This literature review investigated gender differentials in HIV/AIDS in Cameroon and to which extent gender was taken into account in the country’s current policy on HIV/AIDS. The review found that in Cameroon women were at increased risk of being infected with HIV/AIDS compared to men and that apart from biological vulnerability, socio-cultural as well as economic factors accounted for those differences. In addition, the review found that at the policy level, the government has drawn up plans to reduce the high prevalence of HIV/AIDS among women. However, although the current policy acknowledged the need for tackling gender differentials in HIV/AIDS transmission; little has been done at the level of implementation. The current policy needs to be implemented in a more effective manner and a multisectorial approach should be explored in order to curb the current trend of the feminization of HIV/AIDS in Cameroon.

This study has reviewed the role of religion on child mortality in subSaharan Africa using searches of electronic Databases. The review found only one study, which investigated the relationship between religion and child mortality in subSaharan Africa using religion as the “main” independent variable. In addition the review identified several areas (definition of religion, measurement and types of studies), which should be further addressed towards a better understanding of the role of religion on child health outcomes, especially child mortality.

Health inequalities are no longer an issue only for developed countries. In recent years there is agreement that all countries present health inequalities regardless of their level of wealth. In low-income countries and especially in sub-Saharan Africa where the majority of the poor people live as well as their children, research on child health inequalities is still scarce. This review of evidence suggests that if Mozambique is to achieve the millennium development goals (MDGs) by 2015 further research on important determinants of disparities in child mortality is urgently needed.

Child mortality has declined in many low-income countries. However, in Sub-Saharan Africa, childhood mortality is still a major public health problem, which is worsening with some countries experiencing new increases in mortality due to HIV/AIDS. This lack of success in reducing child mortality is not only due to HIV/AIDS, but also to high numbers of deaths in other causes of death such as diarrhoea, pneumonia and neonatal causes, for which there are effective curative and preventative interventions. One problem seems to be in the access, coverage and implementation of these interventions, particularly among the poorer sections of the population. A related problem is the interventions that sometimes, when implemented, take place in environments in which they can only be expected to have limited effects. On the other hand in many developed countries infant and child mortality declined as social and economic changes of modernisation took place. However, the mechanisms that did bring about the decline are still not well understood. This paper discuss whether analyses of the historical decline of mortality in industrialised countries could contribute to knowledge in reducing the high child mortality in poor countries today, based on studies of child mortality in different social contexts in Mozambique 1973-1997 and Stockholm 1878-1925.

In the past twenty years or so, the study of the determinants of child survival in low-income countries has been based on demographic conceptual frameworks. The most widely known has been the Mosley and Chen framework (1). In that framework, the key concept was a set of proximate determinants, or intermediate variables, that directly influence the risk of morbidity and mortality. It assumes that all the more distal social and economic determinants must operate through these variables to affect child survival. However the Mosley and Chen framework has failed to directly incorporate the complex social dimension of health.The objective of this paper is to link more distal causes for child health by describing a framework that conceptualises the relation between distal and proximal factors and how they operate to cause inequalities in child mortality within sub-Saharan Africa. Additionally the framework defines policy entry points needing support of empirical evidence. Furthermore the paper acknowledges that the social context plays an important role for inequalities in children’s chances of survival. However, the relative importance of the mechanisms presented in the proposed framework may vary among the different countries of sub-Saharan Africa, thus researchers should empirically adapt the framework to their specific context.