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Sex practices and awareness of Ebola virus disease among male survivors and their partners in Guinea

INTRODUCTION: Towards the end of the 2013–2016 West African outbreak, sexually-transmitted Ebola virus re-emerged from Ebola virus disease (EVD) survivors in all three hardest hit countries. We explore sex practices and awareness of the risk of Ebola virus transmission among EVD survivors and their...

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Autores principales: Kondé, Mandy Kader, Diop, Moustapha Keita, Curtis, Marie Yvonne, Barry, Abdoulaye, Kouyaté, Saidou, Ghilardi, Ludovica, Kouyaté, Sékou, Diallo, Aissatou Malal, Magassouba, N’faly, Quick, Isadora, Keïta, Mory, Carroll, Miles W, Jansa, Josep, Subissi, Lorenzo
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: BMJ Publishing Group 2017
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5623339/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29018586
http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmjgh-2017-000412
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author Kondé, Mandy Kader
Diop, Moustapha Keita
Curtis, Marie Yvonne
Barry, Abdoulaye
Kouyaté, Saidou
Ghilardi, Ludovica
Kouyaté, Sékou
Diallo, Aissatou Malal
Magassouba, N’faly
Quick, Isadora
Keïta, Mory
Carroll, Miles W
Jansa, Josep
Subissi, Lorenzo
author_facet Kondé, Mandy Kader
Diop, Moustapha Keita
Curtis, Marie Yvonne
Barry, Abdoulaye
Kouyaté, Saidou
Ghilardi, Ludovica
Kouyaté, Sékou
Diallo, Aissatou Malal
Magassouba, N’faly
Quick, Isadora
Keïta, Mory
Carroll, Miles W
Jansa, Josep
Subissi, Lorenzo
author_sort Kondé, Mandy Kader
collection PubMed
description INTRODUCTION: Towards the end of the 2013–2016 West African outbreak, sexually-transmitted Ebola virus re-emerged from Ebola virus disease (EVD) survivors in all three hardest hit countries. We explore sex practices and awareness of the risk of Ebola virus transmission among EVD survivors and their partners. METHODS: In this cross-sectional study, we recruited a convenience sample of study participants aged >15 years who were male EVD survivors, their sexual partners and a comparison group. We administered a questionnaire to all respondents, estimated self-reported sexual practices and risk awareness and conducted in-depth interviews. RESULTS: We recruited 234 EVD survivors, 256 sexual partners of survivors and 65 individuals in the comparison group from five prefectures in Guinea. The prevalence of safe sexual behaviour (regular condom use or sexual abstinence >12 months) and regular condom use in EVD survivors was 38% (95% CI 31% to 44%) and 21% (95% CI 16% to 27%), respectively. Among partners, these prevalences were lower (11%, 95% CI 7% to 15% and 9%, 95% CI 5% to 12%, respectively). EVD survivors were more than five times as likely to engage in safe sexual behaviour compared with the comparison group (aOR 5.59, 95% CI 2.36 to 13.2). One-hundred and thirty one EVD survivors (57%) and 94 partners (37%) were aware of the risk of Ebola virus re-emergence associated with having unsafe sex. Partners who reported not being informed by their husband/boyfriend (EVD survivor) were more likely to be unaware of this risk (aOR 20.5, 95% CI 8.92 to 47.4). CONCLUSIONS: We disclose here a need to improve knowledge of the disease and close the gap between knowledge and practice found in EVD survivors and their partners. Current and future survivors’ follow-up programmes should include partners and be more effective at communicating sex-related risks. Community-level fears and attitudes that enable stigmatisation should be addressed. Safe sex interventions targeting EVD survivors and their partners should be prioritised.
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spelling pubmed-56233392017-10-10 Sex practices and awareness of Ebola virus disease among male survivors and their partners in Guinea Kondé, Mandy Kader Diop, Moustapha Keita Curtis, Marie Yvonne Barry, Abdoulaye Kouyaté, Saidou Ghilardi, Ludovica Kouyaté, Sékou Diallo, Aissatou Malal Magassouba, N’faly Quick, Isadora Keïta, Mory Carroll, Miles W Jansa, Josep Subissi, Lorenzo BMJ Glob Health Research INTRODUCTION: Towards the end of the 2013–2016 West African outbreak, sexually-transmitted Ebola virus re-emerged from Ebola virus disease (EVD) survivors in all three hardest hit countries. We explore sex practices and awareness of the risk of Ebola virus transmission among EVD survivors and their partners. METHODS: In this cross-sectional study, we recruited a convenience sample of study participants aged >15 years who were male EVD survivors, their sexual partners and a comparison group. We administered a questionnaire to all respondents, estimated self-reported sexual practices and risk awareness and conducted in-depth interviews. RESULTS: We recruited 234 EVD survivors, 256 sexual partners of survivors and 65 individuals in the comparison group from five prefectures in Guinea. The prevalence of safe sexual behaviour (regular condom use or sexual abstinence >12 months) and regular condom use in EVD survivors was 38% (95% CI 31% to 44%) and 21% (95% CI 16% to 27%), respectively. Among partners, these prevalences were lower (11%, 95% CI 7% to 15% and 9%, 95% CI 5% to 12%, respectively). EVD survivors were more than five times as likely to engage in safe sexual behaviour compared with the comparison group (aOR 5.59, 95% CI 2.36 to 13.2). One-hundred and thirty one EVD survivors (57%) and 94 partners (37%) were aware of the risk of Ebola virus re-emergence associated with having unsafe sex. Partners who reported not being informed by their husband/boyfriend (EVD survivor) were more likely to be unaware of this risk (aOR 20.5, 95% CI 8.92 to 47.4). CONCLUSIONS: We disclose here a need to improve knowledge of the disease and close the gap between knowledge and practice found in EVD survivors and their partners. Current and future survivors’ follow-up programmes should include partners and be more effective at communicating sex-related risks. Community-level fears and attitudes that enable stigmatisation should be addressed. Safe sex interventions targeting EVD survivors and their partners should be prioritised. BMJ Publishing Group 2017-09-25 /pmc/articles/PMC5623339/ /pubmed/29018586 http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmjgh-2017-000412 Text en © Article author(s) (or their employer(s) unless otherwise stated in the text of the article) 2017. All rights reserved. No commercial use is permitted unless otherwise expressly granted. This is an Open Access article distributed in accordance with the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt and build upon this work, for commercial use, provided the original work is properly cited. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
spellingShingle Research
Kondé, Mandy Kader
Diop, Moustapha Keita
Curtis, Marie Yvonne
Barry, Abdoulaye
Kouyaté, Saidou
Ghilardi, Ludovica
Kouyaté, Sékou
Diallo, Aissatou Malal
Magassouba, N’faly
Quick, Isadora
Keïta, Mory
Carroll, Miles W
Jansa, Josep
Subissi, Lorenzo
Sex practices and awareness of Ebola virus disease among male survivors and their partners in Guinea
title Sex practices and awareness of Ebola virus disease among male survivors and their partners in Guinea
title_full Sex practices and awareness of Ebola virus disease among male survivors and their partners in Guinea
title_fullStr Sex practices and awareness of Ebola virus disease among male survivors and their partners in Guinea
title_full_unstemmed Sex practices and awareness of Ebola virus disease among male survivors and their partners in Guinea
title_short Sex practices and awareness of Ebola virus disease among male survivors and their partners in Guinea
title_sort sex practices and awareness of ebola virus disease among male survivors and their partners in guinea
topic Research
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5623339/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29018586
http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmjgh-2017-000412
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