This paper reports on HIV related stigma based on results from an HIV legal environment assessment (LEA) within the Churches Health Association of Zambia HIV/AIDS program. We conducted 9 Focus Group Discussions and 20 Key Informant Interviews with key HIV/AIDS stakeholders that included representatives from network of Zambian people living with HIV. We administered a Survey Questionnaire to 337 people living with HIV (PLHIV) and 233 health workers. Quantitative data were analyzed using SAS v9.4; qualitative data was analyzed using QRS NVIVO version 11.0 Pro. Internalized stigma ranged between 20.8% and 31.8% of PLHIV; more among females than males. About one third (31%, n=104)) of the 337 participants reported that they were aware of being gossiped once, a few times, or often; more among females than males. 62.3%, 63.1%, and 55.1% of the 233 health workers said it was somewhat true or certainly true that in their catchment areas, PLHIV struggle to have an HIV test because of stigma, were hesitant to start ART due to stigma; told them that they had challenges taking their ARVs because of stigma respectively.

Background. Malaria remains a significant public health problem, especially in resource-poor settings. We aimed to forecast the year 2021 monthly confirmed malaria cases in the northwestern province of Zambia. Methods. The total number of confirmed monthly malaria cases recorded at health facilities over the past 7-years period (January 2014 to December 2020) was taken from the District Health Information System version 2 (DHIS.2) database. Box–Jenkins autoregressive integrated moving average (ARIMA) was used to forecast monthly confirmed malaria cases for 2021. STATA software version 16 was used for analyzing the time series data. Results. Between 2014 and 2020, there were 3,795,541 confirmed malaria cases in the northwestern province with a monthly mean of 45,185 cases. ARIMA (2, 1, 2) (0, 1, 1)12 was the best fit and the most parsimonious model. The forecasted mean monthly confirmed malaria cases were 60,284 (95%CI 30,969–121,944), and the total forecasted confirmed malaria cases were 723,413 (95%CI 371,626–1,463,322) for the year 2021. Conclusion. The forecasted confirmed malaria cases suggest that there will be an increase in the number of confirmed malaria cases for the year 2021 in the northwestern province. Therefore, there is a need for concerted efforts to prevent and eliminate the disease if the goal to eliminate malaria in Zambia by 2030 is to be realized.

Background: Many countries face several sexual and reproductive health (SRH) challenges, with HIV/ AIDS being one of them, and young people have been greatly affected by HIV [1,2]. It has been suggested that participation in “life skills” education can help reduce HIV related risk behaviours [3]. There have been increased calls for including life skills as a key component of HIV and AIDS education for children and young people [2]. There is a need to ensure that young people develop the life skills relevant to reducing their vulnerability to HIV infection [4,5]. Literature tends to present life skills as a possible solution to several social, gender and general behavioural problems; for example, it is stated that life skills can help trigger political, social and economic participation and help reduce gender inequalities [2]. In addition, life skills are also believed to positively impact deviant social behaviour, crime, and reduction of substance use [6,7].Specifically for HIV, the literature suggests that life skills may positively contribute towards reducing contracting of HIV by, for example, enhancing negotiation and communication skills which may help the young people negotiate for safer sex by making them openly talk about risky sexual behaviours and how they can be prevented [8,9]. Life skills in HIV programming include reproductive and sexual health such as HIV and AIDS, condoms, communication skills, and information on addressing gender-based violence [4,2]. Positive outcomes from these studies included increased communication skills, improved risk perception, reduced stigmatisation of people living with HIV, decreased gender-based violence and improved positive living attitude [2].