BACKGROUND Substantial reductions in maternal mortality are called for in Millennium Development Goal 5 (MDG-5), thus assuming that maternal mortality is measurable. A key difficulty is attributing causes of death for the many women who die unaided in developing countries. Verbal autopsy (VA) can elicit circumstances of death, but data need to be interpreted reliably and consistently to serve a...

OBJECTIVE To conduct a cross-national comparative study of the prevalence and correlates of female genital cutting (FGC) practices and beliefs in western Africa. METHODS Data from women who responded to the Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys between 2005 and 2007 were used to estimate the frequencies of ever having been circumcised, having had a daughter circumcised, and believing that FGC pr...

1. Abstract Insufficient lighting is an issue in many poverty-stricken nations. Without proper electric lighting, residents of impoverished communities resort to using potentially hazardous light sources, such as kerosene lamps, candles, and car batteries used to light lightbulbs. Burkina Faso, located in western Africa, is one of the poorest nations in the world, with an annual per capita inco...

To obtain more information about rotavirus (ROTAV) genotypes in Burkina Faso, we characterized 100 ROTAVs isolated from fecal samples of children with acute gastroenteritis in the capital city of Ouagadougou, during December 2009-March 2010. Of note, 13% of the ROTAV-positive samples, including those with mixed infections, were positive for the unusual G6 genotype ROTAV strain. The genotypes id...

Coercive experiences at sexual debut have been shown to be associated with other sexual risks throughout the life course. Using nationally representative surveys from 12-19 year old girls in Burkina Faso, Ghana, Malawi, and Uganda collected in 2004, we examine the prevalence of sexual coercion at sexual debut among unmarried girls and its correlates. In Malawi, 38 percent of girls said that the...

− Burkina Faso has experienced quite significant aggregate growth over the past two decades, but the economy has done a bad job in transforming that growth into poverty reduction. The key bottleneck preventing people from escaping poverty in large numbers is the still very high population growth in conjunction with the absence of major technological change in agriculture and any significant str...

This paper contributes to conflicting evidence on the link between poverty and risky sexual behaviour by examining the effect of wealth status on age at first sex, condom use, and multiple partners using nationally representative adolescents' data from Burkina Faso, Ghana, Malawi, and Uganda. The results show that the wealthiest girls in Burkina Faso, Ghana, and Malawi had later sexual debut co...

This article describes two datasets generated from various sources in south western Burkina Faso to identify the key climate and environmental drivers that cause farmers to migrate. The survey sampling is random but reasoned and rational. The first dataset from 367 farm households contains data on farmers' perception of climate change risks or hazards, their impacts on farmland productivity and...

BACKGROUND Despite the serious consequences of rubella infection during early pregnancy, very little is known about the rubella seroprevalence in a number of African countries including Burkina Faso. METHODS Between December 2007 and March 2008 serum samples were collected from 341 pregnant women in Bobo (n = 132, urban area) and Houndé (n = 209, rural area) and were tested for rubella-specif...

OBJECTIVE To assess the impact of a decade of biennial mass administration of praziquantel on schistosomiasis in school-age children in Burkina Faso. METHODS In 2013, in a national assessment based on 22 sentinel sites, 3514 school children aged 7-11 years were checked for Schistosoma haematobium and Schistosoma mansoni infection by the examination of urine and stool samples, respectively. We...