A new MEASURE DHS study of 10 sub-Saharan African countries finds that, in most countries, receiving multiple medical injections is significantly linked to being HIV-infected, for both women and men. Having ever received a blood transfusion also tends to be positively associated with being HIV-infected.

New estimates of the orphans and vulnerable children (OVC) in sub-Saharan Africa paint a stark picture of the heavy burden borne by Africa’s youngest citizens. The scope of the problem is enormous, with more than 6 million OVC in Tanzania and Uganda, more than 3 million in Cameroon, Kenya and Zimbabwe, slightly less than 3 million in Cote d’Ivoire and Malawi, and a half million in Lesotho, according to a new study.    

One in five married women report that they have ever experienced physical violence by their husband reports the 2007 Jordan Population and Family Health Survey. Twelve percent of these women experienced spousal physical violence within the past year. The 2007 JPFHS provides the first nationally representative data on domestic violence in the country. Only a small proportion of abused women seek help from medical personnel, police, or lawyers.

While almost all Rwandan health care facilities offer services for sick children and about three-fourths offer antenatal care and family planning, the quality of care needs improvement, according to the newly released 2007 Rwanda Service Provision Assessment Survey (RSPA). Poor infection control, lack of client counseling, and frequent stock outs of essential drugs are the major concerns. These problems are found nationwide, according to the survey of 538 facilities.

Twenty-five percent of women and 32 percent of men have hypertension reports the 2007 Ukraine Demographic and Health Survey. The majority of these women and men are unaware of their hypertensive status. Hypertension increases dramatically as women and men age. Over half of women and men age 45 and older have some form of hypertension, indicating that high blood pressure is a serious public health problem in Ukraine.