This research examines the effects of migration on the practice and perception of Female Genital Mutilation or Cutting (FGM/C) among Horn of Africa immigrants in Melbourne Australia. According to UN 2016 report, on (FGM/C), there are at least 200 million girls and women alive today globally that have undergone some of form of FGM/C. The same report highlights that most of these practices are concentrated in parts of Africa, Middle East and South Asia. Our research employed in-depth semi-structured interviews with 50 men and women informants and five focus groups among the Horn of Africa immigrants living in Melbourne Australia. Interview and focus group data were analysed using MAXQUDA text analysis software to see emerging themes from the data. Upon the examination of the interviews and focus group data, we found that gender and immigration were the two factors that influenced immigrant's perception about FGC. Understanding the social and cultural dynamics on the perception of FGC among immigrant communities in the West could help in devising appropriate interventions to tackle FGC in several groups where this practice is commonly occurring.

We examined gender differences in the perception of high malaria risk in women and factors associated with a high number of malaria episodes in the Mwea Division of Central Kenya. Ethnographic and successive free listing interviews (an open-ended data collection technique used to show the relation of items in a given domain) with 53 key informants and structured interviews conducted from June to October 2010 with 250 respondents who represented the socioeconomic and geographical diversity of the area were analyzed. Qualitative text analysis and inferential statistics were employed. While a greater proportion of men (51.6%) attributed women's high malaria risk to their "biological weakness," most women believed that their high malaria risk was related to their role in the agricultural fields (43.6%) and to their household responsibilities (23.1%). Compared to men, women were more likely to work in wet aspects of agricultural activities (χ(2) (2, N = 153) = 13.47, p < .01). Women were nearly twice as likely as men to report high episodes of malaria (adjusted odds ratio: 2.54; 95% confidence interval: 1.05-6.15). Culturally prescribed gender roles in agricultural communities in Mwea may play an important role in explaining disparity in reported malaria incidence. While identification of ecological and economic determinants of malaria is important, gender-based research can make a significant contribution to the development of effective and sustainable malaria reduction strategies.

Although significant efforts have been made to combat the spread of vector-borne diseases (VBDs), they still account for more than 17% of all infectious diseases. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), there were 216 million estimated cases in 2016. The efforts that resulted in these positive outcomes lack long-term financial sustainability because of the significant amount of funding involved. There is, therefore, a need for more cost-effective intervention. The authors contend that design decisions in the built environment can have a positive impact on the efforts directed at mitigating the risk of malaria in a more cost-effective manner. It is known that the built environment, through features such as openings, can propagate the spread of malaria. There have been some significant efforts directed at addressing this risk. This notwithstanding, an extensive review of closely related work established that built environment professionals have limited access to information on specific ways through which their design decisions can contribute to mitigating the risk of malaria. The validity of this hypothesis was tested through evaluating the opportunities for synergies in selected parts of East Africa. Secondary data derived from relevant urban health journals as well as repositories curated by leading health agencies such as WHO were synthesized and analyzed using a web of causation approach. The outcome of the analysis is a schema of primary and secondary source (risk) factors. The use of the web of causation approach revealed the existing factor-to-factor interactions that could have a reinforcing effect. This information was used to identify the critical linkages and interdependencies across different factors. The outcome of the analysis was mapped against risk factors that can be linked to decisions made during the six primary phases of the construction life cycle: Preliminary phase, conceptual design, detailed design, construction, facilities management, and end of life/disuse. A conceptual architecture for a decision support framework has been proposed and will be developed into a prototype in subsequent efforts.

No abstract

Although significant efforts have been made to combat the spread of vector-borne diseases (VBDs), they still account for more than 17% of all infectious diseases. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), there were 216 million estimated cases in 2016, which is a 9.3% decrease from the estimated cases reported one decade earlier. It is known that the built environment, through features such as openings, can propagate the spread of malaria. There have been some significant efforts directed at addressing this risk. This notwithstanding, there are some knowledge gaps that have resulted in a missed opportunity for synergistically tackling the problem of vectors through leveraging design decisions made by built environment professionals. This work assesses the extent to which design decisions in the built environment can have a positive impact on the efforts directed at mitigating the risk of malaria based on selected cases from East Africa. Secondary data derived from relevant urban health journals as well as repositories curated by leading health agencies such as WHO were synthesized and analyzed using a web of causation approach. The outcome of the analysis is a schema of primary and secondary source (risk) factors. The use of the web of causation approach revealed the existing factor-to-factor interactions that could have a reinforcing effect. This information was used to identify the critical linkages and interdependencies across different factors. The outcome of the analysis was mapped against risk factors that can be linked to decisions made during the six primary phases of the construction life cycle: preliminary phase, conceptual design, detailed design, construction, facilities management, and end of life/disuse. The findings of the research have established that 1) there is, in fact, a built environment–related opportunity that can be leveraged to advance the impact of malaria mitigation effort; 2) cross-disciplinary synergies are critical to managing the interdependencies and complexity of malaria risk factors that have a reinforcing effect; and 3) a knowledge-management framework that serves as a decision support tool would be valuable for sharing data under a push-and-pull mechanism, in which data shared in real time can address the timeliness of mitigating the spread of malaria at the earliest stages for the greatest impact. Based on the findings, a conceptual architecture for a decision support framework has been proposed. This will be developed into a knowledge-management platform in subsequent efforts.