Stitching the fabric back together: child fostering attitudes in the transition to a chronic HIV epidemic

There are an estimated 56 million orphans and vulnerable children across sub-Saharan Africa. Communities typically care for orphan children through informal caring arrangements – either within or outside of kinship networks. Within Kenya, an estimated 250,000 children live on the streets. There is less research related to fostering attitudes of this special population than orphans and vulnerable children generally. Important research over the past decade has illuminated multiple ways in which children are made more vulnerable because of HIV, including parental death and street-migration from HIV-affected households. As HIV transitions from a terminal illness to a chronic, manageable one, research is also required to establish how parents living with HIV can be an asset to children. In this study, we assess whether mothers living with HIV were very willing to foster biologically-related children, and street-involved children, how these fostering attitudes differed from mothers not living with HIV, and whether differences in fostering attitudes by reported HIV status were mediated by social support, family functioning and general self-rated health. Approximately 40% of mothers living with HIV were very willing to provide long-term foster care to biologically-related or street-involved children. This was less than the percentage of mothers not living with HIV, who were very willing to foster biologically-related children (61%) or street-involved children (58%). Significant portions of these differences were explained by social support, family functioning and general self-rated health. Multi-sectoral approaches are suggested by these findings in order to improve the child-fostering capacity of mothers living with HIV. Improving social support, family functioning and general self-rated health among HIV-infected mothers may not only provide protective benefits for the mothers and their children, but also expand the community’s capacity to care for orphan and vulnerable children.     

萸竹定眩丸治疗痰浊阻络型眩晕的疗效及对外周血FGF-21水平的影响

目的:评价萸竹定眩丸对痰浊阻络型眩晕的治疗效果及对外周血FGF-21水平的影响。方法:120例患者随机分为治疗组和对照组,对照组口服盐酸氟桂利嗪胶囊10mg,每晚1次;治疗组在对照组的基础上给予萸竹定眩丸,每次1丸,每日2次;两组均治疗14天。14天后比较两组患者临床疗效、血脂及外周血中FGF-21水平。结果:治疗组总有效率为93. 3%,对照组总有效率为66. 7%,两组总有效率比较有统计学差异(P 0. 05);治疗后两组FGF-21水平均较治疗前明显降低(P 0. 01,P 0. 05),且治疗组FGF-21水平比对照组降低更明显(P 0. 05);治疗后,两组的TC、TG、LDL-C水平均较治疗前明显下降,HDL-C水平均较治疗前明显升高(P 0. 01),且治疗组的TC水平比对照组下降更显著,HDL-C水平比对照组上升更显著(P 0. 01)。结论:萸竹定眩丸治疗椎-基底动脉供血不足性眩晕(中医辨证属痰浊阻络型眩晕)具有明确疗效;萸竹定眩丸对改善人体的糖脂代谢水平,降低TC,升高HDL-C疗效明确;萸竹定眩丸在临床应用中未发现严重不良反应,临床应用安全可靠。