ETD Collection

Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://wiredspace.wits.ac.za/handle/10539/104


Please note: Digitised content is made available at the best possible quality range, taking into consideration file size and the condition of the original item. These restrictions may sometimes affect the quality of the final published item. For queries regarding content of ETD collection please contact IR specialists by email : IR specialists or Tel : 011 717 4652 / 1954

Follow the link below for important information about Electronic Theses and Dissertations (ETD)

Library Guide about ETD

Browse

Filters

2006 - 20102

Settings

Has files: YesSubject: search.filters.subject.aids

Search Results

Now showing 1 - 2 of 2
  • No Thumbnail Available
    Item
    Factors affecting enrolment into the programme of prevention of mother-to-child transmission (PMTCT) of HIV, among post-partum women, in a public maternity centre in the Limpopo Province
    (2010-04-15T13:19:56Z) Ajewole, Olusesan Joshua
    BACKGROUND Until recent years, uptake of voluntary counselling and testing for HIV (VCT) and enrolment into the programme of prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV (PMTCT) was very poor among pregnant women. This study aims to identify factors influencing enrolment into the programme of PMTCT among post-partum women. METHODS Cross sectional interview of 200 consecutive post-partum women was conducted using an interviewer-administered questionnaire. Forms of those who declined to participate were kept and marked “refusal”. Data was analysed using Epi info software. RESULTS The response rate was 84.5%. VCT uptake was 96.9% among participants and PMTCT uptake among HIV+ve mothers was 90.9%. The mean age of participants was 25 years, ranged from 14 to 41 years. Women in the age-group 20-29 were more likely to accept VCT and enroll for PMTCT than women in the other age-groups (p=0.0114). CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS Provision of clear and well-defined policy guidelines and strong commitment to implementation of these guidelines have been largely responsible for impressive uptake of VCT among participants and high rates of satisfaction with PMTCT programme among HIV-infected women. Training of more lay-counsellors is recommended for its cost-effectiveness.
  • No Thumbnail Available
    Item
    Romance, love and gender in times of crisis: HIV/AIDS in Kenyan popular fiction
    (2006-03-20) Muriungi, Agnes
    The emergence of HIV/AIDS has changed how society perceives and deals with issues of sex, sexuality, and gender. The writers studied in this thesis raise important questions pertaining to HIV/AIDS and gender, love, romance, sex and sexuality in present day Kenya. Their writing demonstrates that HIV/AIDS has changed the ways in which people understand these issues. This thesis sought to explore, through an analysis of fiction, how human social behaviour has been affected by a pandemic disease. The changes in sexual and gender relationships that are reflected in this literature points at “emergent cultures of sexuality”. For instance, the literature clearly shows that both men and women in contemporary Kenya are confronted by an urgent need to change their sexual behaviour whether in monogamous or polygamous relationships, hence a change in the power matrix between men and women. Practices to do with pleasure seeking and the satisfaction of desire, male domination of gender relationships, notions of masculinity among other social and cultural practices and beliefs are affected in extreme ways. In some cases, these practices and beliefs are undermined and subverted whilst in other cases they are reinforced. What these social and sexual dynamics suggest is that human society is being revolutionized by the HIV/AIDS phenomenon. Therefore, this study looks at how popular discourses about sexuality, romance and gender have been (re)appropriated and (re)articulated by popular literature in Kenya within the context of HIV/AIDS. The thesis examines how discourses on romance are employed to re-imagine social and sexual behaviour as a means to control and contain the spread of HIV/AIDS. My analysis demonstrates that popular fiction is capable of representing the hidden realities of sex, sexuality, romance and gender that individuals face daily in a way that other forms of expression and media cannot. The examples of HIV/AIDS fiction examined here give readers a better understanding of the effects of the disease on society through the various stories that different characters in the novels tell. These stories also play an important role in the creation of urgently needed and socially relevant meaning with regard to HIV/AIDS. The popular text, in the context of HIV/AIDS, makes an important contribution to cultural production because it comments on and more importantly, offers possibilities of re-imagining and re-creating new forms and practices of social and sexual behaviour in present-day Kenyan society.