Background. Hepatitis E virus (HEV) infection causes major epidemics of infectious hepatitis, with high mortality rates in pregnant women. Recent reports indicate that HEV coinfections with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) may have a more protracted course. However, the impact of HEV infections in communities heavily affected by HIV remains poorly studied. We set out to examine age-related seroprevalence in a community where we have previously carried out studies on environmental enteropathy.Methods. Blood samples from 194 children and 106 adults were examined for immunoglobulin G and immunoglobulin M antibodies for HEV. HEV data were correlated with HIV status and morphometric analysis of small intestinal biopsies.Results. Seroprevalence rose throughout childhood, from 8% in children aged 1–4 years, to 36% in children aged 10–14 years. In adults, the overall prevalence was 42%, with 28% in HIV-seronegative adults and 71% in HIV-seropositive adults (odds ratio, 6.2; 95% confidence interval, 2.2–18; P = .0001). In adults, villous height and crypt depth measurements showed that HEV seropositivity was associated with worse enteropathy (P = .05 and P = .005, respectively).Conclusions. HEV infection is common in Zambia. In adults it is strongly associated with HIV status, and also with environmental enteropathy.

This article examines the process of collecting voices from a participatory community development perspective and the theoretical framework from which the process was facilitated. The focus of the study was on building a viable and good organization that is responsive to the needs of its primary stakeholders. This is the operationalization of the principle of empowerment of men and women alike – aimed at enhancing the sustainability of the envisaged project beyond the time of the research-facilitator’s departure. Through this participatory community development process participants were enabled to start a Stokvel project, the aim of which was to help augment the members’ financial resources so as to sustain payment of their children’s day care fees and to also materialize the spirit of Ubuntu (humaneness) among themselves as local community members. Given the lessons learnt this article concludes that after engaging people in capacity building as facilitators of participatory community development, it is important to give people a voice at grassroots level, allowing them to make informed decisions and choices about their situations. This in turn helps them take control of their lives in a meaningful way. Besides this, the researcher is also intrigued by the task of documenting the process of collecting the latter voices and the attendant lessons learnt.