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Early Testing, Treatment Can Prevent Illness, Death In HIV-Positive Babies
Launched in South Africa in July 2005, 'Children with HIV Early Antiretroviral Therapy' (CHER) study is sponsored by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health, and the departments of health of the Western Cape and Gauteng in South Africa.
The study, led by Avy Violari, FCPaed, and Mark F. Cotton, MMed PhD, found that giving ART to HIV-infected infants beginning at an average age of 7 weeks made them four times less likely to die in the next 48 weeks, compared with postponing ART until signs of illness or a weakened immune system appeared-the standard of care when the study began.
"HIV devastates the nascent immune systems of infants very quickly, yet too many HIV-infected infants do not get tested for the virus, get tested too late or get tested but lack access to lifesaving antiretroviral drugs," said Anthony S. Fauci, M.D., the director of NIAID.
"The results of CHER are a clarion call to scale up widespread early HIV testing of at-risk infants and to make ART immediately accessible to all infants who test positive," he added.
This finding helped influence the World Health Organization (WHO) to change its guidelines for treating HIV-infected infants.
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