Alcohol use before sex and HIV risk: situational characteristics of protected and unprotected encounters among high-risk African women.

OBJECTIVES: To compare the situational characteristics of protected and unprotected sexual encounters that involved alcohol use 2 hours prior with ones that did not. METHODS: Data were collected between December 2002 and December 2005 as part of enrollment in a prospective cohort study designed to identify HIV seroconversion risk factors among women bar and hotel workers in Northern Tanzania. A total of 608 (37.3%) of the women who were inconsistent condom users were asked a set-matched questions concerning situational characteristics surrounding their last protected and unprotected sexual encounter including whether they had been drinking within 2 hours of sex. The associations between drinking 2 hours before sex (yes/no), condom use (protected/unprotected), and their interaction with the situational descriptors were examined with a 2 x 2 model for paired categorical data after controlling for time since the last type of encounter. RESULTS: Condom failure was 5 times more likely if someone (woman, man, or both partners) had been drinking in advance of the encounter (OR, 5.19; 95% CI, 2.05-15.46) and was especially likely to occur if only the woman had been drinking before sex (OR, 14.05; 95% CI, 4.03-50.41). Alcohol use before sex was associated with sexual contacts where the woman was having sex with her partner for the first time, their relationship was casual or transitory or sex was transactional, the location was unfamiliar and less under her control, and the partner had been drinking or using drugs before having sex. Condom use was more frequent in precisely the same types of encounters. Interestingly, there were no significant interactions between alcohol use before sex and condom use, suggesting that drinking before sex and use of condom are distinct and not contingent risk factors. CONCLUSIONS: Alcohol use before sex is associated with an increased likelihood of condom failures and with high-risk sexual encounters, ones that have consistent situational characteristics regardless of whether condoms are used or not.

Patterns of alcohol use, problem drinking, and HIV infection among high-risk African women.

OBJECTIVES: To examine the relationship between patterns of alcohol use and HIV infection and to assess the association between problem drinking and the prevalence of risk factors for HIV among a sample of high-risk African women. METHODS: Baseline data were collected between 2002 and 2003 during enrollment of 1050 women in a prospective cohort study designed to assess risk factors for HIV. Information about demographic and employment characteristics, sexual behaviors, and drinking patterns were obtained by interviews. The CAGE questionnaire was used to assess problem drinking. The association between measures of alcohol use and HIV/STDs and sexual behaviors were summarized using odds ratios, adjusted odds ratios (AOR), and 95% confidence intervals (CI). RESULTS: HIV prevalence was 19.0% (95% CI, 16.6%-21.4%). Overall 73.9% of the women drank alcohol whereas 34.6% were classified as problem drinkers. After adjusting for demographic and employment variables, drinkers were at increased risk to be HIV+ when compared with nondrinkers (AOR, 2.10; 95% CI, 1.29-3.42). Greater involvement with alcohol, as indicated by recency, frequency and quantity consumed, was associated with increased risk. Problem drinkers were at greater risk to be HIV+ than nonproblem drinkers (AOR, 1.79; 95% CI, 1.06-3.04 vs. AOR, 2.43; 95% CI, 1.45-4.06). Problem drinkers were also more likely to have engaged in several types of high-risk sexual behaviors and to have other STD infections including HSV-2. CONCLUSION: Programs aiming at limiting alcohol use or promoting abstinence from alcohol might help to reduce high-risk behaviors and lower the burden of HIV/STDs in this population.

Development of a monoclonal antibody detection assay for species-specific identification of abalone.

Species identification based on biochemical and molecular techniques has a broad range of applications. These include compliance enforcement, the management and conservation of marine organisms, and commercial quality control. Abalone poaching worldwide and illegal trade in abalone products have increased mainly because of the attractive prices obtained and caused a sharp decline in stocks. Alleged poachers have been acquitted because of lack of evidence to correctly identify species. Therefore, a robust method is required that would identify tissue of abalone origin to species level. The aim of this study was to develop immunologic techniques, using monoclonal and polyclonal antibodies, to identify 10 different abalone species and subspecies from South Africa, the United States, Australia, and Japan. The combination of 3 developed monoclonal antibodies to South African abalone (Haliotis midae) enabled differentiation between most of the 10 species including the subspecies H. diversicolor supertexta and H. diversicolor diversicolor. In a novel approach, using antibodies of patients with allergy to abalone, the differentiation of additional subspecies, H. discus discus and H. discus hannai, was possible. A field-based immunoassay was developed to identify confiscated tissue of abalone origin.