Browsing by Author "Mzingwane, M.L."
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- ItemHIV knowledge, risky behaviours and public health care services attendance among adolescents from the Grassroot soccer Zimbabwe programme(2020) Mzingwane, M.L.; Mavondo, G.A.; Mantula, F.; Mapfumo, C.; Gwatiringa, C.; Moyo, B.; Dube, P.; Chaibva, C.N.Background: Interventions aimed at improving accessing of health care services, including HIV testing, remain a priority in global HIV eradication efforts. Grassroot Soccer Zimbabwe (GRSZ) is an adolescent health organisation that uses the popularity of soccer to promote healthy behaviours. We assessed HIV knowledge levels, riskybehaviours and attitudes in school going adolescents and young adults who attended GRSZ programmes and determined if HIV knowledge levels were associated with increased levels of accessing of health care services by youths. Methods: This was a cross-sectional study carried out on 450 participants aged 13–30 years who attended at least one of the three programmes offered by GRSZ. Self-administered and self-reporting questionnaires were used to collect information on participants’ demographics, knowledge on HIV and reproductive health, sources of information, access to HIV and reproductive health services and attitudes and risky behaviours. Results: A total of 392 (87.1%) responses were received. High HIV and reproductive health knowledge levels were recorded (77.7%) on our scale with females recording higher levels (81.1%) than males (71.1%). The majority of participants (72%) indicated willingness to abstain from risky behaviours such as use of drugs and attending youth sex parties. However about 33.3% of the participants who had sexual intercourse reported having condomless sex. There was marginal association between high HIV and reproductive health knowledge levels and accessing health care services in the past 24 months (p = 0.045). Conclusions: HIV and reproductive health knowledge levels were relatively high among adolescents and were associated with accessing health care services in the past 24 months. There however are some gaps associated with engaging in risky sexual behaviours such as condomless sex which could be addressed by using these findings to assist organizations working with adolescents, educators and policy makers in developing programmes that address adolescent sexual behaviours.
- ItemPre-treatment minority HIV-1 drug resistance mutations and long term virological outcomes: is prediction possible?(BioMed Central, 2016-10-12) Mzingwane, M.L.; Tiemessen, C.T.; Richter, K.L.; Mayaphi, S.H.; Hunt, G.; Bowyer, S.M.Background: Although the use of highly active antiretroviral therapy in HIV positive individuals has proved to be effective in suppressing the virus to below detection limits of commonly used assays, virological failure associated with drug resistance is still a major challenge in some settings. The prevalence and effect of pre-treatment resistance associated variants on virological outcomes may also be underestimated because of reliance on conventional population sequencing data which excludes minority species. We investigated long term virological outcomes and the prevalence and pattern of pre-treatment minority drug resistance mutations in individuals initiating HAART at a local HIV clinic. Methods: Patient’s records of viral load results and CD4 cell counts from routine treatment monitoring were used and additional pre-treatment blood samples for Sanger sequencing were obtained. A selection of pretreatment samples from individuals who experienced virological failure were evaluated for minority resistance associated mutations to 1 % prevalence and compared to individuals who achieved viral suppression. Results: At least one viral load result after 6 months or more of treatment was available for 65 out of 78 individuals followed for up to 33 months. Twenty (30.8 %) of the 65 individuals had detectable viremia and eight (12.3 %) of them had virological failure (viral load > 1000 RNA copies/ml) after at least 6 months of HAART. Viral suppression, achieved by month 8 to month 13, was followed by low level viremia in 10.8 % of patients and virological failure in one patient after month 20. There was potentially reduced activity to Emtricitabine or Tenofovir in three out of the eight cases in which minority drug resistance associated variants were investigated but detectable viremia occurred in one of these cases while the activity of Efavirenz was generally reduced in all the eight cases. Conclusions: Early viral suppression was followed by low level viremia for some patients which may be an indication of failure to sustain viral suppression over time. The low level viremia may also be representing early stages of resistance development. The mutation patterns detected in the minority variants showed potential reduced drug sensitivity which highlights their potential to dominate after treatment initiation.