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Small, L. | Mellins, C. | McKay, M.
2014 | South Africa

New challenges for a young generation: Understanding medication adherence and mental health impairments among South African perinatally infected youth in early adolescence


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Health

The HIV epidemic has had devastating effects on adults and children in South Africa.  With one in five Black South African women infected with HIV in poverty-impacted townships, mother-to-child transmission of the virus during pregnancy and child birth was a frequent occurrence.  Further, prior to 2007, anti-retroviral therapy (ART) was not available to perinatally-infected children, thus the vast majority died prior to their fifth birthday.  Fortunately, this dire situation has improved in two important ways.  First, with aggressive prenatal care efforts, mother-to child transmissions have been reduced to 3.5%.  Next, with PEPFAR (President’s Emergency Plan For AIDS Relief) support five years ago, ART became available to the first cohorts of HIV+ children making living to adolescence a real possibility. Each year, access to ART increases with thousand more children benefitting.  Today, there are approximately 330,000 HIV+ children living in South Africa. Seropositive children who were not previously expected to live past their childhood are maturing and will be forced to navigate a new set of challenges.  In the U.S., perinatally infected children frequently evidenced difficulties with medication adherence and mental health challenges as they approached adolescence. The lack of resources due to economic deprivation in South Africa can make these problems exponentially more severe.  This paper presentation focuses findings from a sample of one of the oldest cohorts of South African youth who received ART and is now aging into adolescence. These data are of high importance as they can alert South African care systems to needs of this new population.

Small, L., Mellins, C. A., & McKay, M. (2014, January). New challenges for a young generation: Understanding medication adherence and mental health impairments among South African perinatally infected youth in early adolescence. Oral presentation for the Society for Social Work and Research 18th Annual Conference: .Research for Social Change: Addressing Local and Global Challenges. San Antonio, TX.