Measuring domestic violence in human immunodeficiency virus-positive women

Background

Violence affects the lives of millions of women worldwide, in all socioeconomic classes. Violence and the fear of violence are emerging as important risk factor contributing to the vulnerability to human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection for women. The objective of the present cross sectional study is to compare the experiences of domestic violence between HIV-positive and HIV-negative married women seeking treatment in a tertiary care hospital.

Methods

The study is conducted in a tertiary care hospital in Pune on a randomly selected 150 married women (75 HIV-positive and 75 HIV-negative). Informed consent was obtained from all the women and also a trained counsellor was present during the process of data collection. The data was collected by interview method by taking precautions as laid down in the World Health Organization''s ethical and safety recommendations for research on domestic violence and using modified conflict tactics scale (CTS). The definition of violence followed is as per the Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against Women, adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in 1993.

Results

The percentage of women reporting domestic violence is 44.7% (95% confidence interval [CI] = 36.84–52.68). The proportion of physical, emotional and sexual violence reported is 38% (95% CI = 30.49–45.96), 24% (95% CI = 17.67–31.31), and 14.7% (95% CI = 9.66–21.02), respectively. The odds of reporting violence of all forms is significantly higher among HIV-positive women than among HIV-negative women (P<0.05). Univariate and multivariate logistic regression is carried out to examine the possible predictors of domestic violence.

Conclusion

The findings suggest high proportion of HIV-positive women report violence then HIV-negative women which must be addressed through multilevel prevention approaches.Key Words: domestic violence, human immunodeficiency virus, violence against women     

Phenotypic heterogeneity of spontaneous lymphomas of CWD mice

Animals of the inbred mouse strain, CWD, express endogenous murine leukemia viruses early in life and have a high incidence of spontaneous neoplasms. We found that approximately one half of these animals died of malignant lymphoma by the age of 16 months. Splenic enlargement was seen in all mice, but thymic involvement was unusual. One half of the CWD tumors were diffuse lymphoblastic or immunoblastic lymphomas while the remainder were large cell, small cell, or mixed cell lymphomas. Analysis of DNAs from 12 tumors for immunoglobulin and T-cell receptor gene rearrangements revealed that all six of the lymphoblastic and immunoblastic lymphomas were of T-cell origin, as was one tumor of small cleaved cells. Four of the others were clonal B-cell lymphomas and one was of uncertain lineage. Assays of a limited number of tumors for the expression of the Thy 1.2 and IgM molecules confirmed the diversity in the cellular phenotype. The results indicate that CWD mice develop primarily splenic lymphomas with an unusual degree of heterogeneity in the tumor cell phenotypes as compared with the thymic lymphomas found in other high leukemia strains. The CWD strain is a useful new model for studies of retroviral leukemogenesis and the relationship between the histopathology and immunophenotype of malignant lymphomas.