Estimating the burden of Paediatric HIV in an ‘A’ category district in India: An epidemiological study
Background: Epidemiological information on the disease burden of paediatric HIV is lacking in India. The National AIDS Control Program (NACP) provides estimates of paediatric HIV based on its projections of adult infections. The window of opportunity for diagnosis and treatment is very narrow a third of HIV infected children do not see their first birthday and half of them do not reach their second birthday. Early detection of pediatric HIV is crucial for prevention of morbidities, growth delays and death.
Methods: The study aimed to estimate the disease burden of pediatric HIV among children in ‘A’ category district of a high HIV prevalence state.
The study used an innovative multipronged methodology to estimate the disease burden in a high burden district in India. Details of methodology have been published and include early case detection in infants (0-18 months) born to HIV positive women, among children in families with HIV positive parents, and among sick children (0 to 14 years) presenting in a health facility and screened using a modified IMCI-HIV algorithm, were methods used. The overall burden of paediatric HIV was calculated as a product of cases detected in each strategy multiplied by a net inflation factor for each strategy.
Results: The existing pool of HIV infection in the district works out to be 3266 HIV positive children <15 years of age, among a mid-year (2013) projected child population of 1401688, thus giving us an overall HIV prevalence among children of 0.23%. The proportion of children among all people living with HIV in the district works out to 10.4% (3266/ (3266+28119)
Conclusions: The study reported a higher prevalence than reported earlier from projections of the NACP. An overall 0.23% HIV prevalence among children was estimated which is 2.5 times that of the earlier reported prevalence for Karnataka state. The proportion of children among all persons living with HIV in Belgaum district in this study is 10.4% against 6.54% reported earlier for India. The study methodology is replicable for other settings and other diseases.
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Posted 11 Jan, 2021
On 16 Jan, 2021
On 16 Jan, 2021
Invitations sent on 11 Jan, 2021
On 11 Jan, 2021
On 07 Jan, 2021
On 07 Jan, 2021
On 05 Jan, 2021
Estimating the burden of Paediatric HIV in an ‘A’ category district in India: An epidemiological study
Posted 11 Jan, 2021
On 16 Jan, 2021
On 16 Jan, 2021
Invitations sent on 11 Jan, 2021
On 11 Jan, 2021
On 07 Jan, 2021
On 07 Jan, 2021
On 05 Jan, 2021
Background: Epidemiological information on the disease burden of paediatric HIV is lacking in India. The National AIDS Control Program (NACP) provides estimates of paediatric HIV based on its projections of adult infections. The window of opportunity for diagnosis and treatment is very narrow a third of HIV infected children do not see their first birthday and half of them do not reach their second birthday. Early detection of pediatric HIV is crucial for prevention of morbidities, growth delays and death.
Methods: The study aimed to estimate the disease burden of pediatric HIV among children in ‘A’ category district of a high HIV prevalence state.
The study used an innovative multipronged methodology to estimate the disease burden in a high burden district in India. Details of methodology have been published and include early case detection in infants (0-18 months) born to HIV positive women, among children in families with HIV positive parents, and among sick children (0 to 14 years) presenting in a health facility and screened using a modified IMCI-HIV algorithm, were methods used. The overall burden of paediatric HIV was calculated as a product of cases detected in each strategy multiplied by a net inflation factor for each strategy.
Results: The existing pool of HIV infection in the district works out to be 3266 HIV positive children <15 years of age, among a mid-year (2013) projected child population of 1401688, thus giving us an overall HIV prevalence among children of 0.23%. The proportion of children among all people living with HIV in the district works out to 10.4% (3266/ (3266+28119)
Conclusions: The study reported a higher prevalence than reported earlier from projections of the NACP. An overall 0.23% HIV prevalence among children was estimated which is 2.5 times that of the earlier reported prevalence for Karnataka state. The proportion of children among all persons living with HIV in Belgaum district in this study is 10.4% against 6.54% reported earlier for India. The study methodology is replicable for other settings and other diseases.
Figure 1
Figure 2
Figure 3
Figure 4