South African medical journal = Suid-Afrikaanse tydskrif vir geneeskunde
-
Pregnant women were indirectly affected by the COVID-19 pandemic owing to heightened stress, fear of mother-to-child transmission of COVID-19 and the disruption of antenatal health services. Increased stress and lack of antenatal healthcare could result in an increase in adverse birth outcomes such as preterm birth or low birthweight. ⋯ The high prevalence of low birthweight in infants born ≥37 weeks' gestation during the pandemic could result in an increase in child stunting and poor development. Future research should measure early child development and growth in infants born during the pandemic to assess whether there is a need to intervene and provide additional support to minimise the negative effects.
-
The first vertical transmission of HIV prevention (VTP) programme in South Africa was launched in 1999 in Khayelitsha, Western Cape Province (WC). Since then, VTP guidelines have expanded in complexity and scope. ⋯ Although most women presented to care already knowing their HIV status, ART initiation was suboptimal prior to the first antenatal visit but improved over the course of pregnancy. The VT rate based on laboratory HIV-PCR testing alone underestimated HIV transmission: linked data from multiple sources suggested higher VT than programme-reported rates based on HIV-PCR testing alone.
-
Burn victims commonly experience acute kidney injury (AKI), which can lead to significant morbidity and mortality. ⋯ The study highlights the high prevalence of AKI among burn victims requiring tertiary care and its association with high mortality rates. Improving living conditions in informal settlements could help prevent burns and their complications.
-
The pattern of HIV-associated eye disease has changed with ongoing advancements in highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART). HIV-infected individuals now live longer, enabling us to observe the long-term effects of HIV and HAART on the eye. There are few recent studies on HIV-related ocular disease in sub-Saharan Africa. ⋯ With the advent of HAART, ocular manifestations of HIV are changing and the incidence of severe ocular opportunistic infections and HIV retinopathy has decreased precipitously. Although this study has shown that patients with a CD4 count <200 cells/μL are at increased risk of developing anterior ocular manifestations of HIV, including cataracts, these diseases are relatively innocuous or easily treatable. Routine ocular screening of HIV patients seems to be substantially less important now than it was in the pre-HAART era.
-
Point-of-care (POC) rapid recency testing can be used as a cost-effective tool to identify recently infected individuals (i.e. infected within the last 12 months) in near-real time, support epidemic control and identify hotspots for transmission as part of recent infection surveillance. ⋯ The Asanté HIV-1 rapid recency assay test results demonstrated high accuracy (>90%) compared with the HIV ELISA and rapid assays for determining established infection and the Maxim HIV-1 LAg avidity assay for classifying recent HIV-1 infections. The assay's sensitivity for established infections was below the World Health Organization criteria (<99%) for POC devices. The Asanté HIV-1 rapid recency assay can be used to distinguish between recent and long-term infections, but may not be considered a POC test for determining HIV infection.