Article Sidebar
Article Details
While African Health Sciences has been freely accessible online there have been questions on whether it is Open Access or not. We wish to clearly state that indeed African Health Sciences is Open Access. There are key issues regarding Open Access needing clarification for avoidance of doubt:
- 1. Henceforth, papers in African Health Sciences will be published under the CC BY (Creative Commons Attribution License) 4.0 International. See details on https://creativecomons.org/)
- 2. The copyright owners or the authors grant the 3rd party (perpetually and in advance) the right to disseminate, reproduce, or use the research papers in part or in full, format/medium as long as:
- No substantive errors are introduced in the process
- Attribution of authorship and correct citation details are given
- The referencing details are not changed.
Should the papers be reproduced in part, this must be clearly stated.
- 3. The papers will be freely and universally accessible online in an easily readable format such as XML in at least one widely recognized open access repository such as PUBMED CENTRAL.
B. ABRIDGED LICENCE AGREEMENT BETWEEN AUTHORS AND African Health Sciences
I submitted my manuscript to African Health Sciences and would like to affirm that:
1.0 I am authorized by my co-authors to enter into these arrangements.
2.0 I guarantee, on behalf of self and co-authors:
- That the paper is original, and has not been published in any other peer-reviewed journal; nor is it under consideration by other journal (s). It does not infringe existing copyright or any other person’s rights
- That we are/I am the sole author(s) of the paper and with authority to enter into this agreement. My granting rights to African Health Sciences is not in breach of any other obligation
- That the paper contains nothing unlawful, or libelous. Nor anything that would constitute a breach of contract, confidence or commitment given to secrecy, if published
- That I/we have taken care to ensure the integrity of the article.
3.0 I and all co-authors, agree that the paper, if accepted for publication, shall be licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0. (see https://creativecommons.org/)
Main Article Content
Condom and sexual abstinence talk in the Malawi National Assembly
Abstract
Objective: To determine perceptions of Members of Parliament in Malawi towards condoms.
Methods: A qualitative study utilising parliamentary Hansards to describe the discussions about condoms and abstinence in the National Assembly 1999-2004. Content and discourse analyses were used.
Results: In general, Members of Parliament had negative attitudes towards extra- and/or pre-marital sexual intercourse, condom promotion and use. Sexual abstinence amongst non-married persons was preferred as opposed to condom use. Condom use was not perceived as an effective way of controlling the spread of HIV. Some MPs though called for a change in mind-set so as to allow use of condoms in prisons, in order to prevent transmission of infection from prisoners to the general community once the prisoners were released.
Conclusion: This study confirms that health interventions such as condoms are not perceived neutrally and may be construed as the enemy of society.
African Health Sciences Vol. 6(1) 2006: 21- 26
