The use of antiretroviral therapy (ART) during pregnancy and breastfeeding has greatly improved the health of women living with HIV and lead to a decline in mother-to-child HIV transmission. Despite the success of ART in greatly increasing the number of children who are HIV-exposed-but-uninfected (CHEU) children, the treatment has been implicated in suboptimal health outcomes in CHEU. CHEU children are a growing population and assessing the potential risks associated with antenatal HIV- and ART exposure is critical. The Siyakhula study has set out to understand how the in-utero and early postnatal environments, altered by maternal HIV-positive status, influence infants’ growth trajectories and cognitive development, and alter their immune development and function, irrespective of the infants’ HIV status. The Siyakhula study is based in Southwest Tshwane District.
White M, Feucht U D, Duffley E, Molokoane F, Durandt C, Cassol E, Rossouw T, Connor KL. Does in utero HIV-exposure and the early nutritional environment influence infant development and immune outcomes? Findings from a pilot study in Pretoria, South Africa. medRxiv. 2020 Jan 1:19003889. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40814-020-00725-8
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