Disputation - Mpundu Makasa
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PhD candidate Mpundu Makasa will defend her thesis:
"Epidemiological context of Sexually Transmitted Infections in Zambia: Determinants, aetiological agents and trends over time"
Evaluation committee:
* Professor Marie Laga, Institute of Tropical Medicine, Antwerp, Belgium
* Professor Fred Nuwaha, Makerere University College of Health Sciences, Kampala, Uganda
* Professor Sven Gudmund Hinderaker, University of Bergen
Leader of the defence:
Professor Bjarne Robberstad
You are all welcome!
English press release for the thesis:
Genital ulcer causes, risk factors and syphilis trends
Mpundu Makasa presents her dissertation on Thursday 6th December 2012 for PhD at the University of Bergen on “Epidemiology of Sexually Transmitted Infections in Zambia”.
Sexually Transmitted Infections (STIs) are a challenge mainly in developing countries, and particularly in sub-Saharan Africa, which also faces a serious HIV epidemic. Sexually Transmitted Infections can lead to serious complications such as infertility, spontaneous abortions, still births, cervical cancer and also enhance transmission of HIV. Control of STIs is thus important.
Many STIs are curable, and prompt care seeking shortens the duration of an STI and prevents complications in the source patient as well as secondary spread of the infection. Makasa’s thesis focused on the causes of Genital Ulcer Disease, the predictors and healthcare seeking and sexual behavior among individuals with genital ulceration. Further, both syphilis trends in pregnant women and changes in the general population were examined.
Syphilis declined significantly among pregnant women in Zambia between 1994 and 2008. Variations however were noted at regional level and needs to be studied further to understand the local context of the epidemics, and to guide STI prevention and control programmes in the different geographical settings in Zambia.
Polymerase chain reaction was used to identify the common causes of genital ulceration among patients that presented to primary health care clinics in Lusaka. Herpes Simplex Virus type 2 was the commonest cause, while Haemophilus ducreyi was not detected in any of the patients. This requires further study. If the findings are validated, treatment guidelines for Genital Ulcer Disease need to be revised in Zambia.
Since the majority of the respondents who reported symptoms of genital ulceration also reported having sex and only a minority had used a condom, there is need for awareness campaigns on the importance of abstinence or use of condoms when experiencing symptoms of genital ulceration.
Personalia: Mpundu Makasa (1968) comes from Zambia and has a medical degree in Medicine from Wroclaw Medical Academy, Poland. She has been a research fellow at the Centre for International Health from 2009 to 2012 and the main supervisor was Ingvild F. Sandøy.
Contact: Mpundu.Makasa@cih.uib.no
