Eur J Contracept Reprod Health Care
December 2009
Background: Long-acting reversible contraceptives (LARCs) and sterilisation are the most cost-effective methods of contraception but are rarely used in sub-Saharan Africa partly due to limited access.
Study Design: HIV-positive pregnant women attending two urban clinics in Rwanda were followed prospectively in a perinatal HIV transmission cohort study. Women attending one clinic were referred to public family planning (FP) services for all contraceptive methods (Site A) and women attending the other clinic (Site B) were offered implants and intrauterine devices (IUDs) on-site.
Objective: To assess the 9-month HIV-free survival of children with two strategies to prevent HIV mother-to-child transmission.
Design: Nonrandomized interventional cohort study.
Setting: Four public health centres in Rwanda.
Introduction: All infants born to HIV-positive mothers have maternal HIV antibodies, sometimes persistent for 18 months. When Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) is not available, August 2006 World Health Organization (WHO) recommendations suggest that clinical criteria may be used for starting antiretroviral treatment (ART) in HIV seropositive children <18 months. Predictors are at least two out of sepsis, severe pneumonia and thrush, or any stage 4 defining clinical finding according to the WHO staging system.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIn Western Africa, hepatitis B virus (HBV) genotype E predominates throughout a vast crescent spanning from Senegal to Namibia and at least to the Central African Republic to the East. Although from most of the eastern parts of sub-Saharan Africa only limited sets of strains have been characterized, these belong predominantly to genotype A. To study how far the genotype E crescent extends to the East, a larger number of HBV strains from Rwanda were analyzed.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjectives: To evaluate the immune reconstitution in HIV-1-infected children in whom highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) controlled viral replication and to assess the existence of a relation between the magnitude of this restoration and age.
Methods: All HIV-1-infected children in whom a new HAART decreased plasma viral load below 400 copies/ml after 3 months of therapy were prospectively enrolled in a study of their immune reconstitution. Viral load, lymphocyte phenotyping, determination of CD4+ and CD8+ T cell receptor repertoires and proliferative responses to mitogens and recall antigens were assessed every 3 months during 1 year.