Fighting the spread of HIV, the virus that causes AIDS disease, continues to be the top funded group of global disease research programs in the world. Despite this tremendous effort, direct detection of HIV in infants under 18 months of age born to HIV infected mothers continues to be a significant challenge in resource limited settings of the world. Catalysis hopes to make a difference with future diagnostics programs in this critical area of infant health.
Detection of HIV in infants under 18 months of age
In addition to its work in TB, the Foundation is seeking funding to initiate work in the area of HIV, where there is still an urgent need to directly diagnose HIV disease in infants less than 18 months of age to guide appropriate and timely treatment decisions.
In 2005, approximately 540,000 children were newly infected with HIV and most of these infections occurred through mother-to-child transmission¹. It is critical to identify these infected infants as early as possible, since approximately 33% of infants who go without treatment die within the first year of life². If the infant is found to be infected with HIV, antiretroviral therapy should be initiated and watchful monitoring or prophylactic therapy for opportunistic infections can be instituted.
Because not all children born to HIV infected mothers themselves become infected and antiretroviral drugs are often expensive and in very limited supply, diagnostic tests are needed to determine who is infected and whom to treat. Unfortunately, no assay technologies exist today that meet all necessary criteria for testing in low-resource settings. Leading the development of these urgently needed diagnostics is where Catalysis hopes to make a difference with future diagnostics programs in this critical area of infant health.
¹UNAIDS. Report on the global AIDS epidemic. 2006.
²Newell ML, Coovadia H, Cortina-Borja M, Rollins N, Gaillard P, Dabis F. Mortality of infected and uninfected infants born to HIV-infected mothers in Africa: a pooled analysis. Lancet 2004;364(9441):1236-43.