Clinical outcomes of <scp>HIV</scp>‐exposed, <scp>HIV</scp>‐uninfected children in sub‐Saharan Africa
Bibliographic record
Abstract
OBJECTIVE: HIV-exposed but HIV-uninfected (HEU) children are widely considered at increased risk of mortality and morbidity. Recent advances in prevention of mother-to-child HIV transmission (PMTCT) strategies, incorporating life-long universal maternal antiretroviral therapy (ART, "Option B+") with extended breastfeeding, may improve HEU child health substantially. We critically reviewed reports of mortality/morbidity among HEU and HIV-unexposed (HU) children in sub-Saharan Africa. METHODS: We searched Medline, EMBASE, CINAHL, PsycINFO, Academic Search Premier, Global Health & Psychosocial Instruments databases, conference abstracts, and reference lists for longitudinal studies from sub-Saharan Africa reporting mortality and clinical morbidity among HIV-uninfected children aged ≤10 years, by maternal HIV status. Studies were appraised by Newcastle-Ottawa Scale and ACROBAT-NRSI. Due to substantial heterogeneity of study designs, populations and results (I(2) = 75%), data were not synthesised. RESULTS: We included 37 reports (28 studies, 11 164 HEU children); methodological and reporting quality were variable. Most reports came from settings without universal access to maternal ART (n = 35). Results were conflicting, with some studies indicating increased risk of mortality, hospitalisation and/or under-nutrition among HEU children, while others found no evidence of increased risk. In subanalyses, improved maternal health, ART use and breastfeeding were strongly protective for all outcomes. Only 39% (11/28) of studies adjusted for major confounders. Reports from settings using universal maternal ART with breastfeeding (n = 2) found no differences in growth or development but did not report mortality or infectious morbidity. CONCLUSIONS: The existing literature provides little insight into HEU child health under recently adopted PMTCT strategies. There is a need for robust comparative data on HEU and HIV-unexposed child health outcomes under Option B+; optimising breastfeeding practices and increasing maternal use of ART should be urgent public health priorities.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.007 | 0.031 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.002 | 0.002 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.006 | 0.008 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.002 | 0.002 |
| Open science | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Research integrity | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.002 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".