Zimbabwe: Alarming Results From Infection Study. 27/2/10
About 50% of children and teenagers admitted to hospitals in Zimbabwe are HIV positive.
By Nqobani Ndlovu
27 February 2010
Bulawayo — About 50% of children and teenagers admitted to hospitals in Zimbabwe are HIV positive, results of a research by a British institution have revealed. The study whose results were released recently was conducted by the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) last month, Sally Hall, the media manager of the LSHTM told Standardhealth.
Hall was responding to questions about the research which she said was led by Rashida Ferrand, a lecturer in Clinical Epidemiology at LSHTM.
"Research from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) has shown that almost 50% of children and young adults admitted to hospitals in Zimbabwe were HIV positive," she said.
"The patients, aged between 10 and 18 years of age, had gone to hospital with various complaints unrelated to HIV and were tested as part of the study.
"This demonstrates the growing crisis of HIV infection acquired at birth in children in the developing world.
"They were then given routine investigations, including HIV testing.
"Nearly half of participants were HIV-positive. . . they were also more likely to have lost their mother to HIV, or to have an HIV-infected mother than HIV-negative adolescents."
About 1.8 million Zimbabweans are said to be living positively with HIV, according to United Nations estimates.
Out of the 1.8 million HIV-positive people, about 16 000 of them are on anti-retroviral drugs in Zimbabwe, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO).
Many people are however reportedly dying before they begin accessing the drugs because of a shortage of CD4 count machines.
The shortage of the equipment that determines when one can access the ARVs is slowing down government ARV rollout efforts and the fight against HIV/Aids, according to the National Aids Council.
In Bulawayo for example, there are only two CD4 count machines -- a situation that has resulted in many patients failing to access the life-prolonging treatment.