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The article reviews several books including "Management and Organisations in Social Work," by Trish Hafford-Letchfield, "Talking about Adoption to Your Adopted Child," by Marjorie Morrison, and "Critical Practice in Social Work," edited by R. Adams, L. Dominelli, and M. Payne.

SUMMARY: T cell cytokine profiles and specific serum antibody levels in five groups of BALB/c mice immunized with saline alone, viable Fusobacterium nucleatum ATCC 25586, viable Porphyromonas gingivalis ATCC 33277, F. nucleatum followed by P. gingivalis and P. gingivalis followed by F. nucleatum were determined. Splenic CD4 and CD8 cells were examined for intracytoplasmic interleukin (IL)-4, interferon (IFN)-gamma and IL-10 by dual colour flow cytometry and the levels of serum anti-F. nucleatum and anti-P. gingivalis antibodies determined by an ELISA. Both Th1 and Th2 responses were demonstrated by all groups, and while there were slightly lower percentages of cytokine positive T cells in mice injected with F. nucleatum alone compared with the other groups immunized with bacteria, F. nucleatum had no effect on the T cell production of cytokines induced by P. gingivalis in the two groups immunized with both organisms. However, the percentages of cytokine positive CD8 cells were generally significantly higher than those of the CD4 cells. Mice immunized with F. nucleatum alone had high levels of serum anti-F. nucleatum antibodies with very low levels of P. gingivalis antibodies, whereas mice injected with P. gingivalis alone produced anti-P. gingivalis antibodies predominantly. Although the levels of anti-F. nucleatum antibodies in mice injected with F. nucleatum followed by P. gingivalis were the same as in mice immunized with F. nucleatum alone, antibody levels to P. gingivalis were very low. In contrast, mice injected with P. gingivalis followed by F. nucleatum produced equal levels of both anti-P. gingivalis and anti-F. nucleatum antibodies, although at lower levels than the other three groups immunized with bacteria, respectively. Anti-Actinobacillus actinomycetemcomitans , Bacteroides forsythus and Prevotella intermedia serum antibody levels were also determined and found to be negligible. In conclusion, F. nucleatum immunization does not affect the splenic... [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: There exist multiple regulatory layers for point-of-care (POC) testing to be implemented within Australia. This qualitative analysis sought to understand the pre-market barriers and facilitators to scale-up infectious diseases POC testing in primary care settings at the national level., Methods: Key informant interviews were undertaken with people (n = 30) working in high- level positions relevant to infectious diseases POC testing in Australia. Participants were recruited from federal and state health departments, industry, and nongovernment national peak bodies. The Unitaid scalability framework informed this analysis to understand barriers and enablers to creating access conditions and establishing country readiness for market access of POC tests., Results: Participants identified regulatory frameworks as significant barriers to market access. National strategies and advocacy were viewed as potential enablers to establishing country readiness. It was recommended that the national system for universal health care should fund infectious disease POC tests to ensure financial sustainability, though the existing pathology infrastructure was regarded as a likely inhibitor., Conclusions: Current regulatory frameworks inhibit market access for infectious disease POC testing devices for use in the primary care setting. National advocacy is urgently needed to gain government support and align national policies with regulatory frameworks., Competing Interests: Declarations Ethics approval and consent to participate Ethics approvals were obtained from: University of New South Wales Human Research Ethics Committee (HC200472), and Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies Research Ethics Committee (EO209-20201002). The Participant Information Statement was attached to the initial email invitation and reviewed with participants prior to interview commencement. Informed verbal consent was obtained from all participants prior to commencement of interviews. Consent for publication Consent for publication was included in the Participant Information Statement. All participants gave informed consent to participate prior to interview commencement; consent included consent to publish quotes from de-identified transcripts. Additionally, all participants whose quotes were selected for use within this manuscript were given the opportunity to approve/deny inclusion of excerpts via email (none rejected). Competing interests LL, TLA, SL, KD, RM, and CT do not have any competing interests relevant to this study. AK-H has received speaker fees from Cepheid. RG leads two independent grants from National Health and Medical Research Council and Australian Research Council which receive funding and in-kind from Cepheid., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

Language is important in health policy development. Policy changes in Australia to increase cervical screening offers a timely case example to explore the function of inclusive language in health policy. Gender and sexuality diverse people with a cervix have been largely invisible within health promotion programs, which has led to reduced awareness of, and access to, cervical screening. Twenty-eight semi-structured interviews were conducted with 29 key informants between April and October 2022 about the role of inclusive language in cervical screening policy, promotion, and delivery in the context of a national program to promote cervical screening. Three themes were identified from what key informants believed to be the role of inclusive language: (1) the common goal of inclusive language as policy advocacy for broader inclusivity; (2) the inevitable partiality of inclusive language in policy as an opportunity to start conversation; and (3) policy as a bridge between essential but diffuse components of the health sector with multidirectional influences. Inclusive language was seen to operationalise equity in health policy within the broader aim of eliminating cervical cancer among under-screened populations.

Sociological scholarship has begun to explore imaginaries of family and reproduction, yet less work has focused on the emerging social form of the donor family. In this article, we consider the embodied sociotechnical imaginaries of donor-conceived people, exploring their reflections, judgements, hopes, and predictions regarding donor conception. Combining reflexive thematic analysis of free-text survey responses from sperm donor-conceived ( n  = 90) and egg donor-conceived ( n  = 1) and data from semi-structured interviews with sperm donor-conceived people ( n  = 28), conceived in both clinical and non-clinical contexts in Australia, we analyse donor-conceived people's imaginings of family, identity, and the practice of donor conception in the digital age. Our analysis centres the donor-conceived body that imagines, and in doing so, highlights the entanglements of reproductive and digital technologies, and the humans and institutions that drive their uptake. We argue that leveraging the imaginative and political capacities of donor-conceived people is a productive approach that illuminates possible (re)directions of the assisted reproduction industry as well as illustrating potential policy futures., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (© 2024 Newton, Drysdale and Newman.)

Participant recruitment for qualitative research often offers incentives (honoraria; financial compensation) to increase participation and to recognise lived expertise and time involved in research. While not necessarily a new concern for survey and other quantitative based research, 'spam', 'bot', and other inauthentic forms of research participation has rarely been an apparent issue for qualitative research, given it often involves levels of interaction with potential participants prior to the conduct of in-depth interviews and other methods of data generation. This is no longer the case. A troubling new occurrence has meant that recruitment calls for qualitative research with incentives on public-facing social media have attracted 'imposter' expressions of interest and research participation. In this commentary, we explore this challenge that goes beyond research integrity. In particular, we consider the risks of employing strategies to screen for legitimate participants and the importance of building trust and maintaining community engagement.

In Australia, the response to HIV, hepatitis C and hepatitis B has largely been through the constructed category of 'blood borne viruses' which treats these viruses as an interconnected set of conditions with respect to their mode of transmission. In this paper, we explore how people understand their viral infection, and compare the logics underpinning these different understandings. In-depth interviews were conducted with 61 participants who were either living with a blood borne virus or were the family members of people living with them. Our analysis reveals that the viral infection was often described as 'just a condition that needs to be managed', albeit in potentially exhausting ways. This understanding hinged upon a biomedical logic in which viral invasion was seen as causing illness and in turn necessitating biomedical intervention. In contrast, some participants with hepatitis B presented their infection as a condition unintelligible through Western biomedical logics, defined instead by symptomology - in terms of 'liver disease', and/or 'liver inflammation'. This focus on symptomology calls into question the soundness of prevention and management responses to hepatitis B based in biomedical logics and reveals the extent to which living with a virus involves multiple, sometimes incompatible, cultural logics. The different logics underpinning HIV, hepatitis C and hepatitis B reveal shortcomings of framing these viruses together as a coherent single construct.

In recognition of the broader relational aspects of viral infections, family support is considered important when someone is diagnosed with a blood-borne virus (BBV), such as HIV, hepatitis C (HCV) and hepatitis B (HBV). However, families' own support needs are often not a priority in service provision within the BBV sector. In this article, we draw on qualitative interviews with 20 key informants working in various professional capacities in health, social policy, care and advocacy sectors in Australia, and explore their experiences and perspectives on family inclusivity in their services. Overall, key informants acknowledged the diversity of what constitutes family, and consistently viewed family engagement as beneficial to both diagnosed individuals and the wider familial networks affected by a diagnosis. However, prioritising individual care in support services presented barriers to engaging families, which are further complicated by the role of stigma in shaping the social realities of living with a BBV. Increasing understanding in service provision settings that serodiscordance can be a family experience has the potential to widen this analytic lens to consider the support needs of families in their own right.

Introduction: Opioid agonist treatment (OAT) is associated with a reduced likelihood of hepatitis C incidence, nonfatal overdose, and (re)incarceration among people who inject drugs (PWID), yet factors underpinning decisions to access OAT in prison and postrelease are not well understood. The aim of the qualitative study was to explore the perspectives of OAT access while in prison among PWID recently released from prison in Australia., Methods: Eligible participants enrolled in the SuperMix cohort (n = 1303) were invited to take part in a semi-structured interview in Victoria, Australia. Inclusion criteria were informed consent, aged ≥18 years, history of injection drug use, incarcerated for ≥3 months, and released from custody <12 months. The study team analysed data via a candidacy framework to account for macro-structural influences., Results: Among 48 participants (33 male; ten Aboriginal), most injected drugs in the prior month (n = 41) with heroin the most frequently injected (n = 33) and nearly half (n = 23) were currently on OAT (primarily methadone). Most participants described the navigation and permeability of OAT services in prison as convoluted. If not on OAT pre-entry, prison policies often restricted access, leaving participants to withdraw in cells. In turn, some participants commenced OAT postrelease to ensure OAT continuity of care if reincarcerated. Other participants who experienced delayed access to OAT in prison stated no need to initiate while in prison or postrelease as they were now "clean". Last, implementation of OAT delivery in prison (e.g., lack of confidentiality) frequently led to changes in OAT type to avoid peer violence (pressure to divert OAT)., Conclusion: Findings draw attention to simplistic notions of OAT accessibility in prisons, illuminating how structural determinants influence choice in PWID decision-making. Suboptimal access and acceptability of OAT delivery in prisons will continue to place PWID at risk of harm postrelease (e.g., overdose)., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest ADM, SS, KD, and EB have nothing to declare. LL has received speaker fees from AbbVie. PH has received investigator-initiated research funding from Gilead Sciences and AbbVie. PD is funded by the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Senior Research Fellowship and has received investigator-driven research from Gilead Sciences, and has served as an unpaid member of an Advisory Board for an intranasal naloxone product. MS is the recipient of a NHMRC Senior Research Fellowship (Commonwealth Government) and has received investigator-initiated funding from Gilead Sciences, AbbVie and Bristol Myers Squibb. CT has received speaker fees from Abbvie and Gilead and grant funding from Merck., (Copyright © 2023 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

A virus has a social history. In the case of the hepatitis C virus (HCV) and HIV, this history is one involving stigma and discrimination, advocacy and activism, and recent dramatic improvements in treatment. These social histories influence the experience of people who live with the viruses, and those who work with them. One aspect of this is the impact of social changes on the biographical disruption and integration brought about by illness. Healthcare practitioners who see significant improvements in the effectiveness of treatment for a condition over the course of their professional life will incorporate those changes into their own history and their relationship to that condition.This article is based on a study of the experiences of serodiscordance, or mixed infection status, in families living with HIV and two types of viral hepatitis, hepatitis B and hepatitis C. The article explores the perspectives of healthcare workers who work with people affected by these viruses, who were asked about their experiences in working with serodiscordance in families. Interviews revealed that changing social meanings given to bloodborne viruses, and changes to treatment over time, held a significant place in the accounts that service providers gave of their work. In asking them to describe their work with HIV and HCV, we were also asking about work that has been shaped by changing patterns and sources of stigma, and recently reshaped by changes in treatment and outcomes. While typically the experiences of patients and their families are used to investigate the social histories of diagnosis and stigma, the professional perspectives and life stories of the service providers who work with them are also revealing. We heard accounts in which histories as well as current regimes were prominent, illuminated further by insights from the sociology of health on narrative and biographical disruption., Competing Interests: Competing interests: None declared., (© Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2023. No commercial re-use. See rights and permissions. Published by BMJ.)

Relationship agreements are important for HIV prevention among gay and bisexual men (GBM) in relationships, with research earlier in the HIV epidemic often finding that agreements specified monogamy or condom use with casual partners. There is evidence that HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) has shifted sexual practices among some men in relationships, such as allowing condomless sex with casual partners, but there has been little attention paid to relationship agreements among GBM who use PrEP. In this paper, we analyzed national, Australian, cross-sectional data from an online survey completed by non-HIV-positive GBM in 2021 (N = 1,185). Using logistic regression, we identified demographic characteristics, sexual practices and the types of relationship agreement that were associated with PrEP use among GBM in relationships. Using Pearson's chi-squared tests, we explored whether PrEP users in relationships reported similar sexual practices to PrEP users not in relationships. PrEP use among GBM in relationships was independently associated with older age, identifying as gay, being in a non-monogamous relationship, having a spoken (explicit) relationship agreement, having a primary HIV-negative partner taking PrEP or a primary partner living with HIV, reporting recent condomless casual sex, reporting an STI diagnosis in the past year, and knowing at least one other PrEP user. We found that PrEP users in relationships had similar sexual practices to PrEP users not in relationships. GBM in relationships who have casual sex and who meet PrEP suitability criteria may be good candidates for PrEP. Our findings suggest that explicit relationship agreements remain important for HIV prevention, and they support PrEP use among GBM in relationships., (© 2022. The Author(s).)

Ageing with a chronic hepatitis B (HBV) or hepatitis C (HCV) infection is an emerging public health priority. For people living with chronic viral hepatitis, their disease progression into old age is both underpinned by their existing blood borne virus and the potential emergence of other infectious and non-infectious conditions. These twinned pathways bring additional challenges to the care and support for people as they near end of life. This scoping review sought to examine what is known about the experiences of the end-of-life phase of an increasing population ageing with HBV and HCV in studies conducted in high-income settings and published in peer reviewed literature (2010-2021). In interpreting this literature, we found that challenges in determining the end-of life phase for people with lived experience of HBV or HCV are exacerbated by the conflation of aetiologies into a singular diagnosis of end-stage liver disease. Studies overwhelmingly reported the clinical aspects of end-of-life care (i.e. prognosis assessment and symptom management) with less attention paid to educative aspects (i.e. advance care directives and surrogate decision makers, discussion of treatment options and determining goals of care). Psychosocial interventions (i.e. quality of life beyond symptom management, including emotional/spiritual support and family and bereavement support) received limited attention in the literature, though there was some recognition that psychosocial interventions should be part of end-of-life care provision. Given the focus on the prominent disease presentation of liver cirrhosis and/or end-stage liver disease, the social and cultural dimensions of these infections have received less attention in the literature on end-of-life in the context of chronic viral hepatitis., (© 2022 The Authors. Health and Social Care in the Community published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)

Trans and gender diverse people are globally recognised as being under-served in clinical services, with significant implications for their health. During a national reorientation of the Australian cervical screening programme - from Papanicolaou smears to human papillomavirus screening - we conducted interviews with 12 key informants in cancer policy, sexual and reproductive health and trans health advocacy to understand how trans people's needs and experiences were being accounted for and addressed in health policy and practice. Themes captured the complexities of increasing visibility for trans people, including men and non-binary people with a cervix. These complexities reflect the extensive system and cultural change required in asking policymakers and practitioners to think differently about who is at risk of a disease typically associated with cisgender women. Informants drew on the language of trauma to explain the resistance many trans people feel when engaging with clinical services, particularly relating to sexual and reproductive health. In doing so, they argued for increasing resources and processes to elicit trans people's willingness to put their trust in such services. Thinking critically about the relationship between the politics of trans visibilities, trauma and trust can support effective and inclusive approaches to transgender health.