sectional survey was conducted between March and June 2019. A total of 120 parents of school children participated in the study. The Child Eating Behavior Questionnaire (CEBQ) was used to collect data. The CEBQ is composed of 35 items and eight subscales.Based on the analysis of parents’ reports, DD was higher in boys than girls, t (118) = 7.086, P < .001; EOE was higher in boys than girls, t (118) = 5.184, P < .001; EF was higher in boys than girls, t (118) = 2.183, P < .001; FF was higher in boys than girls, t (118) = 9.441, P < .001; and SR was higher in boys than girls, t (118) = 7.323, P < .001. However, EUE was lower in boys than girls, t (118) = −4.339, P < .001; FR was lower in boys than girls, t(118) = −3.112, P < .001; SE was lower in boys than girls, t(118) = −3.832, P < .001; thus, gender had a significant influence on eating habits of the school children.Gender significantly affects the eating habits of Nigerian school children. Thus, gender is an important factor to be considered when aiming to improve the eating habits of Nigerian school children.     

Improving work-life balance among administrative officers in Catholic primary schools: Assessing the effect of a Christian religious rational emotive behavior therapy

Objective:Work-life balance (WLB) is an essential precursor of workers’ mental health. The theory of rational emotive behaviour therapy proposes that an imbalance in work and family life may result from people''s dysfunctional perceptions of their work and other aspects of their personal life. Also, the constructive philosophies of rational emotive behavior therapy are said to be congruent with most religious belief systems of Christian clients. Therefore, our research examined the efficacy of Christian religious rational emotive behaviour therapy (CRREBT) on WLB among administrative officers in Catholic primary schools.Methods:This is a group randomized trial involving 162 administrative officers from Catholic primary schools in Southeast Nigeria. The treatment process involved an 8-session CRREBT programme.Results:The scores for WLB of the administrative officers enrolled in the CRREBT programme were significantly improved compared to those in the control group at the end of the study. At the follow-up phase, the CRREBT programme proved to be effective over a 3-month period.Conclusion:CRREBT is an effective therapeutic strategy for managing WLB among Catholic school administrative officers.     

Human immunodeficiency virus-associated nephropathy (HIVAN) in Nigerian children

Human immunodeficiency virus-associated nephropathy (HIVAN) has rarely been reported in African children. In this single-center study, we analyzed ten children diagnosed with HIVAN from January 2000 to October 2006. There were eight boys and two girls, with a male:female ratio of 4:1. Their ages were from 5 months to 15 years (mean 6.8 ± 6.2 years), with a peak age of 5–9 years. The presenting complaints included generalized edema (60%) and hypertension (50%). All patients had proteinuria on urine dipstick, with four (40%) at nephrotic range (proteinuria ≥500 mg/dl). Nine (90%) patients were in renal failure, with elevated serum creatinine (6.3–24 mg/dl) and serum urea (70–120 mg/dl). Renal disease was the first manifestation of HIV infection in six patients, whereas the diagnosis was made on autopsy in three. The duration from HIV infection to development of HIVAN ranged from 5 months to 10 years. CD4⁺ cell count, done in only three patients due to financial constraints, was below 200/mm³. The kidneys were hyperechoic on abdominal ultrasound in all patients, and three (30%) showed grossly enlarged kidneys. Histology of renal tissues available by autopsy in three patients showed mainly collapsing focal segmental glomerulosclerosis. Treatments given were angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors and highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) in four and two patients, respectively, and one patient underwent peritoneal dialysis. On outcome analysis, seven (70%) patients died, two were lost to follow-up, and one was alive on HAART therapy at the writing of this article. In conclusion, HIVAN occurs in Nigeria children, and the mortality is very high from uremia.     

Ameliorative effects of dietary caloric restriction on oxidative stress and inflammation in the brain of streptozotocin-induced diabetic rats

BACKGROUND: There is a strong association between oxidative stress and inflammation in the pathologies of diabetes. Recent evidence suggests that these phenomena could impair brain function. We investigated the potential role of dietary caloric restriction in ameliorating the effects of both oxidative stress and inflammation in the brain of streptozotocin-induced type 2 diabetic rats. METHODS: Forty male Wistar rats were subjected to 30% caloric restriction (20 animals) and ad libitum feeding (20 animals) for 9 weeks before the induction of diabetes in 20 animals (10 from each group) by intraperitoneal injection of 35 mg/kg body weight streptozotocin. RESULTS: Caloric restriction was able to significantly (p>0.05) reduce triglyceride, ROS, IL6, TNF-alpha and body weights in diabetic rats. However, no significant differences were obtained in the antioxidant enzyme (SOD, CAT and GPx) activities except in GPx where caloric restriction increased the levels in both non-diabetic and diabetic rats. CONCLUSION: Caloric restriction was found to ameliorate the oxidative and inflammatory effects of diabetes in the brain. Non-diabetic rats feeding ad libitum were found to have increased levels of oxidative stress and inflammatory biomarkers and these could, in part, be due to their increased body weights.