Background: Success of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) test-and-treat (T&T) strategy requires high antiretroviral (ART) uptake and retention. However, low ART uptake and retention continue to be reported in ART programs. This study assessed ART uptake and retention outcomes of the HIV T&T strategy in three HIV clinics in Cameroon.Methods: A retrospective chart review was done for 423 patients who initiated HIV care within a period of three months prior to the implementation of the HIV T&T strategy, and for another 423 patients who initiated HIV care within a three-month period following the HIV T&T strategy implementation. For each group, sociodemographic, ART uptake and retention data were collected. Chi square and Student T tests were used to test for differences proportions and means between the two groups at p <0.05 and 95% confidence interval.Results: The mean ages (years) in the pre-T&T and the T&T groups were 39.73 and 39.72, and the proportion of female were 65.85% and 65.08% respectively. ART uptake proportion was higher amongst those enrolled under the T&T strategy (98.08% vs 95.39%, p=0.02). A greater proportion of the patients in the T&T group initiated ART within 2 weeks following HIV diagnosis (55.84% vs 48.17%, p=0.03). However, ART retention at 24th month was lower in the T&T group (78.83% vs. 85.79%, p=0.01).Conclusions: The findings suggest that the T&T strategy is associated with higher ART uptake, earlier ART initiation, and lower ART retention. This underscores a need for strategies to improve ART retention under the HIV T&T guidelines.
Management of cancer patients in low-resource communities presents enormous challenges. Breast cancer is a public health problem in Cameroon and occurs mostly in elderly women. The predominant histological type is a duct carcinoma. Lobular carcinoma in teenagers is rare.
Introduction: According to the World Health Organization (WHO), adolescence is the period of growth between 10 and 19 years of age. Complications from pregnancy are the second leading cause of death for adolescent girls aged 15 to 19 worldwide. Objective: In order to reduce the phenomenon of early pregnancy, we set out to determine its prevalence as well as its outcome among adolescent girls in secondary schools in the Douala 3 rd district in Cameroon. Methodology: To achieve our objective, we conducted an analytical case-control study from November 08, 2018 to June 26, 2019, in ten secondary establishments in the Douala 3 rd district. Included in the study were all adolescent girls, students in one of the secondary schools in the said district who agreed to participate in the study. Data analysis was done using SPSS 20.0 software. The significance threshold was set at p < 0.05. Results: A total of 445 adolescent girls were selected, including 89 cases and 356 controls. In 87.6% of the cases, the pregnancy was accidental and 58.4% used voluntary abortion. The univariate analysis of the results showed that the factor associated with the occurrence of teenage pregnancies was the age above 17 years (OR = 1.44; CI = 1.31 -1.59) (p = 0.001). Conclusion: At the end of our study, it appeared that early pregnancies exist in Cameroonian schools with a high rate of 6.57% and an appeal to illegal abortion (62.9%).
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