London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine

Research from the School has shown that almost 50% of children and young adults admitted to hospitals in Zimbabwe were HIV positive. The patients, aged between 10 and 18 years of age, had gone to hospital with various complaints unrelated to HIV and were tested as part of the study. This demonstrates the growing crisis of HIV infection acquired at birth in children in the developing world.

The study,led by Rashida Ferrand, Lecturer in Clinical Epidemiology at London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, asked each of the children to complete a questionnaire about themselves and their health. They were then given routine investigations, including HIV testing. Nearly half of participants were HIV positive; they were more likely to have stunted growth and to have a delay in the onset of puberty compared to other children their age. They were also more likely to have lost their mother to HIV, or to have an HIV-infected mother than HIV-negative adolescents. The results of the study have been published in PLoS Medicine.

69% of HIV-positive participants were admitted to hospital because of infections such as tuberculosis or pneumonia whereas only 19% of the HIV-negative participants were admitted for similar infections. Finally, 22% of the HIV-positive participants died while in hospital, compared to only 7% of the HIV-negative participants.