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Background: Patients with confirmed COVID-19 admitted to intensive care units have a high mortality rate, which appears to be associated with increasing age, male sex, smoking history, hypertension and diabetes mellitus. Methods: A systematic review to determine risk factors and interventions associated with mortality/survival in adult patients admitted to an intensive care unit (ICU) with confirmed COVID-19/SARS-CoV-2 infection. The protocol was registered with PROSPERO (CRD42020181185). Results: The search identified 483 abstracts between 1 January and 7 April 2020, of which nine studies were included in the final review. Only one study was of low bias. Advanced age (odds ratio [OR] 11.99, 95% confidence interval [CI] 5.35-18.62) and a history of hypertension were associated with mortality (OR 4.17, 95% CI 2.90-5.99). Sex was not associated with mortality. There was insufficient data to assess the association between other comorbidities, laboratory results or critical care risk indices and mortality. The critical care interventions of mechanical ventilation (OR 6.25, 95% CI 0.75-51.93), prone positioning during ventilation (OR 2.06, 95% CI 0.20-21.72), and extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) (OR 8.00, 95% CI 0.69, 92.33) were not associated with mortality. The sample size was insufficient to conclusively determine the association between these interventions and ICU mortality. The need for inotropes or vasopressors was associated with mortality (OR 6.36, 95% CI 1.89-21.36). Conclusion: The studies provided little granular data to inform risk stratification or prognostication of patients requiring intensive care admission. Larger collaborative research is needed to address this limitation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We assessed the impact of Prosopis invasion and clearing on the grazing capacity of heavily grazed Nama Karoo rangeland in the Beaufort West district of the Western Cape province of South Africa. Invasion (c. 15% Prosopis canopy cover) reduced grazing capacity by 34%, whereas clearing improved it by 110% within six years. Much of the loss in grazing capacity during invasion was due to the displacement of the annual grass Aristida adscensionis that dominated herbaceous forage production at the study site. Improvement in rangeland grazing capacity after Prosopis clearing was due to increases in abundance of A. adscensionis, the perennial grass Cynodon dactylon and the establishment of the perennial grasses Eragrostis obtusa and Eragrostis lehmanniana. Grazing capacity in cleared rangeland was 39% higher than in uninvaded rangeland due to a higher abundance of the annual grasses A. adscensionis, Chloris virgata, Setaria verticillata and Tragus berteronianus and the perennial grasses E. obtusa, E. lehmanniana and C. dactylon. Our results indicate that Prosopis invasion (>13% mean canopy cover) can lower grazing capacity in Nama Karoo rangeland, whereas clearing Prosopis from such rangeland can, even under heavy grazing, substantially improve grazing capacity within 4–6 years. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Community family planning programmes in South Africa arose from the controversial apartheid history of controlling the African population while encouraging the growth of European migrant population. Post-apartheid population policies shifted away from population control to aligning policies to the global agenda that placed emphasis on the link between population and development. The focus on population and development polices in post-apartheid South Africa is on social equality, justice and peace rather than controlling sections of the population. Given the shift, this paper interrogates the conceptions of contraceptive use among rural communities in KwaZulu-Natal. Our primary objective is to understand the dynamics surrounding access to and use of family planning services in peri-urban and rural areas of KwaZulu-Natal. Using focus group data, the findings of the study suggest that different social categories interact with the family planning programmes differently. How teenagers and married women perceive the value of family planning differs. Gender differences regarding the use of condoms are also evident. The paper attempts to grapple with the non-use of condoms despite the knowledge that these prevent pregnancy and provide protection from sexually-transmitted diseases. The contribution of this paper lies in its identification of socio-cultural factors and the political economy underlying the different attitudes towards contraceptive use in rural KwaZulu-Natal.