BACKGROUND : Elimination of mother-to-child transmission of HIV requires sustained viral load suppression during pregnancy and breastfeeding among women living with HIV (WLHIV). Antenatal antiretroviral therapy coverage ...

Early diagnosis of HIV infection among infants and children is critical as prompt initiation of antiretroviral therapy prevents morbidity and death. Yet despite advances in the accuracy and availability of infant HIV ...

INTRODUCTION : South Africa is considered highly endemic for hepatitis A virus (HAV) although few seroprevalence studies have been conducted over the past two decades. The World Health Organization recommends integrating ...

BACKGROUND. Currently there is no unique patient identification system in the South African public health sector. Therefore, routine laboratory data cannot effectively be de-duplicated, thereby hampering surveillance of ...

BACKGROUND : Samples submitted for HIV PCR testing that fail to yield a positive or negative result represent missed diagnostic opportunities. We describe HIV PCR test rejections and indeterminate results, and the associated ...

BACKGROUND. Identifying and addressing gaps in the prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV (PMTCT) is required if South Africa (SA) is to achieve targets for eliminating MTCT (eMTCT). Potential PMTCT gaps that ...

INTRODUCTION : Maternal viral load monitoring (mVL) and early infant diagnosis (EID) are necessary to achieve elimination of mother-to-child transmission of HIV. Point-of-care testing can achieve better outcomes compared ...

Indeterminate HIV PCR results represent missed diagnostic opportunities within South Africa’s early infant diagnosis programme. These results not only delay diagnosis and appropriate management but are also a source of ...