Introduction
Women in sub‐Saharan Africa spend a substantial portion of their reproductive lives pregnant and/or breastfeeding (P/BF), yet they have limited options to prevent HIV during these maternal stages. In preparation for phase 3b prevention trials in P/BF women,…
Objective
We used screening data and routine clinic records for intervention arm patients in the Simplified Algorithm for Treatment Eligibility (SLATE) trials to describe the prevalence of tuberculosis (TB) symptoms, diagnosis and treatment among people living with HIV…
Some observational data suggest that the progestogen injectable contraceptive depot medroxyprogesterone acetate (DMPA) may increase a woman’s risk of HIV acquisition but a randomized clinical trial did not find a statistically significant…
Tuberculosis (TB) is the leading infectious cause of death among people living with HIV, causing one third of AIDS-related deaths globally. The concerning number of missing TB cases, ongoing high TB mortality, slow reduction in TB incidence, and limited uptake of TB preventive treatment among…
Background
HIV and TB programs have rapidly scaled-up over the past decade in Sub-Saharan Africa and uninterrupted supplies of those medicines are critical to their success. However, estimates of stock-outs are largely unknown. This survey aimed to estimate the extent of…
Background
Retreatment tuberculosis (TB) disease is common in high-prevalence settings. The risk of repeated episodes of recurrent TB is unknown. We calculated the rate of recurrent TB per subsequent episode by matching individual treatment episodes over a period of 13…
Background:
Why safer conception services are important Many HIV-positive individuals are adults of reproductive age who desire a child or children, now or in the future.[1] A significant proportion of these individuals have partners who are currently HIV uninfected.[2,…
What will happen to HIV and TB under COVID-19? Our editor-in-chief Mia Malan spoke to an excellent panel to answer this question.
Background: Chronic respiratory illnesses and respiratory infections are common in HIV-positive populations. It seems reasonable that HIV-positive people experience more respiratory symptoms, such as coughing and breathlessness, than those who are HIV-negative.
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Men living with HIV (MLHIV) have a high burden of human papillomavirus (HPV)-related cancer. Understanding serological dynamics of HPV in men can guide decisions on introducing HPV vaccination and monitoring impact. We determined HPV seroprevalence and evaluated factors…
Coronaviruses are important causes of infection in both humans and animals. While in the past they were considered to be relatively harmless respiratory pathogens, outbreaks of infection with severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), Middle East respiratory syndrome, and currently SARS-CoV-2,…
Background: Great strides have been made in decreasing paediatric human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infections, especially in sub-Saharan Africa. In South Africa, new paediatric HIV infections decreased by 84% between 2009 and 2015. This achievement is a result of a strong…
BACKGROUND: The Sub-Saharan Africa region still remains the epicentre of the global HIV/AIDS epidemic. With regards to new paediatric HIV infections, almost 90% of new HIV infections are among children (aged 0-14 years), largely through mother to child transmission. Male Partner…
With only a year until 2020 – and the deadline to reach the 90-90-90 targets – South Africa is dangerously off track. Currently 7.1 million people are living with HIV in the country. New HIV infections remain high, according to the Thembisa model1 at 275 000 in 2017, higher than the 231 000…
BACKGROUND: Subclinical tuberculosis is an asymptomatic disease phase with important relevance to persons living with HIV. We describe the prevalence, clinical characteristics, and risk of mortality for HIV-infected adults with subclinical tuberculosis.
METHODS…
Contraceptive adherence during acute and recent HIV-1 infection is important to maternal and child health given the elevated risk of vertical HIV-1 transmission and additional complications of pregnancy. Injectable contraception (IC) is the most common non-barrier modern contraception method…
There is evidence of increasing levels of pretreatment HIV drug resistance (PDR) in Southern Africa. We used data from two large population-based HIV surveillance studies to estimate prevalence of PDR in KwaZulu-Natal, the province with the highest HIV prevalence in South Africa. Sanger…
BACKGROUND: Psychosocial risks during pregnancy impact maternal health in resource-limited settings, and HIV-positive women often bear a heavy burden of these factors. This study sought to use network modeling to characterize co-occurring psychosocial risks to maternal and child…
BACKGROUND: Xpert MTB/RIF, the most widely used automated nucleic acid amplification test for tuberculosis, is available in more than 130 countries. Although diagnostic accuracy is well documented, anticipated improvements in patient outcomes have not been clearly identified. We…
OBJECTIVES: HIV infection has been associated with an impaired lung function in high-income countries, but the association between HIV infection and pulmonary function in Sub-Saharan Africa remains unclear. This study aims to investigate the relation between HIV infection and…
Background: Since 2010, the World Health Organization recommends lifelong antiretroviral treatment for all women living with HIV, and exclusive breastfeeding for six-months followed by breastfeeding until 24-months for all HIV positive mothers. Nevertheless, many mothers living…
PURPOSE: Latent modelling was used to identify trajectories of depressive symptoms among low-income perinatal women in South Africa. Predictors of trajectories and the association of trajectories with child outcomes were assessed.
METHODS: This is a…
OBJECTIVES: Vaginal dysbiosis and STIs are important drivers of the HIV epidemic and reproductive complications. These conditions remain prevalent, partly because most cases are asymptomatic. We have shown that inflammatory cytokines interleukin (IL)-1alpha, IL-1beta and…
Objectives: One of the factors linked to South Africa's relatively high maternal mortality ratio is late utilization of antenatal care (ANC). Early utilization is especially important in South Africa due to the high HIV prevalence amongst pregnant women. This study examined the…
Objectives: The objective of this study was to investigate the causes and covariates of late antenatal care access in South Africa.
Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted, interviewing 221 women at four public-sector labour wards in Cape Town,…
BACKGROUND: Increased demand for healthcare services in countries experiencing high HIV disease burden and often coupled with a shortage of health workers, has necessitated task shifting from professional health workers to Lay Health Workers (LHWs) in order to improve healthcare…
Background: Drug resistance is a challenge for the global control of tuberculosis. We examined mortality in patients with tuberculosis from high-burden countries, according to concordance or discordance of results from drug susceptibility testing done locally and in a reference…
Background: Little up-to-date information is available about the costs of providing drug-susceptible tuberculosis (DS-TB) treatment to paediatric patients in South Africa (SA), nor have actual costs incurred at clinics been compared with costs expected from guidelines.
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