Lack of treatment of South Africa's infants with HIV.

摘要

According to research from the University of Witwatersrand's Maternal, Adolescent, and Child Health unit (MatCH) many infants in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, infected with HIV have not been treated with antiretroviral drugs. This troubling finding was presented at the Orphaned and Vulnerable Children in Africa Conference held in Johannesburg (Oct 31-Nov 3). The researchers looked at ten hospitals near Durban from January, 2007, to June, 2010. Three of the hospitals had no record of treating children younger than 1 year, and a further four hospitals had each treated fewer than 26 children inthisage group. Thatthe district of eThekwini, which includes Durban, has about 93000 children infected with HIV highlights the desperate situation. Ravikanthi Rapiti, one of the MatCH investigators, said that few "efforts have been made to put children on [antiretroviral drugs] and this is concerning when we have such a large number of children who require treatment".