A new approach to prevent HIV transmission: Project Protect intervention for recently infected individuals

Past research suggests that as many as 50% of onward human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) transmissions occur during acute and recent HIV infection. It is clearly important to develop interventions which focus on this highly infectious stage of HIV infection to prevent further transmission in the risk networks of acutely and recently infected individuals. Project Protect tries to find recently and acutely infected individuals and prevents HIV transmission in their risk networks. Participants are recruited by community health outreach workers at community-based HIV testing sites and drug users' community venues, by coupon referrals and through referrals from AIDS clinics. When a network with acute/recent infection is identified, network members are interviewed about their risky behaviors, network information is collected, and blood is drawn for HIV testing. Participants are also educated and given prevention materials (condoms, syringes, educational materials); HIV-infected participants are referred to AIDS clinics and are assisted with access to care. Community alerts about elevated risk of HIV transmission are distributed within the risk networks of recently infected. Overall, 342 people were recruited to the project and screened for acute/recent HIV infection. Only six index cases of recent infection (2.3% of all people screened) were found through primary screening at voluntary counseling and testing (VCT) sites, but six cases of recent infection were found through contact tracing of these recently infected participants (7% of network members who came to the interview). Combining screening at VCT sites and contact tracing the number of recently infected people we located as compared to VCT screening alone. No adverse events were encountered. These first results provide evidence for the theory behind the intervention, i.e., in the risk networks of recently infected people there are other people with recent HIV infection and they can be successfully located without increasing stigma for project participants.     

Resting respiratory sinus arrhythmia moderates the association between social phobia symptoms and self‐reported physical symptoms

The present study sought to investigate the association between social phobia symptoms and self‐reported physical symptoms and the moderation effect of resting respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) on this link. Data of 5‐min resting RSA, social phobia symptoms assessed by the Social Phobia Scale, and physical symptoms assessed by the Cohen–Hoberman Inventory of Physical Symptoms were collected from 167 undergraduate students. Results indicated that higher levels of social phobia symptoms were associated with higher levels of self‐reported physical symptoms. Resting RSA played the moderating role in the link between social phobia symptoms and self‐reported physical symptoms, such that social phobia symptoms were positively associated with self‐reported physical symptoms among individuals with low resting RSA, whereas this association was nonsignificant among individuals with high resting RSA. These findings suggest that high resting RSA as a physiological marker of better self‐regulation capacity might buffer the effect of social phobia symptoms on physical health.     

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.     

Relation between active mediation,exposure to Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood,and US preschoolers’ social and emotional development

This study explored the relationship between active mediation, exposure to Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood, and key indicators of preschoolers’ social and emotional development. One hundred and twenty-seven children aged 2–6 either watched or did not watch 10 episodes of Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood over a two-week period. Results revealed that preschoolers who watched the program exhibited higher levels of empathy, self-efficacy, and emotion recognition when their regular TV-watching experiences are frequently accompanied by active mediation. This was especially true for younger preschoolers and preschoolers from low-income families. Implications for policy-makers, parents, producers of prosocial programming, and educators are discussed.     

How Do Students Source and Supply Drugs? Characteristics of the University Illegal Drug Trade

Background: It is widely known that a proportion of university students use drugs. However, much less is known about how they source and supply their drugs. Objectives: In this article, we investigate student drug trading activity, including how they obtained their drugs, whether they sold drugs, and the extent to which their drug trading might be described as a form of “social supply”. Methods: A survey was conducted of all students across seven of the nine universities of Wales. In total, 7855 students submitted a questionnaire and 1877 of these reported drug use in the current academic year. All students who reported using one or more illegal drugs in the current academic year were asked how they obtained their drugs, how they funded their drug use, whether they had sold, traded or given away illegal drugs, along with their motives for drug trading. Results: The results showed that about half of users obtained drugs solely from friends and associates and one-fifth obtained them solely from external dealers. One-quarter used friends and associates as well as external markets. In many cases, supplying drugs amounted to sharing them or giving them away. However, over one-third of students said that they had sold drugs. Conclusions: Overall, the methods of sourcing and supplying drug among university students shares features of both “social supply” and “traditional” drug markets. We conclude that the student drug market investigated is best described as a “hybrid” combination of both.