PLoS Study Examines Burden of HIV on Adolescents in Zimbabwe; Perspective Calls for More HIV Services for This Population

A PLoS Medicine study examines the causes of acute hospital admissions among adolescents in Zimbabwe, with the goal of assessing HIV infection and its contribution to illness and death among this population. Based on a survey of 301 adolescents, ages 10 to 18, who were admitted into the two public hospitals in Harare, Zimbabwe, between September 2007 and April 2008, the authors found nearly half of the adolescents were HIV-positive. Compared to HIV-negative adolescents, the HIV-positive adolescents were more likely to face hospitalization with tuberculosis or pneumonia and more likely to die (Ferrand et al., 2/2).

"There is a substantial burden of HIV infection in adolescents in southern Africa who acquired HIV perinatally," according to an accompanying PLoS Medicine Perspective. "There is an urgent need for services that will be able to provide accessible and appropriate HIV testing, counseling, and support, as well as facilitate access to ART and appropriate sexual risk-reduction interventions. The adolescents admitted to hospitals in Harare could have benefited from early diagnosis and concomitant initiation of ART, and this absence of treatment should not continue to be the plight of similar adolescents in our region" (Gray, 2/2).

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