Short-term outcomes of down-referral in provision of paediatric antiretroviral therapy at Red Cross War Memorial Children's Hospital, Cape Town, South Africa: A retrospective cohort study.

Background: The large scale-up of paediatric HIV care necessitated down-referral of many children receiving antiretroviral therapy (ART) from Red Cross War Memorial Children's Hospital (RCWMCH), Cape Town, South Africa. Few published data exist on the outcomes of these children.

Objectives: To assess outcomes of children receiving ART in the first 12 months after down-referral to primary healthcare (PHC) clinics and identify determinants of successful down-referral.

Sputum induction for microbiological diagnosis of childhood pulmonary tuberculosis in a community setting.

Setting: Sputum induction has increasingly enabled microbiological confirmation of pulmonary tuberculosis (PTB) in hospitalised children, but it has not been evaluated in a community setting.

Objective: To investigate the yield, feasibility and safety of sputum induction for the diagnosis of TB in children in a primary health care facility.

Design: A prospective study in a primary health care clinic in South Africa from April 2007 to June 2009.

Low rates of hepatotoxicity in HIV-infected children on anti-retroviral therapy with and without isoniazid prophylaxis.

This study investigates the incidence of hepatotoxicity in HIV-infected children during anti-retroviral therapy (ART) and the impact of concomitant use of isoniazid preventive therapy. It is a retrospective cohort analysis of HIV-infected children who commenced ART or were followed up between September 1998 and November 2005. Alanine transferase levels were measured at baseline, at 1, 3 and 6 months and then 6 monthly thereafter.

Antiretroviral treatment for children.

Objective: To describe the response of children during their first year on highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART).

Design: Retrospective, descriptive.

Setting: Tertiary, referral hospital.

Oral trimethoprim-sulphamethoxazole levels in stable HIV-infected children.

Background: Effective treatment of Pneumocystis jiroveci pneumonia (PCP) requires therapeutic serum concentrations of 5-10 microg/ml trimethoprim (TMP); consequently intravenous trimethoprim-sulphamethoxazole (TMP-SMZ) is recommended therapy. However, oral therapy is desirable as the intravenous route is costly, time-consuming, more difficult to administer and carries a risk of needlestick injury.

Objective: To investigate whether therapeutic TMP levels for treatment of PCP can be attained with oral therapy in HIV-infected children.