Background And Objective: Children born to mothers living with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) are at risk for poor health outcomes but data characterizing these associations are limited. Our objective was to determine the impact of maternal viral suppression on growth patterns and malnutrition for infants who are HIV-exposed but uninfected (HEU).
Methods: We conducted a retrospective cohort analysis of clinical data for infants who were HEU and their mothers (September 2015 - March 2019) in Kenya.
BMC Pregnancy Childbirth
January 2024
Background: To improve future mobile health (mHealth) interventions in resource-limited settings, knowledge of participants' adherence to interactive interventions is needed, but previous studies are limited. We aimed to investigate how women in prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV (PMTCT) care in Kenya used, adhered to, and evaluated an interactive text-messaging intervention.
Methods: We conducted a cohort study nested within the WelTel PMTCT trial among 299 pregnant women living with HIV aged ≥ 18 years.
Retention in prevention of mother-to-child transmission (PMTCT) care is critical to prevent vertical HIV transmission and reduce morbidity and mortality of mother-infant pairs. We investigated whether weekly, interactive text-messaging improved 18-month postpartum retention in PMTCT care. This randomised, two-armed, parallel trial was conducted at six PMTCT clinics in western Kenya.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMedical records of pregnant and postpartum women living with HIV and their infants attending a large referral facility in Kenya from 2015 to 2019 were analyzed to identify characteristics associated with retention in care and viral suppression. Women were stratified based on the timing of HIV care enrollment: known HIV-positive (KHP; enrolled pre-pregnancy) and newly HIV-positive (NHP; enrolled during pregnancy). Associations with retention at 18 months postpartum and viral suppression (< 1000 copies/mL) were determined.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMother-to-child transmission of HIV remains a significant concern in Africa despite earlier progress. Early infant diagnosis (EID) of HIV is crucial to reduce mortality among infected infants through early treatment initiation. However, a large proportion of HIV-exposed infants are still not tested in Kenya.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFRetention in care is a major challenge for pregnant and postpartum women living with HIV (PPHIV) in the prevention of mother-to-child HIV transmission (PMTCT) continuum. However, the factors influencing retention from the perspectives of women who have become lost to follow-up (LTFU) are not well described. We explored these factors within an enhanced sub-cohort of the East Africa International Epidemiology Databases to Evaluate AIDS Consortium.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Health systems integration is becoming increasingly important as the global health community transitions from acute, disease-specific health programming to models of care built for chronic diseases, primarily designed to strengthen public-sector health systems. In many countries across sub-Saharan Africa, including Kenya, prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV (pMTCT) services are being integrated into the general maternal child health (MCH) clinics. The objective of this study was to evaluate the benefits and challenges for integration of care within a developing health system, through the lens of an evaluative framework.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Examining skilled attendance throughout pregnancy, delivery and immediate postnatal period is proxy indicator on the progress towards reduction of maternal and neonatal mortality in developing countries.
Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional baseline survey of households of mothers with at least 1 child under-5 years in 2012 within the KEMRI/CDC health and demographic surveillance system (HDSS) area in rural western Kenya.
Results: Out of 8260 mother-child pairs, data on antenatal care (ANC) in the most recent pregnancy was obtained for 89% (n = 8260); 97% (n = 7387) reported attendance.