Infection with HIV has had a devastating effect on sub-Saharan Africa with large segments of the population infected, especially women of child-bearing age.
Highly effective strategies have been introduced to prevent spread of HIV infection from mothers to their babies; of the 1.5 million babies born annually to HIV-infected mothers, the vast majority are not themselves infected. Nonetheless these HIV-Exposed but Uninfected (HEU) babies are at greatly increased risk of death during the first year of life and appear to suffer from a weakness in their immune defenses. Several theories have been offered to explain the very poor health of these HEU babies, but none has been proven to be the sole one responsible; as a result there is no effective intervention to prevent the many deaths that occur annually. South Africa has the highest burden of HIV/AIDS in the world, and a very large proportion of HEU babies.
Read MoreThis Major Thematic Grant will fund research over three years to identify the immunological explanation for the impaired defense against infection of HEU babies. To achieve this goal the team of researchers from UBC and the Health Sciences Faculty and Tygerberg Hospital, University of Stellenbosch, South Africa will study 100 HIV-exposed babies and 100 babies born to women who are not HIV infected, all born at Tygerberg Hospital. Blood samples will be obtained, frozen and evaluated at the CFI Centre for Understanding and Preventing Infections in Children, BC Children’s Hospital. The team will study the innate (present from birth) and the adaptive (learned) immune system of all babies at several time points from 2 weeks of age to 24 months. These studies will be guided by the results of a small pilot study conducted in 2009 and 2010 in which 60 babies were investigated. With information gained from these studies, and future major studies arising from them, it should be possible to suggest interventions to protect these very vulnerable children during the first year of life, when most of the fatal infections occur.
“HIV-Exposed but Uninfected (HEU) Infants: Exploration of the Causes of Enhanced Morbidity and Mortality” is a project funded by a Major Thematic Grant from the Peter Wall Institute for Advanced Studies at the University of British Columbia. This Major Thematic Grant will fund research over three years (2011-2014) to identify the immunological explanation for the impaired defense against infection of HEU babies.
This project builds on the momentum generated by a highly successful Wall Exploratory Workshop, "Exploring Development of a Birth Cohort to Understand and Prevent Disease of Children in the Developing World," held at the Peter Wall Institute which helped to identify and refine the themes of this project.
The Stellenbosch Institute for Advanced Study, associated with this project, is a partner of the Peter Wall Institute and in 2009 co-hosted a Peter Wall Colloquia Abroad on the topic of HEU infants: www.heu.pwias.ubc.ca