NEW CONCERNS ABOUT CHILDREN BORN TO HIV INFECTED MOTHERS.






According to a new study, children born to HIV infected mothers but are not infected, have very high risks of dying, often within the first two years of life. The higher risks of deaths did not appear to change after 2002 when global implementation of intiretroviral therapy for all HIV positive pregnant women became a policy. Although these children have escaped being infected by their mothers during birth, some portion of them are more susceptible to illnesses and deaths. A research team lead by Alana Brennan conducted a meta-analysis for more than 20 studies on the mortality of HIV-exposed children. Nearly all of these studies showed a higher risk of mortality among children born to infected mothers than those born to mothers who are not infected. The reason for this is unknown, but then some possibilities including biological factors were listed. They include; immune disfunction in the child because of an abnormality passed on by an infected mother, maternal health that affects the quality of infant care, it could be as a result of side effects of the medicines given to the infected mother, increased pre-term or low birth weight outcome for positive women, another reason can also be that infected mothers may be sicker or more likely to be deceased along with their infected husbands and therefore may be less able to provide care to the baby.
So far there has been no research on non-biological factors such as social and environmental factors.
In conclusion, the research team wrote in a letter accompanying their research that these children exposed to HIV do not appear to be having equivalent health outcome compared to the non-exposed children. They also stated that nothing can be done for these children to survive into adulthood.(360words)
SARAH ACHOK

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