Knowledge, attitudes and practices regarding HIV/AIDS and STIs among youths and key populations in informal settlements of Nairobi, Kenya.

Kenya is home to one of the worst HIV/AIDS epidemics, with higher prevalence rates in youths in urban slums. We conducted a cross-sectional mixed-methods study in Nairobi informal settlements. The aim was to investigate knowledge, attitudes and behaviours of this marginalized community, and to identify, with a bottom-up approach, the most appropriate interventions to increase the utilization of HIV/STIs services. Preliminary qualitative research was used to draw questionnaires, which assessed: STIs/HIV/AIDS knowledge, attitudes, and behaviours; access and barriers to STIs/HIV/AIDS services; perceived quality of services; the impact of COVID-19. One thousand and fifty-four respondents completed the questionnaire. 48.3% were youth in the community, 23% youth in school, 16.8% young mothers, 6.9% drug users and 5% people attending a technical-vocational training. We found unsatisfactory knowledge of STIs/HIV/AIDS transmission and prevention, and low condom use, mainly due to difficult access, poverty, and gender-based violence. We also found limited use of health services, and lack of trust due to poor attitude of the staff. COVID-19 has widened barriers to access to health services. To reach this population, it is necessary to implement educational interventions, facilitate access to free condoms, and train health centre staff to be more welcoming. Respondents found proximity strategies more efficient, including door-to-door testing and community outreach.

Improving TB Surveillance and Patients' Quality of Care Through Improved Data Collection in Angola: Development of an Electronic Medical Record System in Two Health Facilities of Luanda.

TB Programs should promote the use of digital health platforms, like Electronic Medical Records (EMR) to collect patients' information, thus reducing data incompleteness and low accuracy and eventually improving patients' care. Nevertheless, the potential of digital health systems remains largely unexploited in low-resource settings. Angola is one of the 14 countries with a triple burden of TB, TB/HIV and MDR-TB (multidrug-resistant TB) and it is among the three countries, together with Congo and Liberia that have never completed a drug-resistance survey so far. The Sanatorium Hospital of Luanda and the Tuberculosis Dispensary of Luanda are the two reference health facilities in Luanda dealing with most of the TB cases, and they both rely entirely on paper-based data collection. The aim of this paper is to describe a three-stage process for the development of a TB EMR system in these two health facilities of Luanda and to share the lessons learned. The description is focused on the activities that took place from March 2019 to January 2020. Main lessons learned were identified in the importance of engaging all the stakeholders in the development process, in the mainstream of the "think digital" transition, in the promotion of a monitoring and evaluation (M&E) culture and in the planning of the system's sustainability. This approach may be replicated in similar contexts where the development of a TB EMR system is sought, and the lessons learned could assist and facilitate the programming of the interventions.

Processability of Atypical WC-Co Composite Feedstock by Laser Powder-Bed Fusion.

Processing of tool materials for cutting applications presents challenges in additive manufacturing (AM). Processes must be carefully managed in order to promote the formation of favourable high-integrity 'builds'. In this study, for the first time, a satelliting process is used to prepare a WCM-Co (12 wt.% Co) composite. Melting trials were undertaken to evaluate the consolidation behaviour of single tracks within a single layer. Tracks with continuous and relatively uniform surface morphology were obtained. These features are essential for high-quality AM builds in order to encourage good bonding between subsequent tracks within a layer which may reduce porosity within a 3D deposition. This study elucidates the formation of track irregularities, melting modes, crack sensitivity, and balling as a function of laser scanning speed and provides guidelines for future production of WCM-Co by laser powder-bed fusion.

The new WHO decision-making framework on vaccine use in acute humanitarian emergencies: MSF experience in Minkaman, South Sudan.

INTRODUCTION: The main causes of death during population movements can be prevented by addressing the population's basic needs. In 2013, the World Health Organization (WHO) issued a framework for decision making to help prioritize vaccinations in acute humanitarian emergencies. This article describes MSF's experience of applying this framework in addition to addressing key population needs in a displacement setting in Minkaman, South Sudan. CASE DESCRIPTION: Military clashes broke out in South Sudan in December 2013. By May 2014, Minkaman, a village in the Lakes State, hosted some 85,000 displaced people. MSF arrived in Minkaman on 28 December 2013 and immediately provided interventions to address the key humanitarian needs (health care, access to drinking water, measles vaccination). The WHO framework was used to identify priority vaccines: those preventing outbreaks (measles, polio, oral cholera vaccine, and vaccine against meningococcal meningitis A (MenAfrivac®)) and those reducing childhood morbidity and mortality (pentavalent vaccine that combines diphtheria, tetanus, whooping cough, hepatitis B, and Haemophilus influenzae type B; pneumococcal vaccine; and rotavirus vaccine). By mid-March, access to primary and secondary health care was ensured, including community health activities and the provision of safe water. Mass vaccination campaigns against measles, polio, cholera, and meningitis had been organized. Vaccination campaigns against the main deadly childhood diseases, however, were not in place owing to lack of authorization by the Ministry of Health (MoH). CONCLUSIONS: The first field use of the new WHO framework for prioritizing vaccines in acute emergencies is described. Although MSF was unable to implement the full package of priority vaccines because authorization could not be obtained from the MoH, a series of mass vaccination campaigns against key epidemic-prone diseases was successfully implemented within a complex emergency context. Together with covering the population's basic needs, this might have contributed to reducing mortality levels below the emergency threshold and to the absence of epidemics. For the WHO framework to be used to its full potential it must not only be adapted for field use but, most importantly, national decision makers should be briefed on the framework and its practical implementation.

Combined Inkjet Printing and Infrared Sintering of Silver Nanoparticles using a Swathe-by-Swathe and Layer-by-Layer Approach for 3-Dimensional Structures.

Despite the advancement of additive manufacturing (AM)/3-dimensional (3D) printing, single-step fabrication of multifunctional parts using AM is limited. With the view of enabling multifunctional AM (MFAM), in this study, sintering of metal nanoparticles was performed to obtain conductivity for continuous line inkjet printing of electronics. This was achieved using a bespoke three-dimensional (3D) inkjet-printing machine, JETx, capable of printing a range of materials and utilizing different post processing procedures to print multilayered 3D structures in a single manufacturing step. Multiple layers of silver were printed from an ink containing silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) and infrared sintered using a swathe-by-swathe (SS) and layer-by-layer sintering (LS) regime. The differences in the heat profile for the SS and LS was observed to influence the coalescence of the AgNPs. Void percentage of both SS and LS samples was higher toward the top layer than the bottom layer due to relatively less IR exposure in the top than the bottom. The results depicted a homogeneous microstructure for LS of AgNPs and showed less deformation compared to the SS. Electrical resistivity of the LS tracks (13.6 ± 1 µΩ cm) was lower than the SS tracks (22.5 ± 1 µΩ cm). This study recommends the use of LS method to sinter the AgNPs to obtain a conductive track in 25% less time than SS method for MFAM.

Additive Manufacture of Three Dimensional Nanocomposite Based Objects through Multiphoton Fabrication.

Three-dimensional structures prepared from a gold-polymer composite formulation have been fabricated using multiphoton lithography. In this process, gold nanoparticles were simultaneously formed through photoreduction whilst polymerisation of two possible monomers was promoted. The monomers, trimethylopropane triacrylate (TMPTA) and pentaerythritol triacrylate (PETA) were mixed with a gold salt, but it was found that the addition of a ruthenium(II) complex enhanced both the geometrical uniformity and integrity of the polymerised/reduced material, enabling the first production of 3D gold-polymer structures by single step multiphoton lithography.