Village Delivery Turns Deadly: How Home Births in Gokwe Are Fueling New HIV Infections

By Michael Gwarisa in Gokwe South When Sister Farisai Mlambo, the nurse in charge at Katema Clinic in rural Gokwe South, spoke in an interview with HealthTimes on the sidelines of a Prevention of Mother-to-Child Transmission (PMTCT) dialogue, she revealed a chilling case that has unsettled health workers and traditional leaders in the area. “We had an unusual case here, a baby delivered to HIV-negative parents tested HIV positive. Upon further investigation, we discovered that the delivery had been conducted in the village by a traditional birth attendant. The baby…

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Study for a child-friendly HIV treatment begins in Uganda

THE first patients have been enrolled in a potentially ground-breaking trial in Uganda for a capsule of granules containing four HIV drugs that can be easily administered to young children. Known as the ‘4-in-1,’ this sweet-tasting ‘fixed-dose combination’ could constitute a quantum leap in care for kids living with HIV, replacing a generation of sub-optimal HIV treatments that are difficult to give to children, or no longer recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO). The phase I/II study, called LOLIPOP, will provide clinical data on the 4-in-1 in infants and…

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