The 2013–2016 West Africa Ebola virus disease pandemic was the largest, longest, deadliest, and most geographically expansive outbreak in the 40-year interval since Ebola was first identified. Fear-related behaviors played an important role in shaping the outbreak. Fear-related behaviors are defined as “individual or collective behaviors and actions initiated in response to fear reactions that are triggered by a perceived threat or actual exposure to a potentially traumatizing event. FRBs modify the future risk of harm.” This review examines how fear-related behaviors were implicated in (1) accelerating the spread of Ebola, (2) impeding the utilization of life-saving Ebola treatment, (3) curtailing the availability of medical services for treatable conditions, (4) increasing the risks for new-onset psychological distress and psychiatric disorders, and (5) amplifying the downstream cascades of social problems. Fear-related behaviors are identified for each of these outcomes. Particularly notable are behaviors such as treating Ebola patients in home or private clinic settings, the “laying of hands” on Ebola-infected individuals to perform faith-based healing, observing hands-on funeral and burial customs, foregoing available life-saving treatment, and stigmatizing Ebola survivors and health professionals. Future directions include modeling the onset, operation, and perpetuation of fear-related behaviors and devising strategies to redirect behavioral responses to mass threats in a manner that reduces risks and promotes resilience.

Objectives. The US Department of Health and Human Services, in collaboration with the Congressional Black Caucus, created a new initiative to address the disproportionate ongoing HIV/AIDS crisis in racial/ethnic minority populations. Methods. This initiative included deploying technical assistance teams through the Office of HIV/AIDS Policy. The teams introduced rapid assessment and response methodologies and trained minority communities in their use. Results. The first 3 eligible cities (Detroit, Miami, and Philadelphia) focused assessments in small geographic areas, using multiple methodologies to obtain data. Conclusions. Data from the first 3 eligible cities provided critical information about changing the dynamics of the HIV/AIDS epidemic at the local level, including program and policy changes and infrastructure redeployment targeted at the most serious social and environmental conditions.

Uma concepção dominante de família e de parentesco tem marcado as pesquisas sobre as práticas familiares dos agentes no meio popular do Caribe e da América Latina, relegando suas organizações familiares à ordem da anomia e da patologia. Esta concepção, de um lado, identifica a reprodução dos grupos como função social da família, de outro, privilegia os laços genealógicos, fazendo do parentesco, como notou Schneider (1984:121), o eixo biológico da reprodução nas sociedades humanas. Na base desta concepção encontra-se o postulado legalista que tem marcado a representação vitoriana da sociedade e que constituiu um bias a partir do qual as pesquisas estabeleceram um corte analítico entre o domínio doméstico e aquele jurídico-político. Ou, para retomar Fortes (1958;1969;, entre a amity -domínio protegido das vicissitudes da política, das leis do mercado e das determinações históricas, lugar do exercício legíti-mo da sexualidade e da criação dos filhos -, e a polity -domínio do exercício das leis do mercado, da política e da história. Essa concepção jurídica da organização social, tradução erudita desse bias legalista, articula uma constelação de objetos, que é de fato uma constelação de representações -a família, o parentesco, a casa, o público vs. o privado -que por vezes se constituem em normas culturais e guias analíticos de pesquisa. Este "juridismo" teórico (duramente criticado por Bourdieu 1977;Goody 1990;Leach 1961; Needham 1971;Schneider 1980 Schneider , 1984 e diversas analistas feministas, como Rosaldo 1980 e Rapp 1977, é adicionado a uma concepção miserabilista das classes populares, traduzida em uma abordagem que faz de suas organizações familiares uma mera variável da estrutura socioeconômica e transforma esses agentes familiares em seres incapazes de produzir um mundo e habitá-lo simbolicamente.Os estudos sobre família e parentesco nessas sociedades, ainda que de aparição relativamente tardia, inauguram-se (1) em continuidade com as pesquisas sobre o problema da assimilação dos negros na sociedade

Background There have been estimates that over 150,000 Haitian children are living in servitude. Child domestic servants who perform unpaid labor are referred to as “restavèks.” Restavèks are often stigmatized, prohibited from attending school, and isolated from family placing them at higher risk for experiencing violence. In the absence of national data on the experiences of restavèks in Haiti, the study objective was to describe the sociodemographic characteristics of restavèks in Haiti and to assess their experiences of violence in childhood. Methods The Violence Against Children Survey was a nationally representative, cross-sectional household survey of 13–24 year olds (n = 2916) conducted May–June 2012 in Haiti. A stratified three-stage cluster design was used to sample households and camps containing persons displaced by the 2010 earthquake. Respondents were interviewed to assess lifetime prevalence of physical, emotional, and sexual violence occurring before age 18. Chi-squared tests were used to assess the association between having been a restavèk and experiencing violence in childhood. Findings In this study 17.4% of females and 12.2% of males reported having been restavèks before age 18. Restavèks were more likely to have worked in childhood, have never attended school, and to have come from a household that did not have enough money for food in childhood. Females who had been restavèks in childhood had higher odds of reporting childhood physical (OR 2.04 [1.40–2.97]); emotional (OR 2.41 [1.80–3.23]); and sexual violence (OR 1.86 [95% CI 1.34–2.58]) compared to females who had never been restavèks. Similarly, males who had ever been restavèks in childhood had significantly increased odds of emotional violence (OR 3.06 [1.99–4.70]) and sexual violence (OR 1.85 [1.12–3.07]) compared to males who had never been restavèks, but there was no difference in childhood physical violence. Interpretation This study demonstrates that child domestic servants in Haiti experience higher rates of childhood violence and have less access to education and financial resources than other Haitian children. These findings highlight the importance of addressing both the lack of human rights law enforcement and the poor economic circumstances that allow the practice of restavèk to continue in Haiti.