Transitions to Adulthood
Globalization Is Transforming Adolescence in the Developing World
More than three years ago, the U.S. National Academies asked Cynthia B. Lloyd, Population Council director of social science research, to lead an expert panel in examining transitions to adulthood in developing countries and outlining the policy implications of its findings. In 2005, the panel’s investigations culminated in the publication of Growing Up Global: The Changing Transitions to Adulthood in Developing Countries. The panel found that despite widespread progress in certain areas, many young people still lack good health and adequate schooling—both of which are essential for ensuring their productivity and well-being. The lives of many of these young men and women are profoundly different from those of their parents. While change itself is not new, the speed of globalization has accelerated and its scale has widened.
HIV/AIDS
Guide for Improving Adherence to Drug Therapies
Since 1996, the standard treatment for HIV infection has moved from single- and double-drug therapies to therapies containing three or more anti-HIV drugs, also known as Highly Active Antiretroviral Therapy, or HAART. One of the main concerns of antiretroviral programs is to motivate clients to follow their complex drug regimen exactly as prescribed. Unless the therapy is adhered to at least 95 percent correctly, levels of HIV in the blood will rise, resulting in AIDS-related complications. To address this concern, the Population Council’s Horizons Program collaborated with the International Centre for Reproductive Health and the Coast Province General Hospital in Mombasa, Kenya, to create a manual for training health care workers in improving patient compliance with antiretroviral therapy. The manual is being used in an intervention study in Kenya that is investigating ways of improving patients’ adherence to HAART.
Biomedicine
Emergency Contraception's Mode of Action Clarified
Emergency contraceptive pills, a hormonal treatment that can prevent pregnancy if taken within 72 hours of unprotected intercourse, have been the subject of heated debate. At issue is the method’s mechanism of action: does it prevent the meeting of egg and sperm, or does it prevent a fertilized egg from implanting in the uterus? Recent research by members of the Population Council’s International Committee for Contraception Research (ICCR) and other scientists shows that the most popular method of emergency contraception appears to work by interfering with ovulation, thus preventing fertilization, and not by disrupting events that occur after fertilization.
En español: "Se esclarece mecanismo de acción de la anticoncepción de emergencia" (PDF)
Biomedicine
Sperm with Bent Tails Point to Possible Male Contraceptive
New research on mice by scientists at the Population Council and Rockefeller University sheds light on male infertility. The findings, reported in the March issue of Developmental Cell, may also lay the groundwork for a reversible male contraceptive.
Reproductive Health
Postabortion Complications Prevalent in Pakistan
Determining the levels of induced abortion and postabortion complications in various regions is essential because of the consequences these experiences have for women’s health. The Population Council has studied abortion and postabortion complications around the world, most recently in Pakistan. This comprehensive research has revealed a high level of unwanted pregnancy, induced abortion, and postabortion complications in that country.
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