International Family Planning Perspectives articles from June 2002

International Family Planning Perspectives archives from June 2002

Two-child families are becoming the norm. (Update).(Brief Article)
June 1, 2002... Contrary to earlier United Nations (UN) projections that fertility rates would continue to rise in developing countries, population experts now predict that rates in some countries may fall below replacement level by 2050. (1) At a UN...

Emergency contraception in Latin America. (Update).(Brief Article)
June 1, 2002... Emergency contraception is available rarely or not at all in Latin America and the Caribbean, according to a survey of 37 affiliates of the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF) conducted between September and November 2000. (1)...

Reproductive health among Afghan refugees. (Update).(Brief Article)
June 1, 2002... Pregnancy and childbirth complications are the leading cause of death among reproductive-age Afghan women in 12 refugee settlements in Pakistan. (1) Between January 1999 and August 2000, deaths to women of reproductive age accounted for close...

Consistent condom use is key to prevention. (Update).(Uganda)(Brief Article)
June 1, 2002... Consistent condom use protects against HIV syphilis, gonorrhea and chlamydia infection but inconsistent use does not, according to a longitudinal study of condom use among 17,264 Ugandans. (1) At 10-month intervals between 1994 and 1998,...

Burden of reproductive ill health in India. (Update).(Brief Article)
June 1, 2002... Reproductive tract problems account for half of all days of illness among southern Indian women younger than 35, according to a survey of mothers in Karnataka State. (1) For one year, researchers interviewed 421 women with young children...

Men are effective condom distributors. (Update).(Brief Article)
June 1, 2002... Men can be effective agents in community-based condom distribution programs, according to a review of research on programs in 13 countries. (1) Studies in Cameroon, Kenya, Ghana, Mali and Pakistan have found that male agents are acceptable to...

National Committee to Fight AIDS. (In Brief).(Iran)(Brief Article)
June 1, 2002... * Beginning in September, Iranian children and adolescents will receive AIDS awareness information in school, according to the country's National Committee to Fight AIDS. Although Iranian schools do not teach sexuality education, the material...

Emergency contraception has been banned by Argentina's Supreme Court. (In Brief).(Brief Article)
June 1, 2002... * Emergency contraception has been banned by Argentina's Supreme Court. A narrow majority of the court ruled that the method, which has been legal in the country since 1996, causes abortion. In its decision, the court defined life as beginning...

China has passed legislation codifying the country's one-child policy. (In Brief).(Brief Article)
June 1, 2002... * China has passed legislation codifying the country's one-child policy. According to the new law, which takes effect in September, couples will face fines if they have more than one child. There are exceptions for urban couples who are members...

Excess capacity and the cost of adding services at family planning clinics in Zimbabwe. (Articles).(Statistical Data Included)
June 1, 2002... CONTEXT: With the expense of providing reproductive health services increasing, information on how staff members spend their time can help program managers determine whether there is sufficient downtime to add new services at minimal additional...

A quasi-experimental study to assess the impact of four adolescent sexual health interventions in Sub-Saharan Africa.(Statistical Data Included)
June 1, 2002... CONTEXT: Rigorous evaluations are needed to assess whether adolescent sexual health interventions have an effect on young people's risk-related perceptions and behaviors. METHODS: A quasi-experimental design was used to evaluate the impact...

Service integration: an overview of policy developments. (Issues in Perspective).(primary care services for HIV, sexually transmitted infections, women's reproductive health)
June 1, 2002... During the 1990s, the rising prevalence of HIV and sexually transmitted infections (STIs) in low-income countries heightened international concern about the lack of means of control. The number of new HIV infections reached five million in...

Integration of STI prevention and management with family planning and antenatal care in Sub-Saharan Africa--what more do we need to know?
June 1, 2002... CONTEXT: The high prevalence of sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and their role in HIV transmission have made integrating STI prevention and management into existing family planning and antenatal care pro grams a goal in most...

Promoting dual protection in family planning clinics in Ibadan, Nigeria.(Statistical Data Included)
June 1, 2002... CONTEXT: Integration of efforts to pre vent HIV and sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and of condom promotion into family planning services is urgently needed because of the escalating HIV epidemic in Sub-Saharan Africa. METHODS:...

Dual needs: contraceptive and sexually transmitted infection protection in Lusaka, Zambia.(Statistical Data Included)
June 1, 2002... CONTEXT: Lusaka, Zambia, has both a high prevalence of HIV infection and relatively high contraceptive prevalence for Sub-Saharan Africa. In this context, family planning clinics have the potential to play an important role in the prevention of...

When does it make sense to consider integrating STI and HIV services with family planning services?
June 1, 2002... The question of whether to integrate vertical primary health care programs and services (maternal health, child survival, family planning, etc.) is long-standing, and the arguments on either side have been clearly articulated. Integrated...

Is integration the answer for Africa?(sex education in family planning services)
June 1, 2002... Since the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) in 1994, much rhetoric and some action have been expended on the attempt to integrate family planning with services that manage sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and...

Integrating reproductive tract infection services into family planning settings in Indonesia.
June 1, 2002... Integrated reproductive health services are usually discussed in the context of settings with high HIV prevalence, but should also be considered as part of a comprehensive response to HIV/AIDS in low-prevalence countries. Family planning and...

Dual method use in South Africa. (Research Note).(Statistical Data Included)
June 1, 2002... CONTEXT: Dual method use is featured in South Africa's new reproductive health policies as an important means of family planning as well as of prevention of infection with HIV and other sexually transmitted infections (STIs). However, little is...

Strategies adopted by Caribbean family planning associations to address declining international funding. (Comment).
June 1, 2002... In response to high rates of fertility and population growth from the 1950s through the 1990s, many Caribbean countries adopted some form of family planning program. (1) These programs, in combination with increased female educational...

In Mozambique, social diversity within church congregations encourages contraceptive use. (Digests).
June 1, 2002... Social interaction within religious congregations appears to have had a strong impact on the adoption of contraceptive use in Mozambique, particularly in large cities. (1) An analysis of 1997 Demographic and Health Survey data for large cities...

Use of any combined pill type confers an elevated risk of a first heart attack. (Digests).(Brief Article)
June 1, 2002... The use of any oral contraceptive significantly raises the likelihood of a first myocardial infarction, according to a nationwide study from the Netherlands. (1) The results of the study also suggest, although inconclusively, that women who use...

Emergency contraception is little known and rarely used by South Africans. (Digests).
June 1, 2002... Only about one in four women attending public-sector health clinics in South Africa reported having heard of emergency contraception, according to a study conducted in three provinces; levels of knowledge were even lower in rural areas and...

Feeding method does not affect mortality of infants of HIV-infected women. (Digests).(Brief Article)
June 1, 2002... Of infants born to HIV-infected women participating in a study in Kenya, those assigned to be formula-fed were no more likely than those assigned to be breastfed to die before their second birthday, even when infection with HIV was taken into...

As desired fertility falls, contraceptive services help women avoid abortions. (Digests).(Brief Article)
June 1, 2002... In an area of Matlab, Bangladesh, where an intensive maternal and child health and family planning program has been delivering high-quality services since the late 1970s, about one in 10 unintended pregnancies end in abortion *--the same...

Early, fast-paced growth benefits short-term health of underweight infants. (Digests).(Brief Article)
June 1, 2002... Rapid catch-up growth in the first 20 months of life appears to confer short-term health benefits on babies who are born small for their gestational age. According to data from a cohort of babies born in Brazil in 1982, (1) those who were born...