A preliminary 2008-2009 Demographic and Health Surveys report shows that Kenya’s fertility rate has decline slightly, from 4.9 births per woman in 2003 to 4.6, according to an article from the Daily Nation (Kenya).

Data from the 2008-2009 survey is not yet available.

A new report from MACRO International/MEASURE DHS (PDF), using data from 22 developing countries, mostly in sub-Saharan Africa, finds that HIV prevalence is linked to social and economic characteristics. This may reflect an association between these characteristics and sexual risk-taking.

Following a summit on sub-Saharan Africa at the National Institutes of Health, the Fogarty International Center has issued a call to African scientists and institutions to become more involved in its research and training programs.

Preliminary datasets are now available for the 2006 Mali Demographic and Health Survey. PRI researchers may request it from the Data Archivist.

Measles epidemics in Niger fluctuate wildly from one season to another but the timing of the outbreaks always coincides with the end of the annual rainy season, according to an international team of researchers.

The erratic nature of the outbreaks, they add, underlies the need for greater surveillance to detect potential epidemics and a quicker vaccination response to control the disease.

The lead author of the study is Matthew Ferrari, research associate at Penn State’s Center for Infectious Disease Dynamics.

Citation: Ferrari, M. J., Grais, R. F., Bharti, N., et al. (2008). The dynamics of measles in sub-Saharan Africa. Nature, 451(7179), 679-684. (Available online to the Penn State community)

DHS has published 3 new working papers:

• Internal Migration and the Use of Reproductive and Child Health Services in Peru (Lekha Subaiya)
• Trends in Primary and Secondary Abstinence among Kenya Youth (Chi Chiao & Vinod Mishra)
• Spousal Agreement on Waiting Time to Next Birth in Sub-Saharan Africa (Tesfayi Gebreselassie & Vinod Mishra)

The number of South Africans living on less than $1 a day doubled between 1996 and 2005, according to a survey by the South African Institute of Race Relations (BBC News).

The Kaiser Daily HIV/AIDS Report summarizes two recent PLoS Medicine articles examining the links between HIV/AIDS and development issues like poverty and food insecurity.

The Council of Science Editors organized a Global Theme Issue on Poverty and Human Development, in which science journals throughout the world simultaneously publish articles on this topic on October 22. 235 journals from developed and developing countries participated in the theme issue, including American Journal of Public Health, Health Education and Behavior, Journal of Adolescence, Reproductive Health Matters, and Science.

Penn State users can use the University Libraries Citation Linker to retrieve copies of individual articles.

Preliminary datasets are now available for the 2006 Niger Demographic and Health Survey. PRI researchers may request it from the Data Archivist.