Study in JAMA Explains Why HIV-Exposed Infants Are More Prone to Other Life-Threatening Illnesses
Posted by
Dr. Jeffrey Safrit
Los Angeles, California
February 10, 2011
A new study – funded in part by the Foundation – has just published results on additional potential risks to HIV-exposed infants in Africa.
Even if those infants remain HIV-free, they are more susceptible to a host of other serious illnesses, and thus more likely to die in their first year of life without timely vaccinations.
The study was published yesterday in the prestigious Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), and one of its authors, Dr. Anneke Hesseling, was a recipient of the Foundation’s International Leadership Award (ILA).
Dr. Hesseling (right) at the 2007 International Leadership
Award ceremony in South Africa, with Drs. Purnima
Madhivanan (center) and Assan Jaye (left) (Photo: EGPAF)
Dr. Hesseling, a professor at Stellenbosch University in South Africa, received the ILA in 2007. The three-year grant, made possible by Jewelers for Children (JFC), helped fund the research conducted in South Africa for this study.
The study followed 109 mothers at a community health center in Khayelitsha, a large township outside of Cape Town. Khayelitsha has a very high HIV prevalence, with as many as 1 in 3 pregnant women who attend antenatal clinics testing positive for HIV.
The study found that infants of these mothers who are exposed to HIV are born with fewer important antibodies, which protect from diseases such as Haemophilus Influenzae type b (Hib), whooping cough, tetanus, and Hepatitis B.
Other studies have shown that in Africa, babies who have been exposed to HIV – but who remain HIV-negative – are at greater risk of dying from these illnesses in the first few months after birth. This new research showing lower levels of certain antibodies in these infants might provide an answer to why this occurs.
The authors indicated that larger studies are needed to determine the correlation between decreased antibodies and infants becoming infected and dying of these diseases.
A mother and her baby in South Africa
(Photo: EGPAF/Jon Hrusa)
A hopeful sign from the study showed infants’ antibodies could be boosted to normal levels by routine vaccinations, stressing the importance of these vaccinations for infant and child health in the first few years of life.
Potential solutions include vaccinating HIV-positive women during pregnancy, or reaching infants who have been exposed to HIV with vaccinations earlier.
To read the study’s abstract in JAMA,
click here.
You can also read more about this study in a
press release from the Imperial College London – which worked in partnership with Stellanbosch University and the Desmond Tutu TB Centre – as well as an article from
HealthDay News in U.S. News & World Report.
To learn more about the Foundation’s important research efforts on pediatric HIV and AIDS,
click here.
Jeffrey T. Safrit, Ph.D, is the Director of Clinical and Basic Research for the Foundation, based in Los Angeles.