In those parts of Sub-Saharan Africa most affected by the HIV/AIDS epidemic both public and private reaction to the seriousness of the epidemic have been less than might have been anticipated. This limited reaction weakens national, community and family responses to the epidemic and also reduces...

Part of a research programme studying methods of combating the AIDS epidemic was a survey and accompanying qualitative research focused on attitudes toward male sexuality and male sexual behaviour outside marriage and the extent and success of female attempts to control it. A survey of 1749...

Very limited knowledge is available about African women's control over their sexual relations with husbands or other stable partners in situations where there is a high risk of STDs and HIV/AIDS. Such control must be seen as encompassing women's control over their sexuality and reproduction as...

The mountains interior of Sri Lanka is one of the world's great tea-producing areas. The labour force on the tea estates consists of a population which has migrated from Tamil Nadu, in southern India, over the last one hundred years. This migrant population is known as 'Indian Tamils' and is...

There is a strong relationship between male and female circumcision in traditional thought and, north of the equator, in their practice by ethnic groups. The Southwest Nigeria Study, a 1994-1995 survey of 1749 males and 1976 females in Nigeria's Ondo, Oyo and Lagos States, is used to examine...

Infant and child physical vulnerability is demonstrated by the extremely high mortality levels in these age groups in the pre-modern West and parts of the contemporary Third World. Some children, such as females or later additions to the family, are subject to disproportionately high mortality...

Recent research has shown clearly that levels of mortality are not determined solely by income levels and the provision of modern health services. There appears to be an important sociocultural component so that the same density of health services produces lower mortality in one country than in...

Bangladesh adjoins the Asian region with the severest AIDS epidemic and has common borders with two of the most affected areas, the Indian Hill States and northern Burma. There has been disagreement about the danger to Bangladesh, one view citing the likelihood of transmission from neighbouring...

The paper defines 'health transition' and outlines the development of recent research programmes. Evidence is reviewed as to the cultural, social and behavioural determinants of health in the Third World, and the extent to which they interact with the provision of health services in reducing...