Early Infant Detection of HIV Essay
The Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) has affected millions of people worldwide, more especially in sub-Saharan Africa. The number of infections that occurred in infants in 2014 was estimated at 220, 000. Out of this, approximately ninety mine percent of the infections in infants are acquired in the pre-partum period, during labour and breastfeeding. Such infections are called mother-to-child transmission of HIV, sometimes called vertical transmission of HIV. Because of the high risk of death before the age of 2years among HIV-infected infants and given the availability of paediatric antiretroviral treatment in many resource limited settings, WHO recommends that national programmes should establish the capacity to provide early virologic testing of infants for HIV. Thus, in concordance with this, the article will spell out every nitty-gritty on early infant detection of HIV and the role the medical laboratory scientist plays in the detection of the virus.Early Infant Detection of HIV Essay
Among the numerous methods available for detection and diagnosis of the HIV in infants, WHO recommends that, Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) of Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) on whole blood or dried blood spot is the ideal. The Polymerase Chain reaction was invented in 1985 by Kary B. Mullis and allowed scientist to make millions of copies of a scarce sample of DNA. Research conducted by Owens and Dr. Mark Holodniy in the May 1 issues of the Annals of Internal Medicine and the journal of the American Medical Association stipulated that PCR of RNA on plasma or DBS or ultra-sensitive p24 antigen on plasma or DBS (WHO, 2010) is the alternative to detect HIV in infants. The HIV RNA detection provides the information on the virological status and the same used to monitor the response to treatments. Since HIV is an RNA virus, once inside the host CD4 cell, the RNA is converted to DNA and combines with the hosts DNA to form a proviral DNA. This is because the HIV proviral DNA is integrated in the cell’s genome and so detection of cell-associated HIV DNA within the peripheral blood mononuclear cell (PBMC) by PCR is the most sensitive for establishing the virus infection. The repository points of the provirus are the Dried blood spots (DBS).
