How infants are caught between HIV infections, pneumonia
By: Chioma Umeha Funmi’s excitement knew no bounds when she gave birth to a baby after 10 years of tortuous experience of childlessness. The obviously elated new mother and her heartthrob christened their new baby girl – Ayomide, meaning, ‘my joy has come.’ But, their happiness was punctuated when the baby began to show symptoms of cold and was diagnosed of pneumonia few days after birth. Funmi’s joy of motherhood became short-lived as Ayomide later tested positive to HIV and died before nine months. Ayomide is simply an example of the plight of millions of HIV- positive children with pneumonia. HIV-positive children are six times more probable to die from pneumonia than children not infected with the virus in developing countries. This was confirmed in the first worldwide study on the negative impact of pneumonia in HIV-positive children entitled: “Global, regional, and national estimates of pneumonia burden in HIV-infected children in 2010: A meta-analysis and modelling study,”