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Durban chosen for AIDS research world-first
Liz Clarke. The Mercury, 3 October 2002. Republished courtesy of Independent Newspapers (Pty) Ltd.
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The largest study in the world aimed at stemming the numbers of HIV-positive mothers dying of sepsis after the birth of their babies is to be undertaken in KwaZulu-Natal and the Transkei, starting next January.
In all, 12 000 pregnant mothers will be enrolled in the two-year programme. Kind Edward VIII Hospital in Durban and the Umtata Hospital in the Eastern Cape will host the study, funded by a R2 440 624 grant from pharmaceutical giant Bristol-Myers Squibb.
At a ceremony at the University of KwaZulu-Natal's Nelson R Mandela School of Medicine in Durban, BMS's Dr Richard Sebastian Wanless, director of the HIV Research Institute in South africa, said rigorous evaluation had shown KwaZulu-Natal's and the Transkei's research scientists to be best for the job. "This is a hugely important study," he said. "If the results are what we are hoping for, the impact on children and families will be enormous."
Dr Jack Moodley, head of the Medical School's Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, who will head the investigation with another senior researcher and eight research assistants, said pregnant mothers who attended ante-natal clinics would be offered the chance of taking a broad-spectrum antibiotic during the birthing process. This would be administered intravenously in a two-gram dose. "This will be a randomised double-blind study in which some mothers will be given medication and some not," he said.
An alarming increase in maternal deaths due to HIV-related disease has prompted the study. Dr Moodley said that health workers "at the coalface" of HIV/AIDS were finding more and more HIV-positive women presented with acute life-threatening infection soon after giving birth.
"Mothers of newborn babies often leave hospital showing no signs of sepsis," he said, "but present a few weeks later with overwhelming infection that often leads to death. We have tended to concentrate our research on prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV. Now we need to expand that focus to the mothers." |
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