Early infant diagnosis of HIV and fast initiation of anti-retroviral therapy in a rural African setting: how well are we doing?

Background: In South Africa, current estimates indicate that 1% of infants will be HIV PCR-positive by 2 months of age. WHO recommends early infant diagnosis (EID) and immediate initiation of antiretroviral therapy (ART) in infants who are diagnosed with HIV infection within the first year of life.

Aims: To investigate rates of EID and subsequent ART initiation in infants attending the Primary Health Care (PHC) clinics which fed Mseleni Hospital during 2012.

Endovascular repair of the aorta and aortic arch arteries damaged during mediastinoscopy.

Despite advances in imaging techniques, mediastinoscopy remains an important tool for the staging of the mediastinum in non-small cell lung cancer and diagnosing lymphoma with mediastinal adenopathy. Injury to the arterial system during mediastinoscopy is infrequent but a potentially fatal complication. We report three cases of injury to the aorta and supra-aortic arteries sustained during mediastinoscopy.