Using WhatsApp support groups to promote responsive caregiving, caregiver mental health and child development in the COVID-19 era: A randomised controlled trial of a fully digital parenting intervention.

Objective: Digital interventions hold important potential for supporting parents when face-to-face interventions are unavailable. We assessed the feasibility and effectiveness of a digital parenting intervention in Zambia and Tanzania.

Methods: Using a randomised controlled trial, we evaluated the Sharing Stories digital parenting intervention for caregivers of children aged 9-32 months with access to a smartphone in their household.

Integrating Psychosocial Support for Children in the Education Sector in Zambia: Lessons from the Programme Implementation Process.

Literature suggests that psychosocial support programmes can improve wellbeing and mental health among learners. There is however limited documentation on methodologies and factors that shape integration of such programmes within the education sector. This qualitative study aimed to contribute towards addressing this knowledge gap by analysing the implementation process of the Mainstreaming of Psychosocial Support in the Education Sector programme in Zambia.

Physicochemical and Functional Properties of Chemically Pretreated Sweet Potato Flour.

Sweet potato () is a nutritious crop abundant in calories and bioactive compounds such as beta-carotene, ascorbic acid, polyphenols, and dietary fibre. This study investigated the effect of pretreatments on the physicochemical and functional properties of sweet potato (NSP) flour. Flour samples were prepared by randomly assigning NSP slices to two treatments (citric acid and sodium metabisulphite) at 5, 10, and 15 g/L concentration for 10 min.

Monitoring diagnosis, retention in care and viral load suppression in children testing HIV polymerase chain reaction-positive in two districts in South Africa.

Background: Retention in care is associated with improved virological control and survival among HIV-infected children. However, retention of children in HIV care remains a challenge.

Objectives: To describe, using routine laboratory HIV test data, the retention-in-care and virological outcomes of HIV-infected children aged <18 months in two districts in South Africa.

UNICEF's contribution to the adoption and implementation of option B+ for preventing mother-to-child transmission of HIV: a policy analysis.

Background: Between 2011 and 2013, global and national guidelines for preventing mother-to-child transmission (PMTCT) of HIV shifted to recommend Option B+, the provision of lifelong antiretroviral treatment for all HIV-infected pregnant women.

Methods: We aimed to analyse how Option B+ reached the policy agenda, and unpack the processes, actors and politics that explain its adoption, with a focus on examining UNICEF's contribution to these events. Analysis drew on published articles and other documentation, 30 key informants interviews with staff at UNICEF, partner organisations and government officials, and country case studies.

Near-real-time tracking of gaps in prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV in three districts of KwaZulu-Natal Province, South Africa.

Background: Identifying and addressing gaps in the prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV (PMTCT) is required if South Africa (SA) is to achieve targets for eliminating MTCT (eMTCT). Potential PMTCT gaps that increase MTCT risk include late maternal HIV diagnosis, lack of or delayed antiretroviral therapy (ART) during pregnancy and breastfeeding, and lack of effective prophylaxis for HIV-exposed infants.

Objectives: To investigate, in near real time, PMTCT gaps among HIV-infected infants in three districts of KwaZulu-Natal Province, SA.

Long term outcome of severe anaemia in Malawian children.

Background: Severe anaemia is a common, frequently fatal, condition in African children admitted to hospital, but its long term outcome is unknown. Early reports that survivors may be at risk of additional late morbidity and mortality may have significant implications for child survival in Africa. We assessed the short and long term outcome of severe anaemia in Malawian children and identified potential risk factors for death and further severe anaemia.

Surgical bacterial infections and antimicrobial susceptibility patterns at Lilongwe Central Hospital.

A cross sectional study was done between October 1999 and February 2000 to determine antimicrobial susceptibility patterns of consecutive bacterial isolates of 102 clinical samples among surgical in-patients at Lilongwe Central Hospital (LCH), Malawi. Antimicrobial susceptibility was determined using comparative disc diffusion techniques. 83 (81.