The yield and feasibility of integrated screening for TB, diabetes and HIV in four public hospitals in Ethiopia.

Background: Our objective was to demonstrate the feasibility of integrated care for TB, HIV and diabetes mellitus (DM) in a pilot project in Ethiopia. Methods: Healthcare workers in four hospitals screened patients with TB for HIV and DM; patients with HIV for DM and TB; and patients with DM for TB. Fasting and random plasma glucose (RPG) tests were used to confirm the diagnosis of DM. We used screening checklists for TB and DM, and additional risk scoring criteria to identify patients at risk of DM. Results: Of 3439 study participants, 888 were patients with DM, 439 patients with TB and 2112 from HIV clinics. Six of the patients with DM had TB of whom five were already on treatment; and 141 (32.4%) patients with TB had DM, of whom only five were previously diagnosed with DM. Symptomatic patients and those with a risk score of 5 or more were about three times more likely to have abnormal blood glucose level. Of 2075 HIV patients with RPG determined, only 31 (1.5%) had abnormal RPG. Conclusions: Tri-directional screening was feasible for detecting and managing previously undiagnosed TB and DM. More work is needed to better understand the interaction between HIV and DM.

Prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV in Zambia: implementing efficacious ARV regimens in primary health centers.

BACKGROUND: Safety and effectiveness of efficacious antiretroviral (ARV) regimens beyond single-dose nevirapine (sdNVP) for prevention of mother-to-child transmission (PMTCT) have been demonstrated in well-controlled clinical studies or in secondary- and tertiary-level facilities in developing countries. This paper reports on implementation of and factors associated with efficacious ARV regimens among HIV-positive pregnant women attending antenatal clinics in primary health centers (PHCs) in Zambia. METHODS: Blood sample taken for CD4 cell count, availability of CD4 count results, type of ARV prophylaxis for mothers, and additional PMTCT service data were collected for HIV-positive pregnant women and newborns who attended 60 PHCs between April 2007 and March 2008. RESULTS: Of 14,815 HIV-positive pregnant women registered in the 60 PHCs, 2,528 (17.1%) had their CD4 cells counted; of those, 1,680 (66.5%) had CD4 count results available at PHCs; of those, 796 (47.4%) had CD4 count

Site-specific interventions to improve prevention of mother-to-child transmission of human immunodeficiency virus programs in less developed settings.

This article reviews the experiences of programs designed to provide access to prevention of mother-to-child transmission services with the goal of improving services in resource-constrained settings. The article reports new data from the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation's prevention of mother-to-child transmission program in sub-Saharan Africa, which has provided human immunodeficiency virus testing to more than 1,300,000 pregnant women and antiretroviral prophylaxis to 134,000 human immunodeficiency virus-infected pregnant women and more than 78,000 human immunodeficiency virus-exposed infants. Review of qualitative program data highlights the practical innovations that sites are implementing to improve the uptake of prevention of mother-to-child transmission services. Recommendations discussed include opt-out counseling and testing, rapid human immunodeficiency virus testing in antenatal care, counseling and testing in maternity, and provision of antiretroviral prophylaxis for mother and infant at the time of human immunodeficiency virus testing. Successful programmatic innovations need to be disseminated widely as more aggressive prevention strategies must be implemented to increase access to more than 10% of pregnant women worldwide.

HIV infection and pregnancy status among adults attending voluntary counseling and testing in 2 developing countries.

OBJECTIVES: This study investigated the impact of HIV voluntary counseling and testing (VCT) on reproduction planning among 1634 adults in 2 sub-Saharan countries. METHODS: Data were obtained from a multisite randomized controlled trial. RESULTS: At 6 months post-VCT, the women more likely to be pregnant were younger (odds ratio [OR] = 2.5; 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.0, 6.5), not using contraceptives (OR = 0.1; 95% CI = 0.1, 0.3), and HIV infected (OR = 3.0; 95% CI = 1.3, 7.0). An interaction emerged linking pregnancy intention at baseline and HIV serostatus with pregnancy at follow-up (OR = 0.1; 95% CI =.0, 0.4) Partner pregnancy rates did not differ by HIV serostatus among men. CONCLUSIONS: HIV diagnosis may influence reproduction planning for women but not for men.