Survey of children accessing HIV services in a high prevalence setting: time for adolescents to count?
Abstract
Zimbabwe has experienced a severe and early-onset HIV epidemic, with the prevalence of HIV infection in adults peaking at 30% in 1997 and subsequently declining to below 15% by 2007. In 2007, an estimated 120 000 children were living with HIV and 3.4% of children aged 10 years were HIV-infected long-term survivors following MTCT. Within a few years, HIV-related deaths among adolescent long-term survivors are likely to outnumber those among infants. However, as is typical for the region, HIV-care programmes routinely report data for only three age categories: 0–4, 5–14 and 15–49 years. Thus, there is no clear age profile of the older children receiving HIV care.
We investigated the number of children receiving HIV care in Zimbabwe to establish the proportion of adolescents (10–19 years of age). We also ascertained clinic staff perceptions of the main problems faced by HIV-infected younger children and adolescents.
Citation
Ferrand, R.; Lowe, S.; Whande, B.; Munaiwa, L.; Langhaug, L.; Cowan, F.; Mugurungi, O.; Gibb, D.; Munyati, S.; Williams, B.G.; Corbett, E.L. Survey of children accessing HIV services in a high prevalence setting: time for adolescents to count? Bulletin of the World Health Organization (2010) 88 (6) 428-434. [DOI: 10.2471/BLT.09.066126]