Burkina Faso: cases and investigations
Unexpected HIV infections in children: A study among children hospitalized for malnutrition in Bobo Dioulasso during 1989-90 found 48 children aged 12-48 months to be infected with HIV-1 and/or HIV-2 (a less-dangerous relative of HIV-1). Eleven of the 48 infected children had HIV-negative mothers. The authors of the study attributed 6 of these 11 non-vertical (ie, not mother-to-child) infections to blood transfusions, while the 5 other children “all presented a history of multi-injections, suggesting the involvement of this mode of transmission.” Source: Prazuck T, Tall F, Nacro B, et al. HIV infection and severe malnutrition: a clinical and epidemiological study in Burkina Faso. AIDS 1993, 7: 103-108. Available at: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8442899 (accessed 14 October 2018).
Unexpected HIV infections in adults:
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1993? That’s 20 years ago!
Hi anonymous. Yes, that report is from 20 years ago! The line of evidence goes back even further. Doctors and scientists studying HIV in Africa have found unexplained HIV in children in sub-Saharan Africa since 1985. And new cases are identified all the time. But no one has traced to find the source of such infections, which is a key to stopping the risks and thereby protecting other children. Governments responded appropriately in Russia in 1988 (finding 265 kids infected through 13 hospitals), in Romania in 1989-91 (finding more than 1,000 kids with HIV from health care), in Libya from 1998 (more than 400 kids), and in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbekistan. But why hasn’t any government in sub-Saharan Africa investigated such cases? People who are paid to ensure that healthcare is safe and others who are paid as HIV experts to find and stop risks in Africa have seen the problem for a long, long time. But rather than do what is required to stop the problem, they turn away.