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Global Health
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Malawi
Malawi, a country with a population of nearly 14 million people, has an HIV/AIDS prevalence rate of 14%. Women who are HIV-positive have a 30% chance of passing HIV to their child, either in the womb, during delivery, or through breastfeeding. Recent studies have shown that the sooner an HIV-positive newborn is put on anti-retroviral therapy (ART) the higher their chance of survival is. Unfortunetely, it is difficult to test for HIV in infants under the age of 18 months. The common method for identifying HIV in adults is to check for HIV-antibodies in the blood, but infants can have their mother's antibodies, passed through the placenta, for up to 18 months. In the summer of 2007, BTB intern Kim Bennett worked with the Malawi Ministry of Health to implement a pilot project to train health care workers on using bloodspot PCR to test for HIV in infants. This test identifies viral DNA in the blood, which an infant will only have if he or she is infected with HIV. It can be used to identify HIV in infants as young as 6 weeks. Learn more about Kim's experience in Malawi... BTB Partners In MalawiBIPAIThe Baylor International Pediatric AIDS Initiative (BIPAI) was established to provide quality, ethical, and high impact pediatric and family HIV/AIDS care and treatment, health professional training, and promising clinical research in the nations of southern Africa and other parts of the world devasted by the HIV/AIDS epidemic. Website: http://bayloraids.org/
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