Funding outcome

In the world today, 1.5 million women living with HIV on drug treatment give birth to babies who do not have the HIV virus but were exposed to it in the womb. These infants are known as HIV exposed but uninfected or HEU for short. Presently, there are more HEU newborns than HIV positive infants, and HEU infants make up nearly 30% of the newborn population in some nations with a high rate of HIV. These HEU infants have increased risk of catching diseases or dying compared to babies who were born to mothers who do not have HIV. For instance, among HEU infants, studies have reported reduced brain growth, lower height and weight, and vulnerability to infectious diseases. If we can identify HEU infants at risk of having any of these growth issues, we might be able to improve their future health. The objective of our research is to do blood tests in HEU infants to find specific proteins that can predict growth, brain and behaviour problems. We think that HEU infants will have different quantities of proteins that suggest growth and learning challenges. We will test this assumption in a population of Ugandan HEU infants. I will travel to Kampala, Uganda, to do the tests on the blood samples that have already been collected. This work may find a link between protein levels and later growth and behaviour issues in HEU infants. Ultimately, our work could be used as a way to indicate whether infants are at risk of development challenges in the future. Given that many babies continue to be born to women living with HIV, having strategies to identify, monitor, and treat HEU infants are crucial.