Adherence & Retention
PEP in context of complex emergency: congo experience
As we now Post-exposure prophylaxis have proven to reduce the chance of HIV transmission. The past twelve years of war in Congo the phenomene of rape is very extended and alarming. Some causes related to the context of war reduce or stop access to ART within the 72 hours. Accessibility to drugs, unavailability of test to confirm the serostatus of both sides, insecurity leading access difficult to health facilities, ignorance of women and families, social stigma linked to cultural beliefs trying to condamn the lady raped, etc.
All those cases which could be reduced increase the rate of HIV in the contry.
Did regulations of war according to Geneva agreement is still relevant to current context? Add Rape and related practices conducive to HIV as grave crimes could reduce this. International Criminal Court condamn it but we know how long it takes to be trialed to ICC. Did community based organisations training in PEP guidelines helpful to tackle the situation? Is sensitisation of beligerants both sides helpful? research to find alternatives drugs which can be administered within 7 to ten days a response?
The problem remains opened and subject to further exchanges i hope.
Prosper Lutala
UN Volunteer Malawi
Universite de Goma/Family Medicine Department Goma
Ann Deschamps
Dear Prosper Lutula,
I fully support your idea of international action against rape and related practices. I see the consequences of this every day in my practice. We take care of several female refugies who were rape victims, completely traumatised and then had to hear from us that they are hiv + on top of that. Dealing with hiv isn't easy, dealing with it in such a traumatising context is even more difficult.
Ann Deschamps
Clinical Nurse Specialist HIV
University Hospitals Leuven
Belgium
12:48 PM, 11 Mar 2009 | Permalink
Anat Rosenthal, PhD
Hello all,
Thank you Lutala and Ann for putting forward these questions.
Dealing with the same issues, the following editorial was published in PLoS Medicine and discusses the role of medical professionals in the international response to rape. It seems that so many health professionals are dealing with the results of war related rape, whether they are HIV or trauma, and yet the international community is failing at responding.
Here's the link:
http://medicine.plosjournals.org/perlserv/?request=get-document&doi=10.1371/j...
Best,
Anat
5:07 PM, 12 Mar 2009 | Permalink
Ziad El-Khatib
Hi!
A note about rape, if someone is interested in rape surveillance, I am happy to share a model proposal I wrote few year ago. It has been published under women forum-Stockholm and was used for project in Uganda.
Best regards
ziad
12:57 AM, 13 Mar 2009 | Permalink
Moses Bateganya
Hi Ziad
I am interested in knowing about the model and in which setting it was used in Uganda. Thanks
Moses
2:05 AM, 13 Mar 2009 | Permalink
Prosper Lutala
Hi Ziad El-Khatib;
Can you share with us this model which can be very helpful in our contry end even in others Great Lakes Region countries.
We hope it will fit the context of Congo very closed to Uganda .
Prosper Lutala
3:31 PM, 13 Mar 2009 | Permalink
Ziad El-Khatib
Sure, the link is
http://www.qweb.kvinnoforum.se/Documents/Resources/Archive/RapePaperOct2005.pdf
About Uganda, the research group was from Gothenburg
university-Sweden. I am in South Africa now, can ask more about it
when go back to Stockholm?
Best regards
ziad
3:22 AM, 14 Mar 2009 | Permalink