Risk of adverse birth outcomes and birth defects among women living with HIV on antiretroviral therapy and HIV-negative women in Uganda, 2015-2021.

Introduction: We assessed the risk of adverse pregnancy and birth outcomes and birth defects among women living with HIV (WLHIV) on antiretroviral therapy (ART) and HIV-negative women.

Methods: We analyzed data on live births, stillbirths, and spontaneous abortions during 2015-2021 from a hospital-based birth defects surveillance system in Kampala, Uganda. ART regimens were recorded from hospital records and maternal self-reports.

Early cranial ultrasound findings among infants with neonatal encephalopathy in Uganda: an observational study.

Background: In sub-Saharan Africa, the timing and nature of brain injury and their relation to mortality in neonatal encephalopathy (NE) are unknown. We evaluated cranial ultrasound (cUS) scans from term Ugandan infants with and without NE for evidence of brain injury.

Methods: Infants were recruited from a national referral hospital in Kampala.

Neonatal neurological examination in well newborn term Ugandan infants.

Background: Newborn neurological examinations have mostly been developed in high-resource settings with cohorts comprising predominantly white Caucasian infants. No comparison has been made with different populations.

Aims: To (i) establish the range of neurological findings in apparently well newborn term Ugandan infants, (ii) compare these findings to published data for equivalent term UK infants and (iii) correlate the neurological findings with perinatal characteristics and cranial ultrasound (cUS) imaging.

Prevalence of bloodstream pathogens is higher in neonatal encephalopathy cases vs. controls using a novel panel of real-time PCR assays.

Background: In neonatal encephalopathy (NE), infectious co-morbidity is difficult to diagnose accurately, but may increase the vulnerability of the developing brain to hypoxia-ischemia. We developed a novel panel of species-specific real-time PCR assays to identify bloodstream pathogens amongst newborns with and without NE in Uganda.

Methodology: Multiplex real-time PCR assays for important neonatal bloodstream pathogens (gram positive and gram negative bacteria, cytomegalovirus (CMV), herpes simplex virus(HSV) and P.

Pilot randomized trial of therapeutic hypothermia with serial cranial ultrasound and 18-22 month follow-up for neonatal encephalopathy in a low resource hospital setting in Uganda: study protocol.

Background: There is now convincing evidence that in industrialized countries therapeutic hypothermia for perinatal asphyxial encephalopathy increases survival with normal neurological function. However, the greatest burden of perinatal asphyxia falls in low and mid-resource settings where it is unclear whether therapeutic hypothermia is safe and effective.

Aims: Under the UCL Uganda Women's Health Initiative, a pilot randomized controlled trial in infants with perinatal asphyxia was set up in the special care baby unit in Mulago Hospital, a large public hospital with ~20,000 births in Kampala, Uganda to determine:(i) The feasibility of achieving consent, neurological assessment, randomization and whole body cooling to a core temperature 33-34°C using water bottles(ii) The temperature profile of encephalopathic infants with standard care(iii) The pattern, severity and evolution of brain tissue injury as seen on cranial ultrasound and relation with outcome(iv) The feasibility of neurodevelopmental follow-up at 18-22 months of age

Methods/design: Ethical approval was obtained from Makerere University and Mulago Hospital.